How DO successful leaders make better decisions?
Leaders are known by the decisions they make.
- One hundred and thirty years after the fact, George Custer is still known primarily for his ill-fated decision at Little Big Horn – one he made by himself, ignoring his scouts. The cost was catastrophic.
- Much of Harry S Truman’s reputation comes from his famous declaration, “The buck stops here,” as he struggled with whether to drop an atomic bomb on Japan. Truman sought, and weighed,
the advice of those around him before ordering the attack. The value of his decision has been estimated at over one million prevented casualties and another year of WWII.
- In the middle 1980s, executives at Johnson and Johnson reached consensus to take the daring and risky action to pull Tylenol from drugstore shelves in the midst of a horrific tampering scandal.
In the short-term, costs were steep as the company’s stock plummeted. The long-term value, however, is difficult to over-estimate. At the time, no company had ever done such a thing; now, Johnson and
Johnson is seen as a model for crisis management.
What is fascinating is not just what decisions these leaders made, but how they made them.
My book (written with Eric Klein), To Do or Not To Do: How Successful Leaders Make Better Decisions, demonstrates that a leader’s first task when faced with a critical decision is to decide how to decide – to determine whether and how to involve the people around the leader in the decision. We worked with leaders in over 200 organizations to learn what separates the best from the rest, and we've created some easy to use tools you can apply immediately to your critical decisions.
You'll learn how and when to make "Now Hear This!" decisions, without involving others. You'll know when to do a "Buck Stop" to get invaluable input while reserving the right to make the final decision, and when to jump into a "Life Raft" to gain authentic consensus with your team.
We sort out the practical differences between compliance and commitment and give you tools to get to the highest quality decision while making the best use of your time. The book is stuffed with real-world examples - big and small - that organizational leaders face everyday.
This is a book for busy leaders. You can read it in an hour and put it to use at your next staff meeting. Many leaders have then scheduled a workshop for their team (see below) to get everyone on board quickly.
“Effective leaders tailor their decision-making style to the unique needs of the situation. To Do or Not To Do gives managers a practical process for using the right style at the right time. I wouldn’t just recommend reading this book, I would recommend sharing it with team members!” – Marshall Goldsmith, named by the American Management Association as one of the fifty great thinkers and leaders who have impacted the field of management development over the past eight years.
Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager, says the book “is sure to make all leaders make better decisions.”
“This is as good as it gets for the busy leader who needs both higher-minded wisdom and nitty-gritty results. This
engaging story functions like a leadership seminar you can digest over
a lunch hour. It will challenge you with provocative questions and
equip you with pragmatic tools for cultivating high performance teams.”
– Marian Baker, CPCC, PCC, Top 50 Coach featured in Profiles in
Coaching.
To Do or Not To Do is a quick read with powerful insights for any leader, from a senior executive to a department manager to a volunteer committee chairperson. Despite its brevity, the book is brimming with wisdom and practicality.
It's indisputable - successful leaders are those who take the time to decide how to decide before they decide, thereby improving the quality of what their decision. If that seems like a mouthful, consider this: had he chosen a decision-making style more wisely, December 5th might be a national holiday – the birthday of President George A. Custer.
To order your copy (or get a substantial discount on volume orders), click here.
You've read the book. Now take your team to the next level with a To Do or Not To Do Workshop!
The To Do or Not To Do Workshop is a quick way to take the mystery and guesswork out of leadership decision-making for everyone on your team. Using pending decisions on your own “To Do” lists, you and your team will learn and integrate proven methods which increase the quality of every decision you and your team will face . Forget the all-too-typical "feel-good" team building that has no staying power, and give your team a concrete set of tools that will increase productivity and commitment to key decisions.
We don't focus on what people can do after the workshop. They'll use the workshop to learn, practice and implementation the content in real-time. Of course you'll all be able to use this stuff afterwards back in the workplace - that goes without saying.
- Master the one leadership decision that will make all your meetings more focused and productive
- Increase your team’s focus and commitment — to the critical issues affecting performance
- Learn what creates true consensus – and leads to commitment and aligned action
- Discover the two keys to creative dialogue – get the best ideas and solve the real problems
- Free your time and attention from day-to-day matters and focus on the bigger issues
The To Do or Not To Do Workshop is for leaders and their teams, or it can be presented to groups of leaders without their teams. It is often used as part of a larger Leadership Academy. Like the book, it's short and sweet. Remember - Good stuff without the fluff! Typically, 2-4 hours. Longer versions are available for unique circumstances.
For more information, please call me at 619-497-1937 or email me at garywinters@cox.net.