cover image Left Brain Right Stuff: How Leaders Make Winning Decisions

Left Brain Right Stuff: How Leaders Make Winning Decisions

Phil Rosenzweig. PublicAffairs, $28.99 (336p) ISBN 978-1-61039-307-2

In the follow-up to his 2007 book, The Halo Effect, Rosenzweig, a professor at IMD (Institute of Management Development) in Lausanne, Switzerland, looks at how leaders can make better business decisions when the stakes are high. While the standard advice for decision-making centers on being aware of our tendency for common biases and avoiding them, Rosenzweig argues that this rationale doesn’t apply to all types of decisions. Instead, he suggests that we address real-world, complex decisions through a combined skill set that he calls “left brain, right stuff”: “a deliberate and analytical approach to problem solving” and “the intelligent management of risk.” In order to show readers how to exercise our capacity for critical thinking, the author examines elements associated with decision-making, including exerting control, outdoing an adversary, and generating better performance in the business world. In addition, he discusses pervasive errors and biases that undermine our judgment, such as overconfidence. Executives will find Rosenzweig’s chapter on the distinctiveness of a leader’s decisions valuable, while academics will more likely appreciate his section on decision models. Although Rosenzweig’s advice is sound and his prose is highly readable, only the most determined executives are likely to sift through his considerable research, and benefit from his theories. Agent: Max Brockman, Brockman, Inc. (Jan.)