White-collar climb: today's CEOs may be younger, better-schooled and more well-rounded. but succeeding in the top job still takes real experience - 2003 Route to the Top - related article: CEOs Are Getting Younger Each Year

Chief Executive, The, March, 2003 by Catherine Fredman

"If we're asking the right questions, then we'll spend our time on issues of conflict. Conflict is a good thing when it's tension between different perspectives around something important. It's not a license to be blatantly cruel. We brought in an industrial psychologist to help us understand how emotions come into play around conflict and how we can get better at engaging, so things don't become personal.

We don't just want to understand when things aren't going right; we want to draw on diverse perspectives to work for the betterment of the organization."