Judgment: How winning leaders make great calls? By Noel M. Tichy and Warren G. Bennis

Résumé du document

"With good judgment, little else matters. Without it, nothing else matters," said Noel M. Trichy in the foreword of the book. The book is must-read for current leaders as well as future leaders. This framework can help anyone who runs a small team or a big corporation. It gives keys to evaluate a situation, make a call and execute a decision after the call and correct it if it is necessary. Also, the authors explain that judgment calls are made in three domains: people, strategy and in time of crisis. But I will develop those points in the second part of this analysis. This book is the first one to claim judgment as a science, and not as a fortunately hazard of life. Judgment notion is totally dissected in this book, at least according to the authors.

Actually, the methodology is not perfect at all in this book. First of all, there is no definition of the word "judgment". It would be at least the first thing to do.

Moreover, authors try to convince that making judgment is the determination of the success or the failure of an organization or the leader is the only person responsible of judgment in organizations. They try to make us think that a leader is like God, a good one or not, only because he or she did badly. But authors fail to prove it! So, it is very annoying to admit such things.

Extraits

[...] A story line is developed from clear ideas, culture, and values. It is a vision which becomes reality. The best story line ever is the Immelt one: he answered the three main questions. Where are we now? He answered the world changed since 9/11, it is in decline and a leader has to do the job of leadership in the time he lived. Where we are going? Immelt wants to develop new markets like health care, energy saving, power, water and transportation and so he invested in research and technology. [...]

[...] I know that I can work a lot, and I do not mind to finish my day very late. Stress is a motor for me, and I know that this sector is very stressing and requires a lot of courage to succeed. But I like challenge. Moreover, I want to earn money well and it is possible in this sector. My objective is to travel through my work and live in Paris. I want to learn how the financial system is made and help banks or other financial institutions to improve their earnings by doing interesting investments. [...]

[...] Also, there are three steps to make a good strategy judgment call: preparation, process and execution. Of course it is not a real science, but strategy judgment is not a purely intuitive process either. Good strategic judgment is a blend. It depends on the intelligence of the leader, opportunities, organization's potential. But we already knew all that. Anyway, Mr. Etzioni put a name on that: mixed scanning model”. This model means that a leader needs to take into consideration a rational point of view, and an emotional point of view. [...]

[...] They “will talk about leaders and how the good ones make important judgment calls.” But the part does not exist in this book! Indeed, a huge number of examples are given in this book which shows good and bad decisions, and that is it. Moreover, it is always about the same leaders they are talking about: Jack Welch, Immelt, Klein and Mc Nerney succeeded but Carly Fiorina failed. And those examples are exploited during the all book. So the lecture is very repetitive and interest is going away little by little. [...]

[...] Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls? By Noel M. Tichy and Warren G. Bennis 1. Book Review 1. Overview Of The Message Of The Book “With good judgment, little else matters. Without it, nothing else matters” said Noel M. Trichy on the front flap of the book. The book is a tool for current leaders, and future leaders. This framework can help anyone who is running a small team, or a big corporation. It gives keys to evaluate a situation, make a call and execute a decision after the call and corrected it if it is necessary. [...]