Judgment- How winning leaders make great call
...When Michael Armstrong became Chief Executive Officer of AT&T, the company was worth a $130 billion. For the next eight years, nothing seemed to work for AT&T, and Armstong’s series of poor strategic judgments finally caught up with him, bringing his career to an awkward end.
The essence of leadership is judgment. In the times of ambiguity, uncertainty, and conflicting demands, often under tremendous time pressure, leaders must take effective decisions to assure the survival and success of their organization. The book demystifies the leadership judgment process, to explore and understand how successful leaders exercise good judgment.
Authors Noel M. Tichy and Warren G. Bennis address the most infuriating questions, and problems leaders confront when making their most important decisions. Through this book, the authors provide a framework that will help leaders make better judgments.
The authors explain Judgment as an informed decision-making process that encompasses three domains:
People:
If leaders don’t make right decisions about the people in their organization, or they manage them poorly, then there is no way that they can set a sound strategy or direction for their firm.
Strategy:
Leaders need to frame strategies to lead towards success. In case the current strategic road isn’t leading toward success, it is his or her job to find a new path.
Crisis:
Crises by definition are perilous moments. But errors at these times aren’t actually any more likely to be fatal than errors in judgment regarding people and strategy. However, the crisis is time pressured, and any disastrous consequences brought on by any bad calls at these moments often come very quickly.
Within each domain, leadership judgment follows a three-phase process, i.e., Preparation, Call, and Execution. Additionally, to improve judgment-making throughout the organization, the leader must use four different types of knowledge to help others learn to make a successful decision:
• Self-Knowledge: The personal goals and values
• Social Network Knowledge: People who surround you daily
• Organizational Knowledge: People at different levels within an organization
• Contextual Knowledge: Stakeholders like customers, suppliers, government, etc.
At the end of the book, a handbook is provided that will help readers to develop their leadership judgment capability. The guide helps in examining the four bases of knowledge that lead to a right decision.
What we like about the book:
The book provides an analytic and easy to understand framework to not only understand the process of decision making but also describe how great leaders make judgments.
The book contains series of real life examples of world-class leaders who thrived or suffered because of their judgment calls like Jack Welch and Jeff Immelt at GE, Carly Fiorina, former CEO of HP and A.G. Lafley at P&G.
Unique and engaging format- Provides a complete framework and handbook with series of exercises.
Suitable for:
Anyone who is in or aspires to be in a leadership role. The book provides a toolkit that can be used by the leader to make better judgments and nurture ability in their executive team.
About the Authors:
Noel M. Trichy: He is a Professor of Management & Organizations at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. In the mid-1980s, Dr. Tichy was head of GE’s Leadership Center, where he led the transformation to action learning at GE. He is the author of numerous books like Succession: Mastering the make or break the process of leadership transition, Judgement on the front line: How Smart Companies Win by Trusting Their People, etc.Warren G. Bennis: He was an American scholar, organizational consultant, and author. He is popularly known as a pioneer of the contemporary field of Leadership studies. Bennis was a University Professor and Professor of Business Administration and Founding Chairman of The Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California. The Wall Street Journal named him as one of the top ten most sought speakers on management. Forbes magazine recognized him as the “dean of leadership gurus.” He spent time as a faculty member of Harvard and Boston University and taught at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C), INSEAD and IMD.
Warren G. Bennis: He was an American scholar, organizational consultant, and author. He is popularly known as a pioneer of the contemporary field of Leadership studies. Bennis was a University Professor and Professor of Business Administration and Founding Chairman of The Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California. The Wall Street Journal named him as one of the top ten most sought speakers on management. Forbes magazine recognized him as the “dean of leadership gurus.” He spent time as a faculty member of Harvard and Boston University and taught at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C), INSEAD and IMD.