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 Sally Smith, chief executive of Buffalo Wild Wings. “You have to be really clear about what you want and what your expectations are. When you’re clear and everybody understands them, you have a much better chance of success than if you say, ‘Just do it.’ It’s a great slogan, but you’ve got to know what it is that you’re just doing.”

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

Photo credit: Earl Wilson/The New York Times

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What were you like as a kid?

I am the oldest of three girls. My father was a banker, so I grew up understanding and hearing about business at the kitchen table. My father was also an athlete — he went to college on a basketball scholarship — so I grew up hearing, “Oh, it’s too bad your dad didn’t have any boys.”

But my sisters and I were his guys. We always played sports. He had a golf club in our hands very early, and so I have a lifelong love of golf. But as the company has grown, so has my handicap.

I also loved school from the day I hit kindergarten. I was always volunteering, wanting to do this and that. In high school, I took more courses than were required. I’m curious by nature.

What did you study in college?

I majored in accounting, passed the C.P.A. exam and then went to work for a Big Eight accounting firm for about four years.

Early lessons as a first-time manager?

You have to be really clear about what you want and what your expectations are. When you’re clear and everybody understands them, you have a much better chance of success than if you say, “Just do it.” It’s a great slogan, but you’ve got to know what it is that you’re just doing.

You’ve been with Buffalo Wild Wings for more than 20 years. How did that come about?

I was the chief financial officer at a hearing aid company, and I was looking to do something new. I had a couple of job offers, but a colleague of mine told me about this little restaurant company. They had about 30 restaurants at the time, and an outside accountant was doing some of the financial work. They were talking to investors and needed someone to write up financial statements for them. I had two young children at the time, and it was going to be part-time. After about a month, I wasn’t working part time.

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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.

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.