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
• Don’t do things right, do the right things
• Effectiveness converts intelligence, imagination and knowledge into
results
– can’t 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
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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
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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
Don’t overstaff
Don’t have too many meetings
Results
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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
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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 can’t 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
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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
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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
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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.
Don’t 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
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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 “Let’s make another study”
• Decisions on the operating level are adaptations and
require no real knowledge.
Effectiveness Must be Learned
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Record your time
Focus on your contribution
Move forward based on your strengths
Do first things first
Make effective decisions