In this full “Thought Leader Series” interview from The National Society of Leadership and Success (The NSLS), we present leadership and strategy expert Dr. Sydney Finkelstein. He’s the Steven Roth Professor of Management and Faculty Director, Tuck Center for Leadership at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, where he teaches courses on Leadership and Strategy.

In this interview with NSLS President Charles Knippen, Dr. Syd discusses his education, his decision to pursue teaching via his PhD, and the path he took to where is today.

Listen to Dr. Syd dig into the importance of asking the right interview questions, which can help candidates identify “Super Bosses” that will propel their career.

Dr. Syd also shares some foundational aspects of leadership and how we can frame our thinking around the following topics:
• Opportunities
• Learning as an Ongoing Process
• Adaptability & Learning from Mistakes

Another critical element on the interview is Dr. Syd’s discussion of “soft skills” and what student leaders can do outside the classroom to improve their hiring prospects.

Better known as “Dr. Syd” he’s published 17 books and 75 articles, with several bestsellers, including the #1 bestseller in the U.S. and Japan, Why Smart Executives Fail. Based on a six-year study of 51 companies and 200 interviews of business leaders, the book identifies the fundamental reasons why major mistakes happen, points out the early warning signals that are critical for investors and managers alike, and offers ideas on how organizations can develop a capability of learning from corporate mistakes.

In Professor Finkelstein's follow-up book, Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How to Keep it From Happening to You (Harvard Business Press), published in 2009, he turned his attention to such major strategic decisions as the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and numerous business cases to explain why decision-makers sometimes think they're right when they are really wrong. The book takes up recent research in neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and management to not only document why things go wrong, but also to offer a series of solutions that reduce our vulnerability to falling into the traps that lead to bad decisions.

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