The Effective Executive

Peter F. Drucker
1966

Effectiveness
Executive must manage themselves for effectiveness if they expect
others to follow
Intelligence, hard work and knowledge are not enough, others must
use our output (results)
Effectiveness often goes opposite the flow of events
Effective results always external impact
Survival of the organization depends on producing the maximum
contribution with the minimum of effort
Focus on maximum contribution imposes relevance on events.
To focus on contribution is to focus on effectiveness

It Can Be Learned
Dont do things right, do the right things
Effectiveness converts intelligence, imagination and knowledge into
results
cant be measured by traditional metrics
works from changes in trends not from events
others must make use of what we contribute
Efficiency (manual work) do things right
Not applicable to knowledge work
There are no results within an organization
Organizations are measured by their contribution to outside world
Need for resources grows with the cube of the size

5 Practices

1) Know where time goes

2) Focus on results, not effort
3) Build on strengths (Grant)
4) Do what counts (Priorities)
5) Make effective decisions (page 24)
Judgement based on dissenting opinions
Focus on a few right strategies
Minimize razzle-dazzle tactics

Time

Record it
Manage it
Consolidate it
This is the ultimate finite limiting factor
Memory is not an accurate way to record time
It takes a long time to make people decisions (1 year)
Time in long continuous uninterrupted units is needed to decide who to group for
problems (1st Year)
The more physical work you want to eliminate the more mental work you must
do
Recurrent crisis is laziness
Dont overstaff
Dont have too many meetings

Results

I must make a significant contribute to the positive external results of my

organization.
What is the unused potential in my job?
I must produce knowledge, ideas, information and concepts.
The must make my specialty useful.
I must take responsibility for being understood
I must be sure to provide that which others need
A generalist is a specialist that is universally understood.
It is the focus on contribution that leads to the communication that creates
synergy.
Effective work comes from the discipline necessary to blend diverse
knowledge into a collective success

Effective Meeting

Why are we having this meeting

Decision? Inform? Increase Focus?
What is the purpose and contribution
You can listen and direct a meeting
You can take part
You cant do both!!!!!!
Always focus on the expected contribution

Strengths are Opportunities

Unified strengths make individual weaknesses irrelevant
Staff to maximize strengths
Find out what Grant is drinking and send a barrel to the other generals
Lincoln
Here lies a man that who knew how to bring into his service men better
than he was himself epitaph for Andrew Carnegie

Design jobs that are doable, demanding and large

must have enough challenge to bring out undiscovered strengths

Start with what they can do rather than what the job
requires
Lead from personal strengths

First Things First

Do one thing at a time

Executives not pressure should make the decisions
We often abandon that which we postpone
Achievement does not depend on ability, it depends on the courage to go
after the opportunity.
Set your priorities by opportunities presented not by the likelihood of
quick success.
It is just as risky to do something small and new as it is to do something
big and new
Concentration - the courage to impose decisions on time and events
Focus on the completion of the one task now and let the situation to
decide what is next

Decision Making
The specific executive task
Effective executives make effective decisions
Effective executives concentrate on the important
decisions
The decision is strategic
The decision is based on abstractions at the highest level of
conceptual understanding
The decision leads to real, effective simple action
The decision is based on a few important variables
The decision is sound and makes a real impact

Elements of the Decision

Is the problem the symptom or the disease

Bound the decision
Most difficult step
Exercise in judgement
Even wrong decisions should fill boundary conditions
1/2 loaf and 1/2 baby one fills boundary conditions
What is right verse what is acceptable
postpone the compromise until the end
Built in Action
most time consuming
who needs to know, what action, by who
Feedback

Effective Decisions

Decision is a judgement
Balance between Almost right and Probably Wrong
Right decisions grow out of the clash and conflict of divergent opinions
Right decisions grow on the consideration of competing alternatives
Events are not facts, we must have a criterion of relevance
People always start with an opinion
Most look for facts that already fit the conclusions that they have reached.
Traditional measurements are often not the right measurements
Look for different ways to measure success.
Dont make a decision until there is disagreement.
The right decision demands adequate disagreement.
Disagreements is the birth of alternatives
Disagreement is needed to stimulate the imagination

Effective Decisions

Not going to be pleasant

Not going to be popular
Not going to be easy
Decision making takes as much courage as it does
judgement
The cry of the coward Lets make another study
Decisions on the operating level are adaptations and
require no real knowledge.

Effectiveness Must be Learned

Record your time

Focus on your contribution
Move forward based on your strengths
Do first things first
Make effective decisions