Left Brain, Right Stuff: How Leaders Make Winning Decisions

Left Brain, Right Stuff takes up where other books about decision making leave off. For many routine choices, from shopping to investing, we can make good decisions simply by avoiding common errors, such as searching only for confirming information or avoiding the hindsight bias. But as Phil Rosenzweig shows, for many of the most important, more complex situations we face -- in business, sports, politics, and more -- a different way of thinking is required. Leaders must possess the ability to shape opinions, inspire followers, manage risk, and outmaneuver and outperform rivals.

Making winning decisions calls for a combination of skills: clear analysis and calculation -- left brain -- as well as the willingness to push boundaries and take bold action -- right stuff. Of course leaders need to understand the dynamics of competition, to anticipate rival moves, to draw on the power of statistical analysis, and to be aware of common decision errors -- all features of left brain thinking. But to achieve the unprecedented in real-world situations, much more is needed. Leaders also need the right stuff. In business, they have to devise plans and inspire followers for successful execution; in politics, they must mobilize popular support for a chosen program; in the military, commanders need to commit to a battle strategy and lead their troops; and in start-ups, entrepreneurs must manage risk when success is uncertain. In every case, success calls for action as well as analysis, and for courage as well as calculation.

Always entertaining, often surprising, and immensely practical, Left Brain, Right Stuff draws on a wealth of examples in order to propose a new paradigm for decision making in synch with the way we have to operate in the real world. Rosenzweig's smart and perceptive analysis of research provides fresh, and often surprising, insights on topics such as confidence and overconfidence, the uses and limits of decision models, the illusion of control, expert performance and deliberate practice, competitive bidding and new venture management, and the true nature of leadership.

Phil Rosenzweig is professor at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he works with leading companies on questions of strategy and organization. He is a native of Northern California, where he worked for Hewlett-Packard. Prior to IMD, he was an assistant professor at Harvard Business School. Rosenzweig's PhD is from the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania.

He is the author of numerous articles in journals including Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, Management Science, and Strategic Management Journal. His 2007 book, The Halo Effect...and the Eight Other Business Delusions that Deceive Managers, was described by the Wall Street Journal as "a trenchant view of business and business advice" and lauded by Nassim Nicholas Taleb as "one of the most important management books of all time."