4. Introduction
The Effective Executive was written as a sort of
research report, summarizing the characteristics of
the effective executives that he saw over the period of
about two decades.
The thought arose from the many recruitments of
the federal govt. for wartime agencies.
5. An executive is those knowledge workers, individual
professionals, and managers who are expected by virtue of
their position or their knowledge to make decisions in the
normal course of their work that have significant impact
on the performance and results of the whole.
Effectiveness is a set of practices; a habit that can be
learned.
6. EFFECTIVE EXECUTIVES
Executives tend to have high levels of
• Intelligence
• Imagination
• Knowledge
But often lack
• Effectiveness
Intelligence, Imagination, and Knowledge are
essential
But only Effectiveness converts them to Results
An Executive’s job is to be effective .
7. Main aspects
He concludes that effectiveness is not inherent to a person
but is the result of learning to do five things:
Manage time
Determine what he can contribute.
Making use of subordinates' strengths
Establish Priorities
Concentrate on a few major areas where superior
performance will produce outstanding results
And making decisions well.
The book is a discussion of these with cogent examples.
8.
9. The first principle is that the effective executive (by
which he means not only a CEO but anyone who is
responsible for making decisions that in some way
affect the organization) must manage his time.
The purpose of the executive is to note outside trends
and adapt his company to them, but unavoidably he
will spend most of his time on internal matters. .
10. Maxims
• No one really knows where their time goes (especially
if they think they do) unless they write it down
Identifying time wasters
Eliminate activities that do not produce any results
whatsoever (i.e. time-wasters)
11. "The next question is 'Which of the activities on my
time log could not be done by somebody else just as
well, if not better?'"
Eliminate the time that you waste yourself. (This is
best done by asking someone else)
“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that
which should not be done at all”.
12. Fixing time-wasters
Look for the "recurrent crisis".
"A crisis that recurs a second time is a crisis that must
not occur again. ... A recurrent crisis should always
have been foreseen.
It can therefore either be prevented or reduced to a
routine which clerks can manage.
The definition of 'routine' is that it makes unskilled
people without judgment capable of doing what it took
a near-genius to do before; for a routine puts down in
systematic, step-by-step form what a very able man
learned in surmounting yesterday's crisis.
13. A well managed plant is boring; an exciting plant
is poorly managed.
Time waste often results from overstaffing
Another common time waster is mal-
organization. Its symptom is an excess of
meetings
People can either meet or work, but they cannot do
both at the same time
Meetings should never be allowed to become the main
demand on an executive’s time
Another major time waster is malfunction in
information. information that is not updated fast
enough or in the wrong form.
14. Consolidate time
We need a fairly large quantum to think about things,
and if you need to deal with people, it takes a
reasonably large quantum for them to think that they
had meaningful interaction with you.
Make sure you aren't disturbed during your time.
Set deadlines based on the judgement of available
discretionary time.
15.
16. Contribution
To ask, 'What can I contribute?' is to look for the
unused potential in the job.
And what is considered excellent performance in a
good many positions is often but a pale shadow of the
job's full potential of contribution." (pp. 53-4)
Merely playing the job of CEO, expecting wield power
and authority are ego boosters, not effectiveness.
17. Contribution
• To produce contribution, need to have
• communication: generally the subordinate should
tell the superior what he thinks his contribution
should be (otherwise he will probably mis-hear it),
although the superior may correct it.
"The focus on contribution leads to communications
sideways and thereby makes teamwork possible."
Development: of both self and others. But either way
people grow to what is demanded of them.
18.
19. BUILD ON STRENGTHS
Promote people based on what they can do
Make staffing decisions to maximize strengths, not
minimize weaknesses
weaknesses are irrelevant unless they inhibit
exercising your strengths
20. BUILD ON STRENGTHS
Four rules for staffing based on strengths
Don’t make jobs impossible
Do make jobs demanding and big
Know employee’s strengths
Know that to get strengths, one must put up with
weaknesses
Logical consequence - It is the duty of the
executive to remove ruthlessly anyone who
consistently fails to perform with high distinction.
21. BUILD ON STRENGTHS
Effective executive must also maximize his/her
own strengths
Must ask oneself, “What are the things
that I seem to be able to do with relative
ease, while they come rather hard to
other people?”
22.
23. PRIORITIZE
Sloughing off Yesterday
Continuously ask, “If we did not already do this, would
we go into it now.”
Priorities and Posteriorities
Priorities - Decide what you will do
Posteriorities - Decide what you will not do
24. Rules for identifying priorities
Pick the future instead of the past
Focus on opportunity rather than problems
Choose your own direction, rather than climb on
the bandwagon
Aim high for something that will make a difference
rather than for something that is safe and easy to do
25. 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 decide what is next
26. Decision Making
The specific executive task
Effective executives make effective decisions
Effective executives concentrate on the important
decisions
The decision is strategic or generic
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
27. 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
What is right verses what is acceptable
postpone the compromise until the end
Built in Action
most time consuming
who needs to know, what action, by who
Feedback
28. 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, so we must have a criterion of relevance
29. 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.
The right decision demands adequate disagreement.
Disagreements is the birth of alternatives
Disagreement is needed to stimulate the imagination
30. 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 “Let’s make another study”
Decisions on the operating level are adaptations and
require no real knowledge.
31. EFFECTIVE DECISIONS
The effective executive does NOT start with the facts,
but with opinions
The effective executive encourages
differences of opinions
Don’t foster consensus, but dissension
32. “Executives are not paid
for doing things they like to do.
They are paid for getting
the right things done -
most of all in their specific task,
the making of effective decisions.”
33. Effectiveness Must be Learned
Record your time
Focus on your contribution
Move forward based on your strengths
Do first things first
Make effective decisions
