Adam Bryant conducts interviews of senior-level executives that appear in his “Corner Office” column each week in the SundayBusiness section of The New York Times. Here are a few insights provided during an interview of Daniel S. Glaser, the chief executive of the Marsh & McLennan Companies. To read the complete interview, check out other articles, and obtain subscription information, please click here.

Photo credit: Earl Wilson/The New York Times

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Tell me about your early years.

I grew up on Long Island, one of four children. My parents divorced when I was about 10, and they had very different approaches with us.

My dad, in a lot of ways, was the Great Santini — tremendously demanding, and you could always do better. But he was always in your corner against the rest of the world. Working hard was always the main issue.

My mom, on the other hand, was tremendously motivating and inspirational, always warm and positive. You can do anything, you can be anything, she would tell us.

The one thing that they shared was a disdain for conventional wisdom. They would make us think for ourselves. I just wouldn’t be part of some of the nonsense that went on when I was growing up on Long Island. I would walk away. Even today, when everybody thinks a direction is right, I just feel myself pulling in another direction a little bit.

Sports were also important to me when I was growing up. I was a star, but on a very poor, small team. I heard the phrase early on that “sometimes you win, sometimes you learn,” and it really stuck with me.

What did your father do for a living?

He ran a small manufacturing company. When I joined Marsh more than 30 years ago, he said to me, “Danny, all I can tell you is that there’s going to be a lot of people who don’t think like an owner, and you should always be thinking like you are the owner of the business, and make your decisions like that.”

I’ve heard other people say that over the years, but it sinks in more when you hear it right from your dad’s mouth.

Did you start managing people early on at Marsh?

I was 24, and I heard my boss saying that we were going to lose our biggest account in Saudi Arabia because of the different time zones.

It was one of the first big decisions I made without consulting anyone else — I got up from my cubicle, walked over to him, and said, “Send me to Saudi Arabia.” He asked, “Do you even know anything about Saudi Arabia?” I said, “No, but I’m willing to do it.” Four months later, I was the branch manager, with 11 employees.

Early leadership lessons?

You develop more perspective and balance over time. I’ve never had a tremendous amount of empathy. I have more empathy today than I did back then. So I was probably harsher than I needed to be when I made decisions about people. Rather than giving people the time to improve, I would instead think that this guy just doesn’t work hard enough, so let’s find somebody else.

Now I have a basic belief that almost everyone wants to contribute and do well. Some people, for a whole variety of reasons, have difficulty doing that, and at least an attempt or two should be made to try to help them.

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To read the complete interview as well as Bryant’s interviews of other executives, please click here.

Adam Bryant, deputy national editor of The New York Times, oversees coverage of education issues, military affairs, law, and works with reporters in many of the Times’ domestic bureaus. He also conducts interviews with CEOs and other leaders for Corner Office, a weekly feature in the SundayBusiness section and on nytimes.com that he started in March 2009. In his book, The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons from CEOs on How to Lead and Succeed, (Times Books), he analyzes the broader lessons that emerge from his interviews of hundreds of business leaders. To read an excerpt, please click here. To contact him, please click here.