Ruth Rathblott (chief executive of the Harlem Educational Activities Fund.) in “The Corner Office”

RathblottAdam 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 Ruth Rathblott, chief executive of the nonprofit Harlem Educational Activities Fund. She says says building a skill set is more important than accumulating new titles.

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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Were you in leadership roles early on?

It started in middle school. In seventh grade, I was president of my class. In eighth grade, I was president of the middle school. My mother ran my campaign. You would think it was a presidential campaign. She taught me about creating a platform and vision.

She also literally created a platform for me — we used sawhorses to build it — to stand on to give a speech. She was a theater person, so she knew the dramatic part of it. I love giving presentations. I love being in front of a crowd. I love communicating a message and getting people to listen. There are some dramatic ways you can do that to be heard.

What was driving you to do those things?

Part of it is that my mind is always working. I see things that I want to change, or I see things that I want to be a part of. It was never about sitting back.

Were there any key moments that set you on your current career path?

During one of my internships, I was working with girls in Dorchester, Mass., who were about 15 and 16. The neighborhood was pretty dangerous — there were a lot of shootings. Many of the girls wanted to get pregnant, and I said to them: “You’re too young to have a baby. You can’t do that. You have your future.” And they said: “You don’t understand. You don’t get where we are. We’re not going to live past 18, so we want someone who’s going to carry our name and remember us.” That was a shock. The question for me became, “How do you create a future for kids who don’t think they have one?”

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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 more recent book, Quick and Nimble: Lessons from Leading CEOs on How to Create a Culture of Innovation, was also also published by Times Books (January 2014). To contact him, please click here.

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