An instant USA Today bestseller • A Globe and Mail Top 10 Business and Management Book of 2024

From an experienced organizational psychologist comes a unique guide to learning how to better read and understand people and make improved, more informed business decisions about them—including choosing the right employees, fostering relationships in the workplace, resolving conflicts more effectively, and optimizing your performance on the job—using the science of personality.

Psychologists widely agree that five key traits define our personalities—intellect, emotionality, sociability, drive, and diligence. Unlike emotions, which are transitory in nature, these traits determine our behaviors, including our motivations, social inclinations, reactions to crisis or complexity, patterns of thinking, and more.

Organizational psychologist Dr. Richard Davis is an expert in assessing personalities. He has spent decades advising business leaders and evaluating executives from some of the world’s biggest companies, including Amazon, Target, Best Buy, Under Armour, Meta, Starbucks, Nike, LVMH, and the NBA. Over the course of his career, he has helped numerous executives make tough, highly consequential hiring calls based on personality. A company’s board might want its next CEO to be decisive, focused, and a strong communicator. Investors backing a start-up might want a leader who is not only a visionary but also a team player who doesn’t retaliate when given constructive feedback. That’s where he comes in. As a result of his life’s work, Dr. Davis has developed not only a unique perspective on what human personality is, but an indispensable toolkit for analyzing it, and using the information effectively.

In Good Judgment, he brings his expertise to you. Dr. Davis explains what the science of personality is and how it works, and how all of us can use it to improve our working relationships, careers, and lives. Whether you’re a novice manager looking to hire your first assistant, a board member in need of the ideal CEO, an angel investor trying to choose between two different startups, or a new parent selecting a pediatrician, understanding the science of personality and how to utilize it is the key to exercising good judgment—at work and in life.

Dr. Richard Davis is CEO of Kilberry, a leading firm of management psychologists that provides assessment and development services to investors, CEOs, and corporate leaders. He has extensive experience advising CEOs, including those leading Fortune 100 companies or otherwise in the public eye. Clients include Under Armor, Best Buy, Target, Endeavor (WME Entertainment), the National Basketball Association, Canada Goose, Time Warner Cable, Dell, the Commercial Bank of Qatar, and Maple Leaf Sports + Entertainment. He has also assessed senior executives and board members from companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Nike, Starbucks, Amazon, General Motors, Walmart, Home Depot, United Health, and Google. He is the author of The Intangibles of Leadership and has appeared on national television and radio and in print media, including the Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, BusinessWeek, Globe and Mail, CNBC, and Harvard Business Review.

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“Through engaging, real-world examples, Richard Davis offers expert and seasoned advice on how to become a successful leader, including some very specific tips and strategies on how to be the most effective version of yourself. His proven insights will be helpful for anyone—in any industry—looking to elevate their game.” — Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner

“Good Judgment is an instantly engaging, well-written and important book about the value of having insight into others. Richard Davis articulates why it matters, the science behind it, and how to actually develop it. Read this book if you want to make good decisions about people.” — Amy C. Edmondson, Professor of Leadership, Harvard Business School; Author of Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well

"This excellent book gives you an insider’s view of some of the skills psychologists use to have good judgment about people. Good Judgment is filled with valuable tools to gain insight into the unique personalities of people and help you make better decisions as a result—at work and well beyond!" — Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman, Author of Transcend and Host of The Psychology Podcast

“No CEO will succeed without the right team around them. In Good Judgment, Richard provides leaders with additional tools to better understand the people they hire, develop, and work with. A provocative and practical blueprint for how to look inside the minds of others to forge meaningful, trusted, and long-lasting relationships.” — Constantine Alexandrakis, President and CEO, Russell Reynolds Associates

"A critical book that will forever change your understanding of leaders and their social skills. Richard Davis has done a brilliant job bringing the theory to practice, to clearly illustrate the critical value of good judgment in leaders" — Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, PhD, Professor of Business Psychology at Columbia University and Chief Innovation Officer at ManpowerGroup

"Good Judgment is an invaluable resource for leaders, as well as those who coach and support them. Clear-eyed and insightful, it creates a mechanism for understanding what makes people tick and, more importantly, how they might work better. If you lead people, or even if you work with them, you need to read this book." — Jerry Colonna, author of Reunion: Leadership and the Longing to Belong