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How to Make Decisions as a Leader

 

Learning how to make the best possible decisions--and do so in a way that generates buy-in from the team--is a critical part of learning to lead.

 

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Cover of Why Great Leaders Don't Take YES for an Answer

Why Great Leaders Don't Take YES for an Answer

By Michael A. Roberto

Michael Roberto argues that one of the most important things you can do as a leader when you need to make an important decision is decide how to decide.  The process you choose can have a significant impact on both the quality of the decision and the team's buy-in when implementing it.  Also discusses how to encourage constructive conflict to elicit a range of options while simultaneously cultivating consensus.  Includes several public sector case studies, such as the Bay of Pigs and the Columbia disaster.  Read Chapter one.    More...

Cover of Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers

Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers

By Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest R. May

This classic work by Neustadt and May draws on numerous case studies from 20th Century American history, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Bay of Pigs and the escalation of the Vietnam War). The authors provide a clear and potentially quick methodology for assessing policy decisions in the context of history.  The case studies are compelling and the methodology widely applicable.  Read More...

Cover of Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis

By Robert F. Kennedy

RFK's first-hand account of the Cuban Missile Crisis provides a window into the process President Kennedy used to make decisions that kept his options open and avoided pushing the Soviets into a corner that would lead to nuclear war. RFK's narrative tracks closely with the Kevin Costner movie Thirteen Days, but includes more detail about JFK's thinking. Also includes an interesting analysis of the crisis by scholars Richard Neustadt and Graham Allison.  Read More...

Cover of Six Thinking Hats
Six Thinking Hats
By Edward de Bono
In Six Thinking Hats, Edward de Bono provides a disciplined and refreshing methodology for improving decisions by looking at an issue from multiple perspectives. Each thinking hat represents a different perspective, (e.g. positive, negative, creative, and emotional). During a discussion of the issue at hand, the team members are to use only one perspective at a time. This can, for example, give team members license to express their emotions or misgivings about an idea before focusing on the positives or engaging in creative brainstorming.  Read More...