How the Wise Decide: The Lessons of 21 Extraordinary Leaders by Sandoski Aaron Zeckhauser Bryn (2008-08-26) Hardcover

by Aaron Sandoski

Discover the formula used by twenty-one of the world’s most extraordinary leaders to make consistent and smart decisions.

How do the wise decide and lead businesses and organizations to great success is the question Bryn Zeckhauser and Aaron Sandoski posed to themselves after landing their first jobs as managers. Despite the best training the world could offer—Harvard MBAs and stints at McKinsey & Company, the elite powerhouse consulting firm—they felt unprepared when faced with the pressure to make critical decisions. So they set out on a three-year quest to discover how people with remarkable success and experience in both corporate and public life—“the wise”—went about making crucial, often make-or-break decisions.

• How did William George, when CEO of Medtronic, get the real story about why a critical tool used by cardiologists was failing and use that information to fix a systemic problem within the company?
• When inventor Dean Kamen has to make a decision about investing in a new technology, why does he find it useful to “fill a room with barbarians” to get the best thinking from his team?
• How did Shelly Lazarus assess the risks of making a nontraditional career move, a decision that eventually led her to being appointed CEO?
• How did Stephen Schwarzman and Peter Peterson, the founders of The Blackstone Group, turn $400,000 of their own money into one of the world’s preeminent alternative asset managers with $100 billion under management?

These and the other accounts of the direct conversations Zeckhauser and Sandoski had with twenty-one major leaders show that between wise decisions and poor ones lie vast fortunes and extraordinary contrasts in success. How the Wise Decide distills their wisdom, and it reveals how you can use this wisdom to be on the winning side of the ledger.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Julio Bonilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Those principals are at the heart of the successes that our wise leaders have enjoyed over the years. 🤓

[Elizabeth (Liz) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wealth of knowledge. Definitely something anyone in a position of leadership should invest their time into.

[Jeff Lamb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Difficult to stay interested.

I enjoyed a few parts but have read something similar that I felt was quite a bit better. I wouldn't recommend this for many people but definitely think you can see the difference between the examples used in the book and what you would consider poor leadership. The principles or lessons can be summed up in about a chapter, it's more about the stories of the leaders, which wasn't all that interesting to me.

[Mukul Sheopory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good framework, but some examples cited seemed forced into making point that a particular chapter was trying to make. Thought provoking frameword though. Worth a read if you are interested in improving your effectiveness within an organization.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a nifty little business book that does everything right. It has six clear principles for making good decisions. It has rules for following the principles. And it has stories for understanding the principles and the rules. While one might complain that the principles aren't all that astonishing, the authors have an answer for that, too. The principles are sound, and tested. One or two might actually make you think hard about your own decision-making. And, of course, as always, actually using these principles in your work life is harder work than just understanding them. I suspect most bad decisions get made in the nexus between fatigue, hurry, information overload, and sloth. But this book is a great antidote for bad decision-making.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a surprise Father's Day gift from my daughter who had wandered into a random bookstore and thought the title fit my interests. It was indeed a very enjoyable read. Twenty one leaders mostly from the corporate world but also a Supreme Court justice and the head of a country, were studied as their grounding characteristics and philosophies as they made organization-altering decisions. Their findings distilled into six primary principles with solid and actionable takeaways within each. It was a quick read but meaty enough to warrant being a reference guide to return to periodically to make sure I'm executing against the principles it contains. 4 Stars.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple strategies for those who lead. Examples of 21 great industry leaders explaining how to apply the six simple strategies. I appreciated the simplicity.