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 Mike Sheehan, chief executive of the ad agency Hill Holliday, with offices in Boston, New York and Greenville, S.C. He says he likes to hire people who turn observations into insights, or, in other words, “put a lot of topspin on the ball.”

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

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Bryant: When you were younger, were you in leadership roles?

Sheehan: I was the captain of a couple of teams in high school — basketball and track. It was a great experience. Then I had a short-lived but terrific management experience right out of high school, when I went to the Naval Academy. I stayed for a semester but I learned so much. During a plebe summer at a military academy, you learn more about yourself than probably four years of college anywhere else.

Bryant: What did you learn about yourself?

Sheehan: What you’re capable of, and how you don’t need sleep because you’re not going to get it. You also find out physically what you’re capable of.

I saw leaders who were good role models, too. I liked the leaders who pushed very hard, and they could get the best out of you without being overly tough. They corrected you, but there was just a positiveness to how they approached everything that attracted me to them as leaders.

I’ll never forget that. They’d be very tough on you, but they knew when to take a little bit of a break and maybe whisper something or just let you know that they were empathetic. They knew when they’d pushed too far and they knew how to pull back.

They were a great example of a saying that I use all the time: “You treat people well, they will return the favor. And if you treat them poorly, they will return the favor.”

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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.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 with more than 70 leaders. To read an excerpt, please click here. To contact him, please click here.