Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis
Summary
A memoir of Wall Street culture that exposes how incentives and status games distort judgment and ethics.
How it personally impacted my leadership
It reinforced that culture is built through what you reward, tolerate, and promote. It sharpened my focus on designing incentives and metrics that align to customer outcomes and team health.
Leadership maturity fit
Executive
How to best absorb and apply it
- Audit your scorecards and recognition systems for unintended consequences.
- Use it as a cautionary reference when setting targets and KPIs.
- Ask: what behavior does this metric produce, and what does it accidentally punish.