November 2026
Beginner to intermediate
242 pages
5h 1m
English
Content preview from A Day in the Life of a Senior Leader
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Chapter 33. The Seven Decisions
Sometimes someone else will decide for you. Congratulations? The question remains: what kind of decision did they make, and what must you do now?
- Vanilla
-
Someone decided. Good. No further questions. We can make progress now.
- Educated
-
You ask why the person decided, and they can clearly explain their reasoning. Not everyone might appreciate the decision, but they will be given the opportunity to understand.1
- Calculated
-
Not only can they explain the decision, but they have math! Wow, I’m super convinced now.
- Instinct
-
They attempt to explain their reasoning, but they say feel a lot. A lot. Thing is, it feels right, so you don’t press.
- Inspired
-
Now you press, and they can tell you want a clear rationale and justification, but none obviously exists. This decision is not meant to be understood; it’s meant to be appreciated for its poetry. It is 100% expected that inspired decisions are going to frustrate those seeking clarity; they are going to point at the lack of a clear explanation. “He doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing. It’s a guess.” It might be a guess, but it also might be art in the making.2,3
- Minimum viable
-
My least favorite. Your investigation into the person’s justification reveals that they chose a decision that was not designed to be good; it was constructed to offend the fewest humans. This is not leadership—it’s fear.
- Delegated
-
Rather than doing the minimal work of even making a minimum viable decision, they gave the decision ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.