Introducing Meta-Leadership

Hello, LinkedIn! Welcome to The Decision Doctor? Is In! Every two weeks, we’ll explore what it takes to lead well in the most critical moments. I’m so glad you’re here.?

If this is our first time meeting, you can learn a little more about me and the work I do here.

On April 18, my third book, Meta-Leadership: How to See What Others Don’t and Make Great Decisions will be released.

Drawing on a large body of research on the science of thinking, emotional regulation, and behavior, I’ll show you how to improve your decisions and leave competitors in the dust.??

Leaders must make decisions in a rapidly-changing environment, with the expectation that they will make them quickly and appear confident while doing so. However, massive input from advisors, media, and sometimes gossip creates distortion. How can leaders see things clearly and make good decisions with so much noise???

Study Your Leadership

The ability to step back and see things as they really are is foundational to what I call meta-leadership. The origin of “meta” is Greek, and it means “above or beyond.” For example, metaphysics is the science of what is beyond the physical. In more modern usage, we use “meta” to refer to something above the thing itself. Metacognition means thinking about thinking

Meta-leadership refers to studying one’s own leadership, using the three essential elements of thinking, emotion, and behavior, rather than a set of skills.?

As we discussed in my last newsletter, great leaders eschew the notion that they are infallible.. Instead, they put aside their fear of uncertainty in order to avoid the trap of dichotomous thinking. Good leaders become great when they understand that their views may be distorted by the input of others and by their own thinking, emotions, and habits of behavior. They develop the art of meta-leadership, see what’s true and what isn’t, and make decisions that create more value for customers, employees, shareholders, and communities.?

Looking Inward

In my years of advising senior leaders, I have observed that those who understand how they make? decisions make better decisions. Leaders who study failures, beyond the exterior manifestations of an underlying cause, like poor data or inadequate tools, become meta-leaders. They? go deeper, considering how poor data, bad processes, or other inadequacies came to be. They understand that dysfunctional dynamics lead to bad decisions that manifest in myriad ways, though they are from the same cause.? Great leaders are more than willing to examine how they think and what influences are at play.

When leaders understand thinking about thinking, they spot substitutions for great thinking, like mountains of data and analysis. Great leaders aren’t afraid to ask questions about how decisions are made - and who made them. Their ability to see the big picture gives them a?huge competitive advantage over those who make decisions based on distortion.??

Exploring Meta-leadership

Meta-Leadership will help you see, understand, and act upon the? way you think, feel, and behave and how these are linked to? judgment and decisions. The book explores the often unconscious dichotomies leaders face every day:?

• Certain and uncertain
• Rational and irrational
• Strategic and tactical
• Analytical and creative
• Courageous and cowardly
• Independent and dependent
• Analysis and synthesis
• Now and later
• Knowledgeable and wise

Each of these dichotomies is explored within its own chapter. You will discover how to see the power of synthesis, using uncertainty to guard against overconfidence and use courage without being reckless. If reading this book gives you just a 20 percent improvement in decisions, imagine what that would be worth. As one client CEO said, “Improving the decisions I, and my team, make is worth millions of dollars and far more in reputational benefits.”?

To learn more, pick up Meta-Leadership: How to See What Others Don’t and Make Great Decisions! ?Pick it up on April 18th, or click here to pre-order your copy!

I’m excited to share the profile of me, created and published by the Association for Psychological Science in their current magazine. APS is an international organization of psychological science academics and researchers so it is a very high honor for a psychologist who is a practitioner, to be highlighted. Thank you, APS.

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