'The world is not split between leaders and followers'

John Cerasuolo grew up in New York and after high school signed up for the "leadership laboratory" of the U.S. Navy to learn how to become an engineer. After leaving the Navy in 1988, he worked at Michelin and the telecommunications division of Alcoa, where he spent 17 years. He joined Nashville-based ADS Security as president in 2008 and was named CEO in late 2012. ADS is one of the country's largest security services companies, employing about 300 employees at 16 branches.

Early this year, Cerasuolo sat down with Mary Fink and Joe Scarlett of the Scarlett Leadership Institute as part of that organization's CEO Series of conference calls to share leadership lessons. Here are some excerpts from their conversation.