Why We Love It:

The book serves as a guide for anyone looking to enhance their judgment in professional and personal spheres. Dr. Davis illustrates how understanding these personality traits can lead to better hiring decisions, improved team dynamics, and more effective communication. His toolkit for analyzing personality equips readers with actionable strategies to apply this knowledge in real-world situations, whether you’re a manager, investor, or even a parent.

At its core, Good Judgment empowers readers to make informed choices that positively impact their careers and relationships. By mastering the science of personality, we can navigate the complexities of human behavior with greater confidence and clarity, paving the way for success in both our professional and personal lives.

Book Jacket Summary:

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.