For the better part of this year, Adam Bryant of the New York Times has been sitting down and having a heart to heart with some of America’s leading successful executives which are published in the " Corner Office " column.

The subjects of Bryant’s interviews run the gamut from the big names like Steve Ballmer of Microsoft and Anne Mulcahy of Xerox, but Bryant does not limit his selection to names in the news. He has interviewed plenty of men and women who are CEOs but less well known to the public. The Corner Office features many executives from companies less well known. Not since Carol Hymowitz’s lively and informative “Into the Lead” column ended has one reporter gotten as much weekly space to devote to leadership issues as Bryant has. And he uses the space wisely. Let me itemize a few columns that I found particularly insightful.

Believe in yourself. Robert Iger, CEO of Disney, was told as a twenty-three year old new hire that he was “not promotable.” Iger found the comment “shocking.” As he says, “I think it toughened me up a bit more” as we as more “cautious” and “wary” of others. Fortunately for Iger he was able to find another job within ABC and eventually worked with some broadcast industry greats including Roone Arledge and Michael Eisner.

Keep it simple. Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman of Wal-Mart Stores, believes in keeping things simple. “[W]e can describe our complete strategy in 10 words. And that makes it very easy to get everybody energized and aligned.” Castro-Wright keeps things simple for himself by managing his administrative assistant his personal to-do list in every evening. “She doesn’t see them until early in the morning, but that sets the stage for the following day.”

Get out of your office. Terry Lundgren, CEO of Macy’s, hits the road two or three days per week. Much of that road time is spent visiting stores and setting up impromptu meetings with store managers by calling them on their mobile phones when he’s in their store. Lundgren’s style is not to play “ gotcha ya” but to educate himself. “I learn as much by going through a store as anything I do, much more than sitting in my office at my computer or holding a big meeting here, because I’m learning and seeing exactly what our customer is seeing.”

Ask good questions. Daniel Amos, CEO of Aflac, is a relentless questioner. “I think most people will tell you that I tend to be the inquisitor who will ask a million questions.” But such questions are not intended, as Amos explains to cut off debate; they are intended to challenge people to think for themselves. “It’s O.K. for you to tell me that you don’t know the answer and get back to me.” Amos also knows himself. “I can get so preoccupied that I don’t see anybody. I can absolutely walk through a room and never see anybody because my mind is so focused.” At the same time, Amos realizes that “if you don’t have pretty good people skills; you’re not going to be head of a department.”

Charisma is overrated. Wendy Kopp, founder and CEO of Teach for America, believes that charisma is not essential to a leader’s ability to do his job. Her company hires teachers to serve in some of the most disadvantaged communities in America. “Some of the most successful teachers are some of the least charismatic… But they have a gift of figuring out what motivates people.” As every leader knows, translating influence into action through motivation is essential to getting things done right.

Leadership is an act. Clarence Otis, Jr., the CEO of Darden Restaurants with a background in finance and law, leverages his experience in on the stage to lead more effectively. “The thing that prepared me most… was theater… [It’s] the starkest lesson in how reliant you are on others, because you are there in front of an audience.” As a senior leaders Otis believes “[Y]ou’ve got to give people other people the chance to speak,” but understand that everyone does not express themselves in the same ways so it is necessary to give less outspoken, more reflective people “space for them to fill.”

Taken as a whole, the "Corner Office" series offers something for every leader as well as every student of leadership. You may not agree with everything every leader says, nor should you. But you will find plenty of food for thought that will provoke you to reflect on your own leadership style as well as those who lead you and come up with ideas about how you might do things differently. And that, dear reader, is how we all grow and develop as leaders.

Two examples of advertising caught my attention recently; both have relevance for leaders.

The first is a television commercial showing a woman taking a shower. Nothing new except the actress in the spot for Dove soap is fully clothed. The message as we learn from the voice over narration is that only Dove has moisturizers to clean skin deeply whereas other soaps only clean the skin’s surface (represented by the clothes). The appeal is logical (moisturizing soap is deep cleaning), rooted in emotion (feel more clean).

The second example was brown paper shopping bag featuring the Office Max logo. Whatever would fit into the bag, said ad copy on the bag, would be discounted by 20%. The shopping bag was part of a Sunday newspaper insert featuring Back to School specials. The appeal is urgent (buy now), supported by logic (discounted pricing).

Taken together the two ads depict something that leaders must strive to do whenever they seek to persuade: provide a good reason and add a sense of urgency. This is especially true for middle managers who are challenged to implement corporate initiatives that may seem irrelevant to employees. It falls to managers to provide the reasons why as well as the need to do it now.

For example, senior management will push for a cost-cutting initiative. Too often the reasons are expressed in vague terms like “reduce spending by 10%.” Utilizing reason, the manager will quantify that ten percent as savings in travel, purchasing, and service expenditures. Employing urgency, the manager will position the need to do it now as an exercise in alignment, e.g. everyone do her part to save money now.

Let’s break down reason and urgency into their fundamentals.

Reason is based upon logic, a deductive flow from A to B and so on. You start the flow of ideas with solid facts. You speak in terms of consequence, that is, what happens next and why. For example, we need to add an engineer to our team because we need someone who enjoys solving problems. With that engineer on board we will be able to our own diagnostics. That will enable us to improve our delivery times as well as our quality ratings.

Urgency is rooted in an impetus for action, the need to do it now. You want to emphasize the need to move quickly and the importance of acting promptly. An example would be making a case for a new product. Your argument could be rooted in the fact that the competition is working on something similar and you want to capitalize on the first-mover advantage.

Reason and urgency are not mutually exclusive. That is, reason can be compelling and urgency does have consequence. But if you stand back on think about each separately separately it may give you a handle on structuring a fact-based argument that provides a strong bias for action.

Reason backed by urgency makes for a compelling argument but it should be used with discretion.
For example, if the organization is having a blood drive, some employees simply do not want to participate. The same may apply to corporately sanctioned volunteer activity. Giving blood and volunteering are praiseworthy activities but employees need to determine if and how they would like to participate. While managers may feel compelled to employ the hard sell, such an approach will only backfire. Employees will resent it and tune out the manager.

The ability to persuade others is a chief requirement of effective leadership. The manager who can learn to balance his communications with the proper blend of reason (facts) and urgency (do it now) will be one who can mobilize others to her point of view. And to return to our advertising theme, it is good to recall the words of legendary ad man, William Bernbach who wrote, “Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.” Just like leadership.

The advertising world knows Ogilvy as a creative genius, a brilliant copywriter who became one of the most influential ad men of his generation. What is less known is how his very hands on leadership style built an agency known not simply for the power of its creative but the warm embrace of its culture. That is the story Kenneth Roman tells in The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising .

How David Ogilvy led holds lessons for any leader at any level, whether you are seeking to build a business or are leading a very successful one. Like many entrepreneurs, Ogilvy realized early on is that if he were to develop a successful agency he would need to surround himself with the best and the brightest talents. But what Ogilvy did, better than most, was imbue that business with his personal philosophy about advertising, client relations, and employees. Here are some lessons in Ogilvy’s own words found in an excerpt from the book adapted for Strategy + Business .

“Ogilvy & Mather does two things: We look after clients, and we teach young advertising people.” Fundamental to Ogilvy’s success was clarity of purpose. This statement, borrowed from what teaching hospitals do, Ogilvy communicated the role of his agency. Producing great advertising is implicit in caring for clients and developing people to develop it.

“Hot creative people don’t come around looking for jobs; they have to be rooted out like truffles by trained pigs.” Talent is the lifeblood of the ad business. Ogilvy knew that great talents need to be identified and recruited. Leaders can do the same by going to great lengths to find the right people, not simply outside the organization but also within it. Many top talents within Ogilvy, as illustrated by the first comment, were home grown.

“Rubbish. Rot. Nonsense.” Those words were scribbled critiques of his own words, followed by the admonition. “Please improve.” As a copywriter himself, Ogilvy was a stickler for clear, crisp copy, but had no “pride of authorship.” Leaders must know their limitations, even when it affects one of their core competencies. Being open to self-criticism, as well as criticism from others, is essential to personal growth.

“Sack incurable politicians.” Office politics can be the bane of any organization. Ogilvy had little tolerance for such gamesmanship. And while I believe not all office politics are bad – after all politics is still the art of possibility – politics that aims to tear down others in the attempt to build up oneself is both self and organizationally destructive.

“We have an exceptionally strong culture.” Culture for Ogilvy had a holistic, almost paternalistic, obligation of caring for one’s own. Culture also reinforced integrity as he said in a speech, “The way up the ladder open to everybody… [and] we are as influenced by character as anything else.” Leaders are responsible for nurturing that culture, not simply by what they say, but what they do. Ogilvy served as a model leader in the high standards he set for himself and insisted that his “partners” (as executives were called) upheld.

Note the precision of Ogilvy’s words. When he edited others, as Roman notes, he cut to the chase, eliminating all unnecessary verbiage, especially adjectives and adverbs. That sense of directness not only made for clear copy; it typified clear thinking, which was the way Ogilvy strove to lead .

The world of advertising today is very different from the world in which Ogilvy lived but his legacy lives on, not simply in the agency that bears his name but also in the generations of ad professionals he nurtured. More important, thanks to people like Ken Roman who remember him, leaders at large can gain insight into what it takes to guide, teach, and inspire others.

“I know Washington's all in a tizzy and everybody's pointing fingers at each other and saying it's their fault, the Democrats' fault, the Republicans' fault. Listen, I will take responsibility. I'm the President," said Barack Obama last March at a town hall meeting in Costa Mesa, California.

While accepting accountability can sometimes be very hard to do, when the senior leader steps up first he sets the standards for others to follow. Here are some ways to instill accountability so that others are encouraged to follow your lead.

Be clear. Expectations for performance are reinforced by expectations for accountability. Leaders must make it clear that employees are accountable for doing their work. Higher levels of responsibility, as in front line management and up, mean higher levels of accountability. Make that explicit through frequent two-way conversations.

Be realistic. Things go wrong. People make mistakes. Managers who insist on accountability are not auditors nor are they cops. They are working to fulfill objectives but when deadlines slip, budgets inflate, and resources dwindle, sometimes those objectives become impossible. Blaming employees and managers for things behind their control is short-sighted. Better to encourage them to come to you first so you can deal with setbacks. After all, you are accountable, too.

Be available. Accountable leaders are those who jump in where needed. Owners of successful small to mid-size businesses can often be found doing entry level jobs, even janitorial ones, as a means of getting things done. Good managers do it because resources are scarce and because they want to set the right example. Those in middle management may sometimes find themselves rolling up their sleeves to do drudge work in tight times. Doing it over the long haul indicates system failure; doing it occasionally is called teamwork.

Teaching accountability does not instill accountability. Accountability is reinforced by consequences. For example, when a team leader fails to alert his manager that his project is running behind, the manager is within his rights to exact discipline. That the project is running behind is not the issue; failure to report it is. So the manager is within his rights to exact discipline. At the same time, when the team leader does accomplish his goal, the manager needs to acknowledge. Too often we think of accountability in terms of debit (what you didn’t do right) but it can also be viewed as a credit (what you did right).

Accountability must be reinforced by action steps. While no one expects the president to draft language for his initiatives, he must make his intentions crystal clear. For example, he must state in broad terms what he wants to achieve and let his aides fill in the blanks. But he cannot leave it there; he must follow up to ensure that intentions are fulfilled. Leaders are accountable for results and must shepherd them through the entire process.

On April 7, 2008 the Boston Red Sox made their peace with Bill Buckner when they invited him to throw out the ceremonial first pitch in Fenway Park to open the 2008 season. As all BoSox fans will remember, Buckner was the first baseman who allowed a routine ground ball to dribble through his legs during the 1986 World Series.

In truth, as reported in the Boston Globe, it was Buckner who demonstrated true forgiveness. “I really had to forgive, not the fans of Boston, per se, but I would have to say in my heart I had to forgive the media… For what they put me and my family through. So, you know, I’ve done that and I’m over that.”

Forgiveness is one of the deepest acts of human compassion. While the concept has been tarnished to a degree by celebrity transgressors who beg forgiveness on Larry King Live, the act of forgiveness itself remains noble. The person wronged accepts the failing of another and moves forward. You can also consider it an act of leadership and one that managers would do well to keep in mind as it applies to employee missteps.

Be vigilant. Employees will make wrong moves and poor decisions; they sometimes act nastily toward fellow employees. Once the mistakes are known, they must be acknowledged. So often however employees fear the consequences of their mistake and so they cover it up. Such a cover up, as most politicians learn, is worse than the crime. Better to own up quickly. But since this does not always happen, managers need to keep their eyes open for trouble and act promptly when the mistake is known.

Own to the issue. When the mistake is revealed, have a conversation with the employee. Ask why it happened. Determine the fault first; it could be lack of time, resources or courtesy. Insist that the employee own up to the mistake. Firing people for an error in judgment or a minor incivility is short sighted. Better to give the person the opportunity to do it right the next time.

Expect a solution. Accountability is the root of successful management. Owning the problem means you can participate in owning the solution. Allow the individual the time and means to correct the mistake. Doing so gives the individual the opportunity to do it right the second (or third) time and learn from the experience.

Keep in mind not all apologies are genuine. People will backslide. Unless they truly have a change of heart and accept the consequences of their actions, they will continue to make mistakes. It will then fall to the leader to hold the transgressor accountable. If problems persist forgiveness of the heart may occur, but forgiveness on the job may not. The person may need to find work elsewhere. [Aggressive behavior in the form of bullying or harassment may require legal intervention.]

Vigilance, problem ownership and solution finding lay the foundation for forgiveness to occur. Forgiveness reminds leaders of their own frailty. To think that you never make a mistake – or at least acting like it – is to invite catastrophe. You are tempting the gods of fate to send you into a tailspin. On the other hand, true forgiveness also reminds the one who forgives that he or she is imperfect. We humans are fallible creatures and the more we keep in touch with our inner frailties the more we can understand what we need to do keep them under control.