The effective executive

The effective
executive
PETER F. DRUCKER
Amaia Giralt

domingo 8 de diciembre de 2013

What is this book about?
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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.

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

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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?
•
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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:

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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 executive
•

Ever y knowledge
worker in modern
organization is an
executive if, by virtue
of his position or
knowledge, he is
re s p o n s i b l e fo r a
contribution that
materially affects the
capacity of the
organization to
perform and to obtain
results.


The executive´s time tends
to belong everybody else.

If the executive lets the
ﬂow of events
determinate what he
does, what he works
o n w h a t h e t a ke s
seriously, he will fritter
himself away operating.


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”.


5 HABITS TO ADQUIRED TO BE AN EFFECTIVE EXECUTIVE

1-Know thy time

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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.

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



1-Know thy time
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Time diagnosis : Eliminate things that need no to be done

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1. The first step toward executive effectiveness is to record actual timeuse.

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

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3. To find these time-wastes, one has to find the non-productive, timewasting 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.

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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
Time diagnosis :

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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.

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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
Pruning the time wasters:

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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.

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2- Time- wasters often result from overstafﬁng.

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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.

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Meetings need to be purposefully directed.
An organization that everybody meets all the time is the one which
no one gets anything done.

For example, one
executive knew that
in the meetings he
could just be
concentrated for
1,15h in one theme

1-Know thy time

Pruning the time wasters:

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

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.



2-What can I contribute?

Executive´s own commitment

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Commitment to contribution is commitment to responsible effectiveness.

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

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.



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

How to make the specialist effective

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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.


What contribution from
me do you require to
make your contribution
to the organization?


The right human relations

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

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Communications
Team work
Self-development
Development of others

Executives who take responsability demand subordinates takes
responsability too.

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


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?


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Effective meetings tip: Set a
purpouse.

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W hy a r e w e h av i n g a
meeting?

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Do we want a decision, to
inform or what?


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

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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.

Human excellence can only be achieved in one area



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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.

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1- What has he/she done well?

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

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?

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If yes,why?
If no, why?


Making yourself effective
Don´t focus in limitations, in the things that
can not be done.
You waste time
complaining.
Just strength produces results.

How I manage my boss?
Make the strength of the
boss productive. They are
human and they have
their strength and
weaknesses

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.



4-First things ﬁrst
The secret of effectiveness

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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.



Priorities and posteriorities

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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.



Courage

•

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.


5-The elements of decision-making
Effective decisions

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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.

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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.



The elements of the decision-process

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

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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.

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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?

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.



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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.

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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.


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

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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.



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4. Convert decision into action.

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Who has to know of
this decision?

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:

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?


4. Convert decision into action:

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

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

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.


6-Effective Decisions
Start with opinions

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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.

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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.



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

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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.
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?



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

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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

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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:

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Act if on balance the benefits greatly outweigh cost and risk.
Act or do not act, but do not “hedge” or compromise

CONCLUSION: Effectivenes must be learned
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•
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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 Can I do and no one else do which,if done
really well, would make a real difference to this
company?”

What is the most important
contribution I can make to the
performance of this
organization?

What strenth do I have to put
to work?


What contribution from
me do you require to
make your contribution
to the organization?

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

The effective executive

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