The effective executive

The effective executive

PETER F. DRUCKERAmaia Giralt

domingo 8 de diciembre de 2013

What is this book about?

• The Effective Executive is all about how the individual must learn to be effective so that he/she can be successful in whatever endeavour he undertakes.

• His five practices essential to business effectiveness are as relevant today as they were 45 years ago: Manage your time.

• Decide what you will contribute to the organization.

• Build on strengths - your own and others.

• Set the right priorities

• Make effective decisions


What is this book about?

• It's all about getting the right things done.

• Which are the "right" things to focus on. What should take top priority? It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg quandary but luckily Drucker provides something of a roadmap for making those decisions. He says, "courage rather than analysis dictates the truly important rules for identifying priorities:

• Pick the future as against the past;

• Focus on opportunity rather than on problem;

• Choose your own direction, rather than climb on the bandwagon; and

• Aim high, aim for something that will make a difference rather than for something that is "safe" and easy to do."


Effectiveness can be learned

• Intelligence, imagination and knowledge are essential resources and effectiveness coverts them into results.

• Working on the right things is what makes knowledge work effective.



The executiveThe executive´s time tends to belong everybody else.

If the executive lets the fl o w o f e v e n t s determinate what he does, what he works on what he takes seriously, he will fritter himself away operating.

• E ve r y k n ow l e d g e worker in modern organization is an executive if, by virtue of his position or know ledge , he i s respons ib le for a cont r ibu t ion tha t materially affects the c a p a c i t y o f t h e o r g a n i z a t i o n t o perform and to obtain results.



Effectiveness

Is a tool to make resources of ability and knowledge yield more and better results.

Is a habit that is a complex of practices. And practices can always be learned.


5 HABITS TO ADQUIRED TO BE AN EFFECTIVE EXECUTIVE

1- Effective executives know where their times goes. They work systematically at managing the little of their time that can be brought under their control.

2- Focus on outward contribution. They gear their efforts to results rather than to work. The start asking themselves, What results are expected of me?

3- Effective executives build on strenghts- their own strenghs, the strenghts of their superiors, colleagues, and subordinates, and on the strenghs in the situation. They dont start whith the things they can´t do.

4- They concentrate on the few major areas where superior performance will produce outstanding results. They force themselves to set priorities and stay with their priority decisions.

5- Make effective decisions. They know that an effective decision is always a judgement, based on “dissenting opinions” rather than on consensus facts”.



• They start by finding out where their time actually goes. Finally they consolidate their “discretionary” time into the largest possible continuing units using three-step process.

• Time diagnosis: The difference between time use and time waste, effectiveness and results.

1-Know thy time



• Time diagnosis : Eliminate things that need no to be done

• 1. The first step toward executive effectiveness is to record actual time-use.

• 2. Time-use does improve with practice. Only constant efforts at managing time can prevent drifting.

• 3. To find these time-wastes, one has to find the non-productive, time-wasting activities and get rid of them if one possibly can. Get time record of all the activities. Ask “What would happen if this were not done at all?” : “Nothing would happen”, then stop doing it.

• 4.Which of the activities on my time log could be done by somebody else just as well, if not better?

1-Know thy time



• A common cause of time waste is under the executive´s control and can be eliminated by him/her. That is the time of others he/she himself/herself wastes.

• Ask, “What do I do that wastes to others your time without contributing to your effectiveness? Usually, executives are afraid of cutting something important by mistake. But if this happen is really easy to solve.

1-Know thy time

Time diagnosis :



• 1-Once we identify the time- wasters, we have to be cope with a “crisis”: A crisis that recurs a second time is a crisis must not occur again.

• 2- Time- wasters often result from overstaffing.

• One should only have on a team the knowledge and the skills that are needed day in day. If there is people just in case something has to be done, those are time- wasters. In the case we need an specialsit we should remain outside.

• 3- Malorganization: Excess of meetings.

• Meetings need to be purposefully directed.

• An organization that everybody meets all the time is the one which no one gets anything done.

1-Know thy timePruning the time wasters:



• 4- The last major time- waster is malfunction in information and information in the wrong form.

1-Know thy time

The effective executive knows that he has to consolidate his discretionary time. Start out by estimating how much discretionary time they can realstically call their own. All effective executive control their time- management perpetually. Analyse periodically and set themselves deadlines for the important activities based on their own judgement of their discretionary time.

For example , one executive knew that in the meetings he c o u l d j u s t b e concentra ted for 1,15h in one theme

Pruning the time wasters:



• Commitment to contribution is commitment to responsible effectiveness.

• Direct resutls+ building of values (commitment to values) and reafirmation + building and developing people for tomorrow. This is the commitment that an executive should have.

• “What Can I do and no one else do which, if done really well, would make a real difference to this company?”

2-What can I contribute?

Executive´s own commitment



• Knowledge worker/specialist, produce ideas, information and concepts. The task is not to breed generalist. It is to enable the specialist to make himself his speciality effective.


How to make the specialist effective

When do you need this, and how do you need it and in what

form?

What contribution from me do you require to

make your contribution to the organization?



• The focus on contributions, by itself supplies the four basic requirement of effective human relations.

• Communications

• Team work

• Self-development

• Development of others

• Executives who take responsability demand subordinates takes responsability too.

• What we should expect from you? What is the best utilization of your knowledge and your ability?

2-What can I contribute?The right human relations



• Effect ive meetings t ip: Set a purpouse.

• Why a re we h av i n g a meeting?

• Do we want a decision, to inform or what?


The right human relations

What self development do I

need?What is the most important

contribution I can make to the performance of this

organization?

What strenth do I have to put to work?



• Staffing from strenth: The executive who is concerned with what a man cannot do rather that whith what he can do, and who therefore tries to avoid weakness rather that make strength effective is a weak man/woman himself/herself.

3-Making strength productive“The effective executive makes strength productive, cant build on weakness”

Human excellence can only be achieved in one area



• Start with what can do rather with what a job requires.

• No good person Good for some onetask.

• Search for strength and staff for excellence. For that purpouse, here you have 4 questions that will help you.

• 1- What has he/she done well?

• 2- What, therefore, is he/she likely to be able to do well?

• 3-What does he/she have to learn or to acquire to be able to get the full benefit from his/her strenght?

• 4- If I had a son or daughter, would I be willing to have him or her work under this person?

• If yes,why?

• If no, why?

3-Making strength productive



3-Making strength productive

How I manage my boss?

Make the strength of the boss productive. They are human and they have t h e i r s t r e n g t h a n d weaknesses

Making yourself effective

Don´t focus in limitations, in the things that can not be done. You waste time complaining.

Just strength produces results.

The effective executive tries to be himself/herself. Is not just about what can we do, is also about temperament.

The task of an executive is not to change human beings. The task is to multiply performance capacity of the whole by putting to use whatever strength, whatever health, whatever aspiration there is in individuals.



• Is all about concentration, discipline and having determination to say “NO”.

• Do one thing at a time, this way all faculties are focused on one achievement.

4-First things firstThe secret of effectiveness



• Set priorities and so decide what task not to tackle.

• Most executives have learned that what one postpones, one actually abandons. A good many of them suspect that there is nothing less desirable than to take up later a project one has postponed when it first came up. The timing is a most important element in the success of any effort. To do five years later what it would have been smart to do five years earlier, is almost a sure recipe for frustration and failure.

4-First things first

Priorities and posteriorities



• Courage rather than analysis dictates the truly important rules for identifying priorities:

• Pick the future as against the past.

• Focus on opportunity rather than on problem.

• Choose your own direction- rather than climb on the bandwagon.

• Aim high, aim for something that will make a difference rather than for something that is “safe” and easy to do.

4-First things first

Courage



• To be expected, by virtue of position or knowledge, to make decisions, that have significant impact on the entire organization, its performance and results, defines the executive.

• Effective executives do not make a great many decisions. They concentrate on the important ones. They try to think through what is strategic and generic, rather than to solve problems.

5-The elements of decision-makingEffective decisions



• 1. The clear realization that the problem was generic and could be solved through a decision which established a rule, a principle.

• Is this a generic situation or an exception? Is this something that underlies a great many occurrences? Or is the occurrence unique event that neds to be dealt with such?

• By far the most common mistake is to treat a generic situation as if it were a series of unique events, that is, to be pragmatic when one lacks the generic understanding and principle. This inevitably leads to frustration and futility.

• If I have to live with this for a long time, would I be willing to? If the answer is “no”. Keep on working to find a more general /conceptual solution. One which establishes the right principle.

5-The elements of decision-makingThe elements of the decision-process



• 2. Clear specifications as to what the decision has to accomplish. What are the objectives the decision has to reach? What are the minimum goals it has to attain? What are the conditions it has to satisfy? These are known as “boundary conditions”. A decision to be effective, needs to satisfy the boundary conditions. It needs to be adequate to its purpose.

• In addition, clear thinking about the boundary conditions is needed so that one knows when a decision has to be abandoned.

• Yet, defining the specifications and setting the boundary conditions cannot be done on the facts in any decision of importance. It always has to be done on interpretation It is risk- taking judgment.




• 3. One has to start out with what is right rather than what is acceptable.

• Two different kind of compromise: One kind is expressed in the old proverb: “Half a loaf is better than no bread”. The other king is expressed in the story of Judgment of Solomon, which was clearly based on the realization that: half a baby is worse than no baby at all”. In the first instance, the boundary conditions are still being satisfied. The purpose of bread is to provide food, and half a loaf is still food. Half a baby, however, does not satisfy the boundary conditions. For half a baby is not half of a living and growing child. It is a corpse in two pieces.

• It is fuitless and a waste of time to worry about what is acceptable and what one had better no say so as not to evoke resistance. The things one worries about never happen. And objections and difficulties no one thought about suddenly turn out to be almost insurmountable obstacles.




• 4. Convert decision into action.

• A decision will not become effective unless the action commitments have been built into the decision from start.

• Converting a decision into a action requires answering several distinct questions:


Who has to know of this decision? What action has to

be taken?

Who is to take it? What does the action have to be so that the people who have to do can do it?



• What kind of people do we have available to make this decision effective? And what can they do?

• In addition, feedback has to be built into the decision to provide a continuous testing.


4. Convert decision into action:

To go and look for oneself is also the best, if not the only, way to test whether the assumptions on which a decision had been made are still valid or whether they are becoming obsolete and need to be though again. And one always has to expect the assumptions to become obsolete sooner or later. Reality never stands still very long.



• Most books on decision-making tell the reader: First find the facts. However, to make effective decisions one starts with opinions. These are, of course, nothing but untedted hypotheses and, as such, worthless, unless tested against reality. To determinate what is a fact requires first a decision on the criteria relevance, especially on the appropriate measurement. This is the hinge of effective decision, and usually its most controversial aspect.

• People experienced in an area should be expected to have an opinion. Not to have an opinion after having been exposed to an area for a good long time would argue an unobservant eye.

6-Effective DecisionsStart with opinions



• Opinions come first. See which hyphotheses are tenable and therefore worthy ofserious consideration.

• Effective executive encourage opinions. But he/she insists that people who voice them also think through what i is that the “experiment”- that is, the testing of the opinion against reality-would have to show.

6-Effective Decisions

ASK:

What is the criteria of relevance?

What do we have to know to test the validity of this hypothesis?

What would the facts have to be to make this opinon tenable?



• Effective executives insist on alternatives of measurement so that they can choose the appropiate one.

• The first rule in decision-making is that one does not make a decision unless there is a disagreement. So organize disagrements and dont start with: “ I am right and he is wrong”. Starts with the commitment to find out why people disagreee

• The effective decision- maker compare effort and risk of action to risk of inaction. There is no formula for the right decision. But the guide lines are so clear that decision in the concrete case is rarely difficult. They are:

• Act if on balance the benefits greatly outweigh cost and risk.

• Act or do not act, but do not “hedge” or compromise

6-Effective Decisions


CONCLUSION: Effectivenes must be learned

• 1. Executive´s job is to be effective

• 2. Effectiveness can be learned

• Organizations are not more effective because they have better people. They have better people because the motivate to self- development, through standards, through their habits, through their climate. And these, in turn, results from systematic, focused, purposeful self-training of the individuals in becoming effective executives.


Reflect on this questions

What self development do I

need?What is the most important

contribution I can make to the performance of this

organization?

What strenth do I have to put to work?

When do you need this, and how do you need it and in what

form?

What contribution from me do you require to

make your contribution to the organization?

• “What Can I do and no one else do which,if done really well, would make a real difference to this company?”


The effective executive

Business

Transcript of The effective executive