Human beings make hundreds of choices on a daily basis. We make them from the time we get out of bed in the morning to the moment we slip back into it at night. Most of the decisions we make are insignificant and we’re often barely aware of the choices we proceed with (like the decision to pick up a hairbrush and brush your hair, for example). Other decisions are weighty and stop us in our tracks, demanding we consider them intentionally and choose wisely. It’s at this intersect that strong leaders are most easily identifiable. Where others might balk at making a call when the stakes are at their highest, a leader is a person willing to step up and make a pivotal decision and ensure it’s followed up with timely action.
In our July book of the month, How Leaders Decide: A Timeless Guide to Making Tough Choices, author Greg Bustin skips the step-by-step instructional on the science of deciding and invites us to look back in time at little-known, real-world decisions leading up to some of the most important events in history. Designed to be read in weekly installments, each of the 52 chapters presents a fascinating and well-researched story of a key figure who made great decisions or, alternatively, whose bad decisions brought about destructive, sometimes even fatal, outcomes.
Greg makes this interesting read practical by facilitating the reader’s personal application through a series of thought-provoking comments and questions. How Leaders Decide is a valuable source of leadership inspiration that will benefit every reader, whether studied personally or used as a base for group discussions. It brings fresh insight by focusing on the key decisions that helped trigger an event, rather than on the event itself. Each intriguing account encourages us to explore the reason a decision was made and ponder the outcomes of the individual approaches notable figures took in making their critical choices.