The following interview was first published on 22 June 2011 in Knowledge@Wharton.

In his new book, The Leader’s Checklist,Wharton management professor Michael Useem presents a collection of 15 principles that can help leaders navigate successfully through even the most difficult circumstances. Using such milestone events as the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners in 2010, the collapse of AIG in 2008 and the surrender in the American Civil War of the Confederate Army at Appomattox in 1865, Useem illustrates the difference between good and bad leadership, and how to achieve one’s own personal leadership success. The Leader’s Checklist is the first e-book published by Wharton Digital Press. 

Useem, who is director of Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management, spoke with Knowledge@Wharton about his book. Below is an edited transcript of the convers