Book Review
Now you can be an insider. In a couple of hours, you can know the facts about how great leaders turned troubled companies around and led them to success.
Sometimes you will be surprised, sometimes impressed, and at other times, you’ll think their decisions were exactly what you would have made yourself. Â Â Â Â Â Â In their new book Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls, Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis give new insight into the art of making great decisions. They don’t come by accident, and they’re not isolated events. Rather, they come as part of a process including the present situation and how it should evolve in the near and distant future.
Both Tichy and Bennis are prolific authors who have many business and leadership books to their credit. This one could be their best. They tell what steps to take when the stakes are high, information is limited, and the right call is far from obvious. They say leaders add most of their value by the quality of their judgments. Every other aspect of leadership is secondary.
Many people assume that making good judgments is an inborn trait. Tichy and Bennis show that it’s a skill that can be developed and refined over time, especially when nurtured by an organization.
The authors have spent many years studying decision-making and advising CEOs of major corporations.
They conclude that there are three judgment domains. The first is people, the domain with most potential for good or ill. The right people must be chosen.
The second domain is strategy. When the current road isn’t leading to success, the leader must find a new path.
The third is crisis. Disastrous consequences of bad decisions come quickly. A new plan must be forthcoming including a great decision.
Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls by Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis, Portfolio Hardcover, 288 pages,