Synopsis

A bold new approach to the art of making tough calls when it really counts

Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis have each spent decades studying leadership and advising top CEOs such as GE's Jack Welch and Starbucks' Howard Schultz. Now, in their first collaboration, these titans of management redefine the essence of leadership as the ability to make consistently good judgments, especially when the stakes are high, information is limited, and the right call is far from obvious. Leaders add most of their value by the quality of their judgments; every other aspect of leadership is secondary.

Judgment clarifies an important concept that is often misunderstood. Many assume that good judgment is an inborn trait, but Tichy and Bennis show that it's actually a skill that can be developed, refined, and nurtured through an organization. The judgment process unfolds in three phases:
• Before the call-how do you frame the problem?
• Making the call-how do you decide which route to take?
• Executing the call-how do you make sure everyone supports the decision and follows through?

The authors apply this model to many kinds of judgments, involving people (hiring, firing, promoting); strategy (mergers, new products); and crisis management (ethical dilemmas, business failures). They illustrate their lessons with stories from major companies that have thrived or suffered because of the judgment of senior management.

This book will help readers get better at decision making and support better decision making from their bosses and staff.

Michael Adams - Library Journal

As with Big Fishand The Watermelon King, Wallace offers here a Southern novel full of whimsy and folklore. Clearly influenced by Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty, Wallace tells the story of Henry Walker, a magician with Jeremiah Musgrove's Chinese Circus in the 1950s South. As a boy in Albany, NY, Henry learned magic from the pasty-faced Mr. Sebastian, believing his mentor to be the devil, and lost his beloved sister as a result. Through his travels, Henry constantly loses those he cares about. As Wallace slowly reveals that the supernatural has less to do with Henry's fate than he thinks, the story grows more powerful. This captivating morality tale is told from multiple points of view well narrated by Norman Dietz, L.J. Ganser, Katherine Kellgren, T. Ryder Smith, Tom Stechschulte, and, especially, Alyssa Bresnahan, whose character's unrequited love for Henry is particularly poignant. Highly recommended for all collections.

Biography

Noel M. Tichy is the author of Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will, The Leadership Engine, The Cycle of Leadership, and many other business bestsellers. He is a professor at the University of Michigan Business School and advises CEOs around the world.
Warren Bennis is the author of On Becoming a Leader, Reinventing Leadership, and many other business bestsellers. He is currently university professor and distinguished professor of business administration at the University of Southern California. He has consulted for many Fortune 500 companies and world leaders.