Books Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls
Books and Publications Average Rating:

Rating: - Judgement: Boring
I bought this book expecting it to be at least somewhat entertaining. After finishing the first 44 pages, I cannot bring myself to continue reading the rest: it is totally boring. Here are some quotes that illustrate the predominant tone of the book:

"In all three of our domains, people, strategy, and crisis, good judgment calls involve a process that starts with recognizing the need for the call and continues through to successful execution." (p. 29)

"Good judgment depends on how you think as much as what you know." (p. 31)

"There is nothing more important to an institution than who is going to be its leader." (p. 31)

"The quality of a person's judgment depends to a large degree on his or her ability to marshal resources and to interact well with the appropriate constituencies." (p. 39)

Not that there is anything wrong with these statements; it's just reading paragraph after paragraph of such banal truths gets tiresome. I gave this book two stars (instead of one) because the authors included a few real-life stories, but even these illustrations eventually turn into boring repetitions.

As a side note, I wondered why out of 19 reviewers, 15 gave this book a five-star rating, so I checked their other reviews. Interestingly, all reviews I checked are also five-star. Maybe this is just a group of people with different taste in writing, I don't know.

If you are not sure whether to buy this book, I would recommend you to read the positive reviews first and if what they say seems appealing to you, read a few pages from the book (you can peek inside the book using the "Search inside this book" link, just enter some word, like "leadership" or "judgment" and open a random page from the returned matches). Then make your own judgment.

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Rating: - know how to lead, or teach others to lead
Every professional, manager, consultant and entrepreneur should know how to lead, or teach others to lead. For a great companion to "thoughtleading" concepts found in my own book, "The Expert's Edge," get and read this book pronto!

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Rating: - Savvy study of judgment and decision-making
This book's focus fills a hole in the literature on leadership. Bestselling authors Noel M. Tichy and Warren G. Bennis concentrate on a key issue that is central to leadership: how leaders make judgment calls, and how you should make, execute and evaluate them. They provide a good, useful framework to guide your decision-making process. They offer intriguing tools, such as using a storyline to spur people to help implement your judgments. The book does have weaknesses, however, and those are due to the authors' definitions of two key terms: "results" and "long-term." While their case studies examine judgment calls they find successful, they define success as meeting "the espoused goals of the institution. Period." This assumes that the institution's goals are already examined and valid, when in many cases they are not. Their definition of "long-term" may strike some as only moderate in duration, or even as short-term. Nonetheless, their work is clearly written and rich in examples. getAbstract recommends it to anyone who is seriously interested in leadership, execution, and organizational strategy and culture.

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Rating: - Excellent leadership guide
I very much recommend this book to anyone who faces the challenge of making judgment calls--which, as this book points out, is everyone. This book is inspiring, to the point, and well organized. However, it's most attractive feature is that the methods it suggests are proven through many examples. I think the other reviewers have said it best: this is simply the best framework for decision making on the market.