Why Leaders Should Rethink Their Decision-Making Process

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2023

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Many people believe that leaders instinctively make the best decisions based on past experience, almost like muscle memory. But Carol Kauffman, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and the founder of the Institute of Coaching, says falling back on automatic patterns of behavior is often wrong—especially in a crisis or high-stakes choices. Instead, she explains a framework of stepping back, evaluating options, and choosing the tactics that work best in each situation. Kauffman is a coauthor, along with View Advisors founder David Noble, of the HBR article "The Power of Options" and the book Real-Time Leadership: Find Your Winning Moves When the Stakes Are High.

Transcript

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0:30.0	Welcome to the HBR ID a cast from Harvard Business Review.
0:41.2	I'm Kurt Nickish.
0:49.2	When it comes to making tough decisions, leaders often draw on their experience, whether
0:53.8	they're a consensus builder or a pace setter, it makes sense for them to do what has worked
0:58.4	before.
1:00.4	But today's guest says in reality, many leaders fall into traps when they manage problems
1:05.8	the same way each time, because each situation is different, organizations evolve, and what
1:11.6	got you here isn't necessarily what's going to get you there.
1:15.6	Instead, she argues that successful leaders take a more expansive view of situations at hand.
1:21.0	They re-evaluate those problems across a broader set of possible solutions and dynamically
1:26.2	adapt their management to each problem.
1:28.8	Carol Kaufman is a professor at Harvard Medical School and founded the Institute of Coaching
1:33.8	and with David Noble of View Advisors, she wrote the HBR article, The Power of Options,
1:39.8	and the new book Real Time Leadership.
1:42.4	Find your winning moves when the stakes are high.
1:44.8	Carol, thanks for being here.
1:46.8	Thank you.
	...

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