THE CEO TEST

Despite all the effort through the years to understand what it takes to be an effective leader, the challenges of leadership remain enormously difficult and elusive; even today, most CEOs don't last five years in the job. The demands to deliver at a consistently high level can be unforgiving.

The loneliness. The weight of responsibility. The relentless second-guessing and criticism. The pressure to build all-star teams. The 24/7 schedule that requires superhuman stamina. The tough decisions that often leave no one happy. The expectation to always have the right answer when it can be hard just to know the right question.

These challenges are brought into their highest and sharpest relief in the corner office, but they are hardly unique to chief executives. All leaders face their own version of these tests, and the authors drawing on the distilled wisdom, stories and lessons from hundreds of chief executives to show how every aspiring leader can master these challenges and lead like a CEO. These foundational leadership skills will make all aspiring executives more effective in their role today, and to lift the trajectory of their career.

The CEO Test is the authoritative, no-nonsense insider's guide to navigating leadership's toughest challenges, brought to you by authors uniquely qualified to tell the stories. Adam Bryant has conducted in-depth interviews with more than 600 CEOs. Kevin Sharer spent more than two decades as president and then CEO of Amgen, where he led its expansion from $1 billion in annual revenues to nearly $16 billion. He has served on many boards and is a sought-after mentor for CEOs of global companies.

Leadership is getting harder as the speed of disruption across all industries accelerates. The CEO Test will better prepare you to succeed whether you're a CEO or just setting out to become one.

Adam Bryant is managing director of Merryck & Co., a leadership development and senior executive mentoring firm. Prior to this role, he was a journalist for 30 years, including at the New York Times, where he created and authored the massively successful "Corner Office" column in which he interviewed CEOs about leadership. He's the author of the bestsellers Corner Office and Quick and Nimble and the senior adviser to the Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership at Columbia University. 

Kevin Sharer is the former CEO of Amgen, the largest biotech company in the world. After leaving that role in 2012, he taught strategy and management at Harvard Business School for seven years and cocreated a course on the life and role of the CEO and how to lead senior executive teams. He has served on the boards of Chevron, Unocal, Northrop Grumman, and 3M, and as an executive, director, and mentor, he has been involved with more than 20 successful CEO transitions.