Handbook for Leadership Judgment - Book Report/Review Example

Judgment Calls Book review People often view Judgment calls as singular moments resulting from a leaders intuition. They are just snapshots in time, developed instantly. However, according to Tichy and Bennis (5), good judgment requires a framework. The well-crafted book describes how successful business leaders view decision making as a process that is developed incrementally. According to the authors, good judgment does not qualify as a one terrific moment after the other. Therefore, one should know that each is an influential business author who has spent decades teaching leadership and advising top CEOs. Now, collaborating for the first time, they present a practical structure for making tough calls when the stakes are high and the right path is not obvious. The book begins with a refreshing admission-the subject of judgment is too complex a phenomenon and too influenced by personal style and countless other variables to pin down definitively. Therefore, Tichy and Bennis focus on what they consider tangible: the components of great judgment calls, including how to recognize the critical moment before making a decision and how to execute it afterwards. Long-term success is the sole marker of good judgment, they say, and good leaders sort the important from the trivial. According to Tichy and Bennis (8), what really matters is the number of the important calls that the leader gets right as opposed to the number or percentage of calls the leader makes. The books main chapters include exemplary stories and anecdotes from those leaders about how they prepared for, executed, and evaluated critical judgments. In each case, the reader sees a person discerning before deciding. The authors cut through the subjects complexity by enumerating their important ideas. For example, readers learn that all key business decisions occupy one of three domains. The most important, the authors say, is making judgments about who is on your team (people calls). Other domains involve organizational direction (strategy calls) and problem solving (crisis calls). The readers also learn that good judgment is a three-part process. The first is preparation, which is all about framing the issue that will demand a judgment call and ensuring that team members understand why the decision is important. The second is arriving at the decision and explaining it. The third is carrying out the decision while learning and adjusting along the way. Examples from the books sources show why each step matters, and how each offers "redo loops," or opportunities to correct missteps. Perhaps the message that will resonate most with training and development professionals is that leaders must focus on creating a point of view called a "storyline" and align their team and stakeholders around it well in advance of the immediate need for judgment calls (56). In the “Handbook for Leadership Judgment," Tichy and collaborator Chris DeRose provide a seven-part section, rife with charts and tables, that reads like an operations manual, enabling readers to apply what theyve learned from the book. Judgment could be shorter and not lose its effectiveness; and a chapter on character and courage could have pure nix. It is geared a bit too heavily toward the C-level crowd-there are no examples of judgment provided by mid-level employees, but it is a smart, pragmatic look into the anatomy of a good judgment call. Tichy and Bennis help the audience to realize that good judgment is not innate. It can be learned and refined, but first requires an ongoing process of increasing knowledge about ones self, social network, and organization. As a conclusion statement, the authors propose that there is a requirement for more leaders that exhibit the best judgment (44). 2. Judgment calls There are times when people do consider making their own decisions without any consultations or considering the aftereffects of their decisions. For instance, Harry Truman at one point decided to drop an atomic bomb in Japan. Therefore, in the scenario, one can assume that Harry displayed a good judgment before the action. However, what about when the presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton decide to make a vote for the authorization of the Iraq war? The main question therefore is, how does one really evaluate the respective leader’s judgment? According to Tichy and Bennis, judgment refers to the fundamental DNA of leadership. The two authors have experience in making judgments calls as they claim in major and minor involvements such as politics, war, and business. There is no specific agreement as to what really qualifies as the best good judgment definition. In addition, there is no person that has provided a viable framework for the making of good calls consistently, especially when there are high stakes and scarcity of information. Just in the way as the economists estimate the possibility of a potential recession, it is rather critical that the leaders of the American corporate understand that the development of effective judgment in them and others can make or break their future (14). Tichy and Bennis argue that there is need for having Adequate leaders that are in a position to recognize decision making as a process as opposes to a single terrific moment. Tichy and Bennis decided to have an exploration of the art of proper judgment and decision-making process secretly in Dell, Caterpillar, Boeing, and Best Buy. The two authors candidly carried out their interviews intimate observations on many different leaders. Therefore, they reveal the main lessons that emanate from majority of the companies because of management judgments from the senior leadership. The Process of Judgment The first collaborations between Tichy and Bennis indicate that the majority of the judgmental calls arise in strategy, people, and crisis management domains. Therefore, through the development and harnessing of the judgment skills, the two authors have a firm believe that leadership success can be shaped. This has resulted in judgment emerging as a new science that is gaining popularity as the nation’s top-notch business schools start to teach the enrolling students about the topic. This framework also suggests that the best judgment never occurs within a single moment but it comes out of a well-cultured process. Therefore, to enhance this advancement, the successful leaders make their own calls in different phases as explained below: Good and Bad Judgment Calls An example of effective judgment that the authors have familiarization with first occurred at Boeing. When McNerney became the CEO of Boeing, he inherited the company with an already bad image. For instance, there were allegations that Boeing has acquired some proprietary documents from Lockhead Martin and used then in order to win a contract. McNerney decided to ignore all the allegations and blame games that resulted in the present condition of the company. Instead, he worked effortlessly to see the company come up again as an excellent model with ethical leadership and competitiveness that defined it there on. According to Bennis, McNerney made a judgmental call that turned all crises into wonderful opportunities leading to the transformation of all aspects of Boeing. In order to avoid the dangers of making poor judgment, the cases such as that of Hewlett-Packard CEO Fiorina illustrates how. Fiorina was never afraid of making decisions for the benefit of the organization but more often, she exhibited the characteristics of poor judgment whenever it came to people. However, she focused little of her attention on the challenges and pertaining preparations and execution of tasks. Facts indicate that the company’s board showed poor judgment in the hiring of Fiorina since she was not the suitable for the task because of her background. Leadership Attributes Regardless of whoever one is, the president of the United States, powerful leader and even the CEO’s, they all make decisions on daily basis that can either build or break their own organizations, careers and the source of livelihood of persons surrounding them. Therefore, the following pinpoints indicate attributes of the leaders that make successful and effective judgments. Desiring to have best practices A competitive drive Having an ability to nurture camaraderie and network Character and courage Having focus on the outcome of judgment calls Having accountability for driving execution Creating an environment where people tell the truth and educate others Portraying some self-confidence when wrong Storyline A judgment call can result in any of the many available outcomes because of its very own nature thus resulting in the need for the leaders to make viable choices. Therefore, in order to create a similar strategy, there is need to develop a probable storyline that has the description of the company’s identity and direction. Besides, the description should contain elements such as the idea on how to an organization successful, reinforcement and articulation of the values of the organization and strategic moves suitable for the generation of the energy to accomplish organizational goals. Therefore, whenever there is a requirement for judgment from the leaders, they can effectively match the existing possibilities of any consequences of the decisions that they make. The decision is more often than not against the storyline and it serves to bring a clear pictorial representation of the effective decision to make (97). According to Tichy and Bennis (97), Jim McJerney inherited a crisis when he assumed the leadership position as the CEO of Boeing. The company had accusations in the past of acquiring numerous proprietary documents from Lockheed Martin that is a Rival organization. On acquiring the documents, it used them to get contractual work with the government. Unfortunately, Boeing illegally recruited a senior Air Force official in charge of procurement a few years later while in command of the contract billions. The procurement officer helped Boeing curb the existing competitive procedures leading to the procurement of a refueling tanker program. During this period, Boeings’s CEO decided to resign while CFO Sears was sent to prison. The board in the year 2005 decided to have Harry who is Condit’s successor to resign over alleged ethical issues. Therefore, McNerney joined the company when it already had serious charges from the department in charge of justice in the United States. Having been a member of the board, he knew the forces that he was struggling against and what he intended to achieve. Therefore, he devised a strategy that worked towards building the integrity of the company and increasing the trust among the relevant stakeholders. He made the right choice of informi9n the senate on having to do away with a huge fine of $615 million. This was in an effort to make up for the tarnished image of the company by senior executives and employees. In addition to the hue fine, he decided not to have any tax deduction that the company could be having legally for settlement because he felt like that would be unfair to the employees (98). McNerney had the capacity to fight allegations against the firm blaming the past leaders of the company for the consequences that the company faced. However, he decided to have a new storyline for the organization to foster it as one of the excellent models for ethical leadership and competitiveness. Therefore, the final judgment was effective in enhancing the transformation of the existing crisis into a favorable opportunity for Boeing. The judgment greatly made a positive impact in the culture of the organization and the leadership behaviors henceforth (98). Knowledge Assessment In the study of the leadership judgment nature, it is evident that the majority of the judgment calls come from people, the strategies that the company has in place and the crises. However, according to Tichy and Bennis (100), the judgment has a multidimensional view that allows the leader of the company to choose the most suitable path for the success of the organization. Therefore, effective judgment revolves around self, network, social, contextual and the organizational domains. The main requirements of each of the domains are as discussed in the subsequent paragraphs. The self-domain concerns itself with how a person learns from the past occurrences or experiences. Therefore, it determines the capacity of the involved individual to face the existing realities at any point in time. In addition, it entails how the person looks at different situations and keenly perceives them as having any worth or significance. From the outcomes, them the person will have the decision whether to consider making a positive improvement based on the available facts. In regard of the self-judgment, people have the ability of making personalized judgments about their roles, ambitions, and capabilities. They use strategies that entail judgments regarding life and career options. Ultimately, those leaders who consider self-judgments consider having their own judgmental views in times of introspection and crisis (101). The social network judgmental view revolves around having the knowledge and capacity to building a team that is strong enough to make viable decisions. It integrates moves on how best one can learn from the team members and enhances mutual gain from the decisions that the team may formulate or suggest. In addition, it entails how the leader can teach others in coming up with the best judgments in different situations to enhance success of the organization. The leader concerns himself or herself about those who are part of the team during the time of making decisions and those who are not. Therefore, the best strategy social network entails knowing how well the team can evolve in order to meet the business requirements at the time. The leader then had to make a ruling on the best persons to work with and how to work with them to ensure positive operations whenever there is a crisis (100-101). Organizational judgment pertains know how to appeal on other’s strengths throughout the organization. One should be in a position to create broad scaled processes through teaching others on how to make smart and effective judgments. Therefore, people make judgments about the systems within the organization in ensuring and enhancing the quality performance. In addition, the personal consideration ensures that the capability of the organization is in check. The strategies in question thus entail the engagement and alignment of the organizational levels during execution of any plans. The organization judgment involves how effective a leader can work with an organization whenever there is a potential crisis (100) The contextual judgmental take entails knowing how to enhance the creation of smart and effective interactions among the many stakeholders involved. Such stakeholders include the suppliers, customers, stockholders, the government, interest groups, and the competitors. There is judgment about the important stakeholders. Therefore, it entails making important considerations on how best to have those stakeholders engaged in the process of making the right decisions. There is the strategy on the engagement of stakeholders in order to frame define and execute a strategy. Lastly, the contextual judgment pertains how the stakeholders inside and outside the organization connect amicably leading to a positive connection for effective decision making whenever there is an impending crisis (101). In conclusion, the best position desired is that of the organizational CEO since it deals with handling all the affairs of the organization. Therefore, a person has he duty of doing whatever is within the dictates of the organization to ensure that there is quality output in addition to ensuring the best strategies for uplifting the image if the company. The current position in the company is the general accountant and the main work is to oversee the effective running of the company’s business. The best strategy to attain the desired position is through upholding a good image in the company. The main reason behind this is that a good and bold image has a favorable hallo effect thus works towards ensuring that there is positive alignment with all the stakeholders of the company. This serves to boost a well-grounded and concrete image thus ensuring success of the company. The positive image guarantees a possible consideration in the determination of qualified persons suitable in handling the position. In addition, it is necessary for one to have an impeccable and proven record (105). Works cited Tichy, Noel M, and Warren G. Bennis. Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls. New York: Portfolio, 2009. Print. Read More