I have felt all my life that good judgment is a critically important skill for any person to have, but especially so for those in leadership positions. Good judgment is such an important attribute that it is often listed first by employers as required qualities of job applicants.
We can easily name examples of bad judgment: drug use, lax financial management, questionable choice of friends and so on. And bad judgment usually leads to bad outcomes.
In business, the success or failure of the organization hinges on judgments made at all levels. Poor judgment has led to some epic failures over the years. For instance, how about these judgment calls:
"Everything that can be invented has been invented," said Charles H. Duell, commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office, in 1899.
"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau," said Irving Fisher, professor of economics at Yale University, in 1929.
"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper," said Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With the Wind."
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out," said an executive at Decca Records in rejecting the Beatles in 1962.
So what is good judgment?