Sublime

It’s usually not a good idea to have the most senior person serve as the leader; she will have a difficult time convincing the others that she is not playing her usual role as boss. Instead, choose a respected lower-level insider who is not perceived as having a strong point of view on which course should be chosen. Or tap an outside facilitator wh

Here, then, is a basic architecture of executive decision making we found in our research: Determine how much time you have to decide, whether minutes, hours, days, months, or even years. Stimulate dialogue and debate—guided by facts and evidence—to determine the best options. Make a decision, firm and unambiguous, once you’re clear on what must be

Be careful not to lose personal responsibility via group decision making.

Each quarter we try to study an admirable company and discuss it with our Operating Group managers and board members. We focus on high performance conglomerates that have demonstrated at least a decade of superior shareholder returns.

We all need to be held accountable, and as leaders we are responsible to hold others accountable.

your individual reputation and honor should mean something within your company, and be at stake in everything you do. Does the integrity of that deal meet your standard? Does the quality of your team’s work measure up? Are you willing to put your name on it? If the customer or your competitor questions your behavior, are you comfortable knowing tha

Grove was fascinated to find that some people, with no prompting, were consistently driven to “try to test the outer limits of their abilities” and achieve their “personal best.” These employees were a manager’s dream; they were never self-satisfied. But Grove also understood that not everyone was a natural-born achiever. For the rest, “stretched”