interview of Richard Anderson, chief executive of Delta Air Lines

Q. What was the most important leadership lesson you learned?

A. I’ve learned to be patient and not lose my temper. And the reason that’simportant is everything you do is anexample, and people look ateverything you do and take a signal from everything you do. And when you lose your temper, itreally squelches debate and sends the wrong signal abouthow you want your organization to run. And it was a good lesson. It was a long time ago. And I had a C.E.O. who Iwas very close to, and he just took me aside and gave me areally short instruction about it. And it was a really important instruction.

We have a tendency in these jobs to push really, really hard and want to go really, really fast. Change can’t ever be fast enough. But you do have to be patient enough and make sure that you always remain calm.