Synopses & Reviews
and#147;With good judgment, little else matters. Without it, nothing else matters.and#8221; Whether weand#8217;re talking about United States presidents, CEOs, Major League coaches, or wartime generals, leaders are remembered for their best and worst judgment calls. In the face of ambiguity, uncertainty, and conflicting demands, the quality of a leaderand#8217;s judgment determines the fate of the entire organization. Thatand#8217;s why judgment is the essence of leadership.
Yet despite its importance, judgment has always been a fairly murky concept. The leadership literature has been conspicuously quiet on what, exactly, defines it. Does judgment differ from common sense or gut instinct? Is it a product of luck? Of smarts? Or is there a process for making consistently good calls?
Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis have each spent decades studying and teaching leadership and advising top CEOs such as Jack Welch and Howard Schultz. Now, in their first collaboration, they offer a powerful framework for making tough calls when the stakes are high and the right path is far from obvious. They show how to recognize the critical moment before a judgment call, when swift and decisive action is essential, and also how to execute a decision after the call.
Tichy and Bennis bring their three-dimensional model to life with interviews with world-class leaders who have thrived or suffered because of their judgment calls. These stories include:
- Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, whose judgment to grow through research and development transformed GE into the worldand#8217;s premier technology growth company.
- Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, who made tough calls about teachers, students, and parents while turning around a troubled school system.
- Jim McNerney, CEO of Boeing, whose strategic judgment helped him reinvigorate his company and restore a culture of trust and respect.
- The late general Wayne Downing, who found an unexpected opportunity in the midst of crisis when he led the Special Operations raid to capture Manuel Noriega.
- A. G. Lafley, CEO of Procter and Gamble, who bet $57 billion to purchase Gillette and reinvent his company.
- Brad Anderson, CEO of Best Buy, who made the call to commit totally to a customer-centric strategy and led his people to execute it.
Whether youand#8217;re running a small department or a global corporation, Judgment will give you a framework for evaluating any situation, making the call, and correcting if necessary during the execution phase. It will show you how to handle the overlapping domains of people, strategy, and crisis management. And it will help you teach your entire team to make the right call more often.
No organization can afford to neglect this crucial disciplineand#151;and no previous book has ever brought it into such clear focus.
Review
“A useful and intelligent guide for elevating the performance of any organization”
-Jim McNerney, chairman, president, and CEO, The Boeing Company
“This book demonstrates how companies have prospered by empowering their frontline staff to address customers with the degree of passion and commitment you would otherwise only expect from those who owned the company.”
-Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Group
“DeRose and Tichy offer a practical, no-nonsense prescription for building an organization in which each persons voice can be heard and everyones ideas can make a difference.”
-Doug Oberhelman, chairman and CEO, Caterpillar Inc.
“This well-informed and timely book unlocks the secrets of employee empowerment with compelling examples as important insights,”
-Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School professor; director of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative; author of Confidence and SuperCorp
“At last! Unique insight into every companys undervalued competitive advantage, the front line - where success actually happens or doesnt - from the authors whove been there. Managers everywhere must pay attention to this book.”
-Geoff Colvin, Fortune columnist; author of Talent Is Overrated
“An essential volume.”
-Andrew N. Liveris, chairman and CEO, The Dow Chemical Company
“Read Judgment on the Front Line and tap in to a brain trust that has been right under your nose!”
-Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager and Leading at a Higher Level
“Tichy and DeRose have put their finger on the issue that all executive know determine success… you are only as good as the customer thinks you are.”
-Ray Lane, managing partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, executive chairman, Hewlett-Packard
“A must read and more important, a must act volume of insight and wisdom!”
-Leonard A. Schlesinger, president, Babson College; former vice chairman and COO, Limited Brands
“A comprehensive and easy-to-understand model to attain great outcomes.”
-J. Randall MacDonald, senior vice president, Human Resources, IBM
“Judgment on the Front Line takes the notion of empowerment from motherhood to a practical imperative for success.”
-Don Tapscott, CEO, The Tapscott Group, author, most recently, of Macrowikinomics
Synopsis
Front-line employees can be your greatest asset-here's how to tap their rich vein of insight and leadership.
Front-line employees who deal directly with customers are the face of any organization. Not only do they have the most impact on how a brand is perceived, but they are also the most valuable source of insight into what customers want and how to give it to them.
Unfortunately, as management experts Chris DeRose and Noel M. Tichy explain, most organizations don't know how to evaluate the risk of giving employees more autonomy. Many of those who are willing to try haven't even invested resources in ensuring that-once the shackles are off-front-line employees make good judgments.
Tichy and DeRose offer powerful examples of front-line leadership, such as:
- How Zappos trusts its people to do anything in service of a customer, including providing free product or reimbursing for mistakes
- How Mayo Clinic of Arizona enabled its nurses to challenge the hierarchy in order to improve patient car
Judgment on the Front Line was the Winner in the Business: Management and Leadership category for the 2013 International Book Awards. The book also won a Silver medal in the Axiom Business Book Award contest.
Synopsis
and#147;With good judgment, little else matters. Without it, nothing else matters.and#8221; Whether weand#8217;re talking about United States presidents, CEOs, Major League coaches, or wartime generals, leaders are remembered for their best and worst judgment calls. In the face of ambiguity, uncertainty, and conflicting demands, the quality of a leaderand#8217;s judgment determines the fate of the entire organization. Thatand#8217;s why judgment is the essence of leadership.
Yet despite its importance, judgment has always been a fairly murky concept. The leadership literature has been conspicuously quiet on what, exactly, defines it. Does judgment differ from common sense or gut instinct? Is it a product of luck? Of smarts? Or is there a process for making consistently good calls?
Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis have each spent decades studying and teaching leadership and advising top CEOs such as Jack Welch and Howard Schultz. Now, in their first collaboration, they offer a powerful framework for making tough calls when the stakes are high and the right path is far from obvious. They show how to recognize the critical moment before a judgment call, when swift and decisive action is essential, and also how to execute a decision after the call.
Tichy and Bennis bring their three-dimensional model to life with interviews with world-class leaders who have thrived or suffered because of their judgment calls. These stories include:
- Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, whose judgment to grow through research and development transformed GE into the worldand#8217;s premier technology growth company.
- Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, who made tough calls about teachers, students, and parents while turning around a troubled school system.
- Jim McNerney, CEO of Boeing, whose strategic judgment helped him reinvigorate his company and restore a culture of trust and respect.
- The late general Wayne Downing, who found an unexpected opportunity in the midst of crisis when he led the Special Operations raid to capture Manuel Noriega.
- A. G. Lafley, CEO of Procter and Gamble, who bet $57 billion to purchase Gillette and reinvent his company.
- Brad Anderson, CEO of Best Buy, who made the call to commit totally to a customer-centric strategy and led his people to execute it.
Whether youand#8217;re running a small department or a global corporation, Judgment will give you a framework for evaluating any situation, making the call, and correcting if necessary during the execution phase. It will show you how to handle the overlapping domains of people, strategy, and crisis management. And it will help you teach your entire team to make the right call more often.
No organization can afford to neglect this crucial disciplineand#151;and no previous book has ever brought it into such clear focus.
Synopsis
With good judgment, little else matters. Without it, nothing else matters.” Whether were talking about United States presidents, CEOs, Major League coaches, or wartime generals, leaders are remembered for their best and worst judgment calls. In the face of ambiguity, uncertainty, and conflicting demands, the quality of a leaders judgment determines the fate of the entire organization. Thats why judgment is the essence of leadership.
Yet despite its importance, judgment has always been a fairly murky concept. The leadership literature has been conspicuously quiet on what, exactly, defines it. Does judgment differ from common sense or gut instinct? Is it a product of luck? Of smarts? Or is there a process for making consistently good calls?
Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis have each spent decades studying and teaching leadership and advising top CEOs such as Jack Welch and Howard Schultz. Now, in their first collaboration, they offer a powerful framework for making tough calls when the stakes are high and the right path is far from obvious. They show how to recognize the critical moment before a judgment call, when swift and decisive action is essential, and also how to execute a decision after the call.
Tichy and Bennis bring their three-dimensional model to life with interviews with world-class leaders who have thrived or suffered because of their judgment calls. These stories include:
- Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, whose judgment to grow through research and development transformed GE into the worlds premier technology growth company.
- Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, who made tough calls about teachers, students, and parents while turning around a troubled school system.
- Jim McNerney, CEO of Boeing, whose strategic judgment helped him reinvigorate his company and restore a culture of trust and respect.
- The late general Wayne Downing, who found an unexpected opportunity in the midst of crisis when he led the Special Operations raid to capture Manuel Noriega.
- A. G. Lafley, CEO of Procter and Gamble, who bet $57 billion to purchase Gillette and reinvent his company.
- Brad Anderson, CEO of Best Buy, who made the call to commit totally to a customer-centric strategy and led his people to execute it.
Whether youre running a small department or a global corporation, Judgment will give you a framework for evaluating any situation, making the call, and correcting if necessary during the execution phase. It will show you how to handle the overlapping domains of people, strategy, and crisis management. And it will help you teach your entire team to make the right call more often.
No organization can afford to neglect this crucial disciplineand no previous book has ever brought it into such clear focus.
Synopsis
An insiderand#8217;s look at how a successfuland#160;leadership pipeline can make or breakand#160;a company
Starting out at GE, where he headed up theand#160;companyand#8217;s leadership institute and revamped theand#160;leadership pipeline under Jack Welch, Noel Tichyand#160;has served as a trusted advisor on managementand#160;succession to such leading companies as Royaland#160;Dutch Shell, Nokia, Intel, Ford, Mercedes-Benz,and#160;Merck and Caterpillar.
Now Tichy draws on decades of hands-onand#160;experience working with CEOs and boards toand#160;provide a framework for building a smart, effectiveand#160;transition pipeline, whether for a multi-billion dollarand#160;conglomerate, a family business, a small start-up,and#160;or a non-profit.
Through revealing case studies like Hewlettand#160;Packard, IBM, Yahoo, PandG, Intel, and J.C. Penney,and#160;he examines why some companies fail and othersand#160;succeed in training and sustaining the nextand#160;generation of senior leaders. He highlights theand#160;common mistakes that can generate embarrassingand#160;headlines and may even call an organizationand#8217;sand#160;survival into question, and reveals the bestand#160;practices of those who got it right. Tichy alsoand#160;positions leadership talent development andand#160;succession where they belong: at the top of everyand#160;leaderand#8217;s agenda.
About the Author
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 Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and advises CEOs around the world.
Warren G. 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.