Good Judgment

Good Judgment Plot Summary

Introduction

Have you ever wondered why some people consistently make better decisions about the people in their lives? Whether hiring the right employee, choosing the right business partner, or even finding a compatible romantic match, these individuals seem to possess an uncanny ability to read others accurately. This perceptive talent isn't magic or mere intuition—it's a skill that can be developed through understanding the science of personality psychology. At the heart of good judgment lies what organizational psychologist Richard Davis calls "perceptivity"—the ability to discern someone's character and reliably predict their behavior based on that assessment. Unlike the popular but largely unscientific concept of emotional intelligence (EQ), perceptivity focuses on understanding stable personality traits rather than fleeting emotional states. By learning to observe and interpret these traits through a structured framework, we can make more informed decisions in our personal and professional lives. The approach outlined combines established psychological research with practical techniques for reading people in everyday situations, offering a pathway to better relationships, improved performance, and more successful influence.

Chapter 1: The Personality Blueprint: Understanding Character Through Five Dimensions

The Personality Blueprint represents a powerful framework for understanding human character and behavior. Unlike traditional approaches that try to track hundreds of disparate traits, this model focuses on just five key dimensions of personality that allow us to organize our observations and make sense of others' behavior patterns. Based on decades of psychological research, including the widely accepted "Big Five" model, the Blueprint offers a structured way to overcome what Davis calls the "Too Much Data problem"—that overwhelming flood of information we experience when trying to gauge someone's character. At its core, the Personality Blueprint consists of five "boxes" or categories: Intellect (how people think), Emotionality (how people express emotions), Sociability (how people engage with others), Drive (why people do what they do), and Diligence (how people get stuff done). Each box represents a cluster of related traits that, when taken together, create a comprehensive picture of someone's personality. For example, the Intellect box encompasses traits like analytical ability, creativity, strategic thinking, and decision-making style, while the Emotionality box covers typical mood, stress responses, sensitivity, and emotional resilience. What makes this framework particularly valuable is its foundation in scientific research. The model evolved from extensive psychometric studies that have identified consistent, measurable dimensions of personality across cultures. Unlike popular but unscientific tests like Myers-Briggs, the Blueprint derives from statistically validated research about human character. It represents a more nuanced adaptation of the academic Big Five model (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism), tailored specifically for practical application in real-world scenarios. The Blueprint serves as a kind of mental template—similar to how an architectural blueprint helps us organize our understanding of a building's structure. When meeting someone new, instead of being overwhelmed by countless details, we can mentally sort relevant observations into these five categories. For instance, if someone speaks with sophisticated vocabulary and references complex ideas, we might file that under Intellect. If they appear calm under pressure and rarely show extreme emotions, that information belongs in the Emotionality box. With practice, this process becomes intuitive, allowing us to build a coherent picture of someone's character remarkably quickly. There's also a vital sixth element to consider: Mastery—the extent to which a person understands their own traits and can moderate unhelpful aspects of their personality. This self-awareness dimension helps us determine whether someone can compensate for potential weaknesses or fine-tune their natural tendencies to meet situational demands. A person high in emotionality might normally express feelings intensely, but with good mastery, they can contain those emotions when appropriate. This sixth dimension adds crucial depth to our understanding of how someone will likely behave across different contexts.

Chapter 2: The Science of Perceptivity vs. Emotional Intelligence

Perceptivity and emotional intelligence are often confused, but they represent fundamentally different approaches to understanding human behavior. While emotional intelligence (EQ) has dominated popular psychology for decades, its scientific validity and practical usefulness fall short of what many believe. The concept of EQ gained massive popularity following Daniel Goleman's 1995 bestseller, which claimed that emotional intelligence "can be as powerful, and at times more powerful, than IQ." Yet despite this widespread acceptance, the scientific evidence supporting EQ as a predictor of success is remarkably thin. The fundamental problem with emotional intelligence lies in its focus on transitory emotional states rather than stable personality traits. Emotions typically last only about ninety seconds at a physiological level, making them poor predictors of long-term behavior. In contrast, personality traits remain relatively constant throughout our lives, evolving slowly over decades. When trying to determine whether someone will make a good employee, partner, or friend, understanding their enduring personality characteristics provides far more reliable insight than gauging their momentary emotional state. Furthermore, what most people call "emotional intelligence" has become a confusing hodgepodge of abilities, knowledge, and personality traits cobbled together without scientific coherence. Even the originators of EQ theory, psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer, have criticized how their concept has been corrupted in popular understanding. Their initial research defined emotional intelligence as a set of specific skills related to emotions—not the vague amalgamation of "being nice" or "a people person" that it has become in mainstream discussions. Perceptivity, by contrast, draws on decades of rigorous psychological research into personality traits. The modern science of personality began with lexical approaches—analyzing thousands of trait-descriptive words across languages to identify core dimensions of character. This work culminated in the "Big Five" model, which has been validated across cultures and contexts. Unlike emotional intelligence, personality measurement has strong predictive value for work performance, relationship success, and many other outcomes that matter in daily life. Consider how this plays out in practice: When interviewing job candidates, focusing on their emotional state during the interview tells you little about how they'll perform day to day. They might appear confident and composed during a brief interview but prove anxious and reactive when facing workplace challenges. By understanding their personality traits—their typical ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving across situations—you can make far more accurate predictions about their future performance. This is the essence of perceptivity: seeing beyond momentary emotional expressions to the stable character traits that truly define who someone is.

Chapter 3: Revealing Conversations: Strategies for Gleaning Character

Conversations offer rich opportunities for gleaning personality traits, but most people fail to leverage these interactions effectively. The key lies in transforming ordinary exchanges into revealing dialogues that yield genuine insight into character. To accomplish this, five powerful conversational strategies can be employed, each designed to overcome our tendency toward superficial engagement in today's distraction-filled world. The first strategy involves building rapport and getting people talking. Before attempting to assess someone's personality, establish trust by finding points of connection and sharing small bits about yourself. This creates psychological safety that encourages openness. Unlike formal interrogations that yield superficial data, warm, relaxed conversations where people feel comfortable reveal far more about who they truly are. Simple questions about present circumstances—"How do you like your current role?"—can open doors to deeper disclosure. The second strategy focuses on getting people to talk about their past. Our personalities are shaped by our experiences, particularly during formative years. When someone relates their personal journey, they reveal not just what happened to them but how they've made sense of these experiences—a window into their character that goes beyond the Big Five model. Questions about childhood influences, educational choices, and career decisions often yield rich insights about values, thinking style, and relationship patterns that define who someone is now. Power questions represent the third strategy for revealing conversations. These specially crafted queries prompt people to reflect on themselves in ways they might not have before, yielding particularly valuable data about personality. Four especially effective power questions include: "How are you most like and different from your parents?"; "What kinds of people make up your inner circle of friends?"; "If you think about your life story as an outside observer, how would you characterize the main character?"; and "If I called your former boss, what would they say about you?" These questions work because they approach personality indirectly, often catching people off guard and prompting authentic self-reflection. The fourth strategy involves mentally organizing the information you gather according to the Personality Blueprint. As someone speaks, consciously sort relevant details into the five boxes: Intellect, Emotionality, Sociability, Drive, and Diligence. This allows you to build a coherent picture of the person's character rather than being overwhelmed by scattered observations. Looking for patterns across multiple data points helps confirm genuine traits versus situational behaviors. Finally, the fifth strategy focuses on calibrating your hypotheses by considering supplementary data sources. These include the person's general presentation (dress, body language, energy level), their physical environment (office decor, organization level), your own visceral reactions to them, awareness of your personal biases, and direct feedback from the person about your observations. This calibration process refines your initial judgments, making them more accurate and nuanced. The essence of these strategies is genuine curiosity—a commitment to understanding others beyond superficial impressions. By approaching conversations with journalistic thoroughness and scientific rigor, we transform casual exchanges into valuable opportunities for perception, ultimately enhancing our ability to make sound judgments about the people in our lives.

Chapter 4: Selection Psychology: Finding the Right People for Any Role

Selection psychology represents the practical application of perceptivity to one of life's most consequential decisions: choosing the right people for important roles. Whether hiring employees, selecting business partners, or even evaluating potential romantic partners, our success depends largely on understanding not just what people can do, but who they fundamentally are. Unfortunately, many organizations and individuals rely on unscientific methods when making these critical choices—from worthless personality tests like Myers-Briggs to gut feelings riddled with unconscious bias. The foundation of effective selection begins with context—understanding the specific environment in which the person will operate. Every business culture, role, and relationship has unique demands that must be matched with appropriate personality traits. A leadership style that thrives in a fast-growing startup might fail in an established corporation. Similarly, personal traits that make someone successful in sales might prove detrimental in accounting or research. Rather than seeking generic "good" traits, we must identify the specific attributes that will enable success in a particular context. This contextual understanding should lead to the creation of a Success Profile—a comprehensive blueprint of the traits, capabilities, and values needed for excellence in a specific role. This profile goes beyond basic job requirements to capture deeper personality factors that determine long-term fit and performance. When developing a Success Profile, consider not just current needs but future challenges. Microsoft's turnaround under CEO Satya Nadella illustrates this principle perfectly—the company needed a leader whose personality traits (empathetic, innovative, humble) matched the challenges of revitalizing a stagnant culture and navigating technological disruption. Once the Success Profile is established, the deep-dive interview becomes the primary tool for assessment. Unlike typical job interviews with superficial, predictable questions, a deep-dive interview explores a candidate's life story chronologically, seeking patterns that reveal core personality traits. This three-hour conversation follows a specific structure: starting with rapport-building, transitioning to present circumstances, then exploring childhood, education, early career, and future aspirations. Throughout this journey, interviewers observe how candidates describe their experiences, relationships, and choices, mentally categorizing insights according to the Personality Blueprint. A crucial element of this interview technique is "the Break"—a ten-minute pause approximately halfway through the conversation. This seemingly simple interruption serves a profound psychological purpose: it gives both interviewer and interviewee time to process what's transpired and often leads to deeper disclosure afterward. When the conversation resumes, asking "What resonated with you from our discussion so far?" frequently yields new insights about self-awareness and reflection patterns. The final step involves comparing the candidate's personality profile against the Success Profile to determine fit. This approach transcends traditional hiring methods by focusing on the whole person rather than just skills or experience. It recognizes that success in any role depends on alignment between personality and context—not just whether someone can do a job, but whether they'll thrive while doing it. By systematically assessing character through this lens, we dramatically improve our ability to select the right people for any role, setting the stage for relationships that flourish rather than falter.

Chapter 5: Relationship Management: Creating Personality-Based User Manuals

Once we've selected the right people for our lives or organizations, the next challenge becomes managing these relationships effectively over time. Most relationship advice focuses on general principles like clear communication or showing empathy—valuable but generic approaches that fail to account for individual personality differences. A more powerful strategy involves creating what Davis calls "user manuals" for important people in our lives—personalized guides that explain how to interact most effectively with specific individuals based on their unique personality traits. A user manual begins with deep insight into someone's character using the Personality Blueprint. By understanding their thinking style, emotional patterns, social tendencies, motivational drivers, and work approach, we can anticipate how they'll respond in various situations and adjust our behavior accordingly. For example, if we know a colleague leads strongly with Intellect—preferring logical, complex reasoning—we might present ideas with substantial data and well-structured arguments rather than appealing primarily to emotions or relationships. Creating effective user manuals requires asking targeted questions about key interaction areas: What actions might please or irritate this person? How can I best motivate them? What approach should I take when giving feedback? What signs indicate they're under stress? By systematically analyzing these aspects of interaction through the lens of personality, we develop specific behavioral guidelines that dramatically improve relationship quality. These aren't manipulative tactics but rather thoughtful adaptations that acknowledge and respect individual differences. This approach proves especially valuable when beginning new working relationships. Consider the case of Lauren, a newly appointed chief marketing officer who initially came across as polished but inauthentic to her team. Understanding her personality through assessment revealed that her perfectionist tendencies stemmed from childhood experiences that made her feel inadequate. Armed with this insight, she created a user manual for herself that she shared with her team—explaining her natural tendencies, how to work effectively with her, and what to expect when problems arose. Most powerfully, she accompanied this with a personal story that revealed her authentic self, transforming her relationship with her team overnight. User manuals also provide a framework for addressing conflict when it inevitably arises. When two executives found themselves locked in persistent conflict, personality assessment revealed their fundamentally different approaches—one aggressive and territorial, the other collaborative but passive-aggressive. Rather than generic conflict resolution, they developed a "partnership road map"—essentially a joint user manual for their relationship. This included specific communication protocols, accountability mechanisms, and agreements about respecting each other's expertise and authority. The power of this approach lies in its acknowledgment that relationships aren't one-size-fits-all propositions. Just as product user manuals explain how to operate specific devices optimally, personality-based user manuals help us navigate the unique "operating systems" of the people in our lives. By understanding not just who people are but how to interact with them most effectively, we create relationships that start strong and remain resilient through challenges. This investment in personality awareness transforms our connections from transactional exchanges to meaningful, productive partnerships tailored to individual needs.

Chapter 6: Performance Enhancement: Identifying and Defanging Derailers

Our personalities contain not just strengths but also potential weaknesses that can undermine our effectiveness. These "derailers"—dysfunctional behavioral patterns that emerge especially during stress or pressure—often remain invisible to us while being painfully obvious to others. Understanding and managing these personality-driven limitations represents a critical dimension of enhancing performance, yet most approaches to personal development miss the mark by focusing too narrowly on skills or oversimplifying personality as a collection of strengths. The concept of derailers, developed by psychologist Robert Hogan, provides a powerful framework for understanding how personality can impede success. Hogan identified eleven common derailers that represent subclinical versions of personality disorders—patterns that don't rise to the level of psychological diagnosis but nonetheless create significant problems. For instance, someone who is "too excitable" becomes easily frustrated, moody, and prone to giving up when disappointed. Another who is "too cautious" may be paralyzed by fear of failure and defensive when receiving feedback. Each derailer corresponds to specific dimensions in the Personality Blueprint and manifests differently depending on personal history and context. What makes derailers particularly dangerous is that they often begin as strengths. Being detail-oriented helps ensure quality work, but taken to an extreme, it becomes debilitating perfectionism. Sociability helps build relationships, but excessive need for approval leads to people-pleasing behavior that undermines leadership authority. The same traits that fuel our success early in our careers can become liabilities as we advance to more complex roles with different demands. Dave Hopkinson, who rose from selling tickets for a minor football team to become COO of Madison Square Garden Sports, had to moderate his naturally passionate, spontaneous style as he advanced to more senior leadership positions where strategic discipline and controlled gravitas became increasingly important. Addressing derailers requires more than superficial behavior modification—it demands deep self-understanding. Tanya, a marketing executive who struggled with an understated leadership presence, tried following generic advice about "leaning in" but saw little improvement. Only when she explored how her childhood experiences of feeling "average" had shaped her self-concept could she begin to make meaningful changes. Her breakthrough came not from practicing assertiveness techniques but from recognizing and challenging her fundamental belief that she didn't deserve to stand out or command attention. This deeper approach to performance enhancement acknowledges that we cannot fundamentally change our personalities, but we can develop strategies to moderate or compensate for problematic tendencies. For each derailer we identify, we can experiment with specific behavioral adjustments: speaking more slowly when we tend toward excitability, asking more critical questions when we're too agreeable, or delegating tasks when our perfectionism becomes excessive. These aren't quick fixes but rather ongoing practices that, with time, allow us to channel our natural tendencies more productively. The ultimate goal isn't to eradicate parts of our personality but to develop greater self-mastery—the ability to understand our ingrained traits and express them in ways that serve rather than sabotage our goals. By recognizing our derailers and their origins, we gain the power to transcend them, turning potential limitations into sources of strength and authenticity.

Chapter 7: Character Quick Takes: Influencing Others in the Moment

In many situations—from fender benders to sales meetings to chance encounters—we don't have the luxury of extended time to assess someone's personality before we must interact effectively with them. For these moments, Davis introduces the concept of "Character Quick Takes"—a rapid method for gleaning dominant personality traits and adjusting our approach accordingly. This technique allows us to exercise good judgment even in brief, spontaneous interactions where influence matters. Character Quick Takes follow a simple process: staying alert to initial personality cues, reviewing possible response options, confirming or revising our hypothesis as more information emerges, and taking appropriate action. Unlike comprehensive personality assessment, this approach doesn't seek complete understanding but rather identifies which dimension of personality someone leads with—their most prominent trait bundle. Is this person primarily analytical, emotional, sociable, driven by particular values, or focused on structure and order? Recognizing this dominant tendency provides crucial guidance for how to engage most effectively. Certain telltale signs help identify leading personality traits quickly. For Intellect, sophisticated vocabulary and logical argumentation offer clues. For Emotionality, tone of voice and facial expressiveness provide insight. Sociability reveals itself through chattiness, eye contact, and physical proximity. Drive appears in competitive comments or value-laden references. Diligence shows in organizational habits and attention to detail. While these observations are necessarily superficial, they provide a starting point for calibrating our approach—always with awareness that cultural context and situational factors may influence behavior. The strategic value of Character Quick Takes lies in their application. When we identify someone's leading personality dimension, we can often mirror it strategically to build rapport. With a highly analytical person, we might emphasize logical reasoning in our communication. With someone who leads with Emotionality, expressing our own feelings might create connection. This mirroring isn't manipulation but rather adaptation—speaking the psychological "language" that will most resonate with the other person. Professional negotiators, diplomats, and poker players have long recognized the value of personality insights in influence situations. When the CIA prepared President Jimmy Carter for the 1978 Camp David negotiations, they provided detailed personality profiles of Israel's Menachem Begin and Egypt's Anwar al-Sadat. Understanding that Begin was detail-oriented while Sadat sought historical recognition allowed Carter to structure discussions productively, ultimately achieving a historic peace agreement. Similarly, professional poker player Daniel Negreanu uses his characteristic chattiness not just for entertainment but to gather crucial personality data about opponents, giving him an edge in reading their behavior. Character Quick Takes represent perceptivity in its most immediate, practical form—not as an academic exercise but as a real-time skill that enhances our social effectiveness. By developing this capacity through practice, we train ourselves to notice personality patterns in everyday interactions, making better decisions about how to engage with others in ways that serve our goals while respecting their individuality. The more we practice this approach, the more natural and intuitive it becomes, transforming casual encounters into opportunities for meaningful connection and mutual benefit.

Summary

The essence of good judgment lies not in emotional intelligence but in perceptivity—our ability to discern someone's character and reliably predict their behavior based on stable personality traits. By understanding the five dimensions of the Personality Blueprint (Intellect, Emotionality, Sociability, Drive, and Diligence), we gain a powerful framework for reading people accurately and making better decisions about whom to hire, partner with, or welcome into our lives. In our increasingly digitized world, the human skill of understanding others has begun to atrophy as we bury ourselves in screens rather than engaging deeply with those around us. Yet by rediscovering this fundamental capacity—by approaching each interaction with genuine curiosity and a structured framework for observation—we reclaim not just a practical advantage but a more satisfying way to live. Perceptivity allows us to navigate relationships with greater wisdom, enhance our own performance by recognizing personal derailers, and influence others more effectively in everyday situations. The practice of reading people well represents nothing less than a return to what makes us uniquely human: our ability to truly see and understand one another.

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Richard A. Davis

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