People First Leadership: How the Best Leaders Use Culture and Emotion to Drive Unprecedented Results

CHAPTER 6

FOURTH ROLE: DECISION MAKING

My work as president could best be described as Chief Decision-Making Officer.

—Bill Clinton

 

 

I was surprised by President Clinton’s words. Why would one of the most outstanding leaders in the world describe decision making as his main role when this topic is missing from almost all existing literature on leadership?¹ For instance, neither the 2011 HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Leadership nor Frances Hesselbein and Alan Shrader’s two-volume compendium Leader to Leader: Enduring Insights on Leadership (1999 and 2008) contain articles whose explicit focus is decision making. This lack of emphasis in leadership ...