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 Dara Richardson-Heron, chief executive of the Y.W.C.A. She says, “It can be demoralizing to have your leadership challenged just because you’re a woman or because you’re a woman of color, but I just erase memories of that kind of behavior.”
To read the complete interview as well as Bryant’s interviews of other executives, please click here.
Photo credit: Earl Wilson/The New York Times
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Bryant: Were you in leadership roles as a child?
Richardson-Heron: I think my parents will tell you that I thought I was a leader by the time I was two, because I tried to lead my parents and my two older sisters. But my parents saw potential in me, and, more important, they led by example. My father was one of the most hard-working and dedicated people I know, and my mom was at home while we were growing up, and she demonstrated organizational skills. She made sure we were members of our family team. We had our chores. I can remember when she woke us up in the middle of the night because we hadn’t completed them.
Bryant: And your first formal leadership role?
Richardson-Heron: During my medical-school residency.
Bryant: What did you learn from that experience?
Richardson-Heron: Because the decisions you make in medicine can be life or death, I probably erred on the side of being too directive. I was so concerned about not making a mistake that I probably put too much pressure on the people I was leading. I don’t feel that it’s inappropriate to be directive at times, but I did it in ways that could create a stifling environment, and even fear.
Bryant: Did you get feedback about that?
Richardson-Heron: Yes, from the interns themselves, and from my mentors or the attending physicians. They said it’s O.K. to give guidelines, but you have to allow people some flexibility, within reason, to make some decisions, or at least allow them to come up with their action plan, and then you evaluate it.
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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.comthat 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 with more than 70 leaders. To read an excerpt, please click here.
His next book, Quick and Nimble: Lessons from Leading CEOs on How to Create a Culture of Innovation, will also be published by Times Books (January 2014). To contact him, please click here.