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.
Articles
- The Leadership Challenge, by Michael Roberto
Chapter 1 of the book, Why Great Leaders Don't Take Yes for an Answer.
Podcasts
-
A Battlefield Lesson on the Value of Decisiveness
From Paul Smith's Lead with a Story series of podcasts.
Books
Why Great Leaders Don't Take YES for an Answer
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...
Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers
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...
Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis
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...
