A Bias for Action ─ How Effective Managers Harness Their Willpower, Achieve Results, and Stop Wasting Time

A surprising look at the factors that separate truly productive managers from the rest—and a framework for increasing personal managerial effectiveness to make every moment count.
Sumantra Ghoshal and Heike Bruch reveal that only 10% of managers act purposefully to get truly important work done. The other 90% simply “spin their wheels” by procrastinating, detaching emotionally, and distracting themselves with busywork. Why does this happen, and what separates productive managers from their less purposeful colleagues?

Based on exclusive research across several industries, and illustrated through stirring personal stories, A Bias for Action shows that great managers produce results not by motivating others, but by engaging their own willpower through a powerful combination of energy and focus. Bruch and Ghoshal provide simple strategies for bolstering individual willpower and action-taking abilities, and explore ways to marshal the willpower of others to encourage collective action.

A Bias for Action challenges conventional management thinking: Authors show that it is not “motivation,” but individual “willpower” that truly separates productive managers from their less productive peers
Managers at all levels in all companies are familiar with the feeling of “spinning their wheels”. By showing what it takes to break through the traps of “active nonaction”—this book can help increase managerial productivity and positively impact the bottom line
The authors offer specific strategies for increasing managerial effectiveness at the individual and organizational levels
A Bias for Action illustrates its findings through vivid personal stories, many of them coming from international organizations.