Too busy to read?

Steve Wynn, the CEO of Wynn Resorts, in Chapter 3. About decision-making, he says, "In any sufficiently large organization, with an effective management system in place, there is going to be a pyramid shape with decision makers at every level. The only time I am brought in is when the only known solutions have a downside, like someone losing their job, or the company losing large sums of money. And usually the decision is already framed for me as two negatives. I'm the one who has to choose which of those two negatives we can live with."

And once the decision was made, the discussion was over. My ultimate job, and yours, is not to give an opinion. Everybody's got an opinion. Leaders are paid to make a decision. The difference between offering an opinion and making a decision is the difference between working for the leader and being the leader.

Trump and Pence recognized these openings and took them. Political writers will interpret this situation as routine credit grabbing and exaggerated claims. But business writers will recognize Trump's strategy as what I will call the new-CEO move. Smart CEOs try to create visible victories within days of taking the job, to set the tone. It's all about the psychology.

Effective executives do not make a great many decisions. They concentrate on the important ones. They try to think through what is strategic and generic, rather than solve problems. They try to make the few important decisions on the highest level of conceptual understanding.

When there is no crisis, the wise leader or CEO will invent one. Not by crying wolf but by challenging the employees with change.

Executives are not paid for doing things they like to do. They are being paid for getting the right things done - most of all in their specific task, the making of effective decisions.

Consider the chief executive officers of corporations: they don't just look the part, they even look the same. And, worse, when you listen to them talk, they sound the same, down to the same vocabulary and metaphors. But that's their job: as I will keep reminding the reader, counter to the common belief, executives are different from entrepreneurs and are supposed to look like actors.