Decision Leadership

Don Moore and I wrote Decision Leadership (Yale University Press, 2022) to make the argument that leaders are, above all, decision architects. They pursue truth over power. When they do, their decisions are more ethical, accounting for broad constituencies and diverse perspectives. Their approach to any task is clear and aims to be just, engendering trust. As a result, their impact is greater because it ripples out instead of relying heavily on the trope of heroic figure at the helm. The best behavioral science proves it, and we have plenty of examples that demonstrate the promise of this perspective. Leaders succeed as they create norms, structures, incentives, and systems that help others to think in new ways and make their best choices.