From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishhard-headedˌhard-ˈheaded adjective EMOTIONALpractical and able to make difficult decisions without letting your emotions affect your judgment a hard-headed business tycoon
Examples from the Corpus
hard-headed• But, in the privacy of the polling booth, cooler and more hard-headed calculations came into play.• The consequence was a timid but hard-headed daughter Sethe would die to protect.• To see such hard-headed investigators wrestling with such uncertain data is fascinating.• So why should down-to-earth, hard-headed Lancastrians be convinced by the marketing of this toolkit?• A useful, sensible, hard-headed man.• a hard-headed manager 