Betsy Myers, author, former senior advisor to the Obama campaign and founding director of the Bentley Center for Women and Business.

“Let me tell you what your day is like,” she tells aspiring leaders in addresses across the country. “Get your coffee. Sit down at your desk. Start looking at e-mails. You are totally distracted — bouncing off here and there. Then it’s 11 and you might have a meeting. Now it’s 12:30, you’re hungry, so you grab lunch,” she says.