Archive for the ‘Effective Executive’ tag

The Effective Executive – Book Review

As I mentioned earlier, I wasn’t sure about The Effective Executive when I first saw it. The copy I got was an old used copy, yellow, and well read (yes that should have been a good clue). But that got me thinking about the book, and if it was good – then it would be good for a long time, not just a few days.

Drucker writes about several key elements which he found that makes knowledge workers, not just executives, effective. Knowing that each situation is unique, and the problems that an executive are going to face, will be different, he has to speak in some generalities – however, it does give a good clue as to what is possible, if you are willing to look at your own situation in more detail. He spends a lot of time talking about us figuring out what is truly important, so we focus most of our efforts there. He gives examples of how sometimes we have to look beyond what “normal” people or business practices say – to make that truly effective decision.

In order to do this, Druker writes about effectiveness in several areas for example:

• Know where your time goes – I’ve found a lot of wastefulness in my own schedule – which when removed, as allowed me to spend more time with family, projects, and work that needed to get done. Here’s a hint – if you don’t write it down, you only think you know where your time goes. Treat it like a budget – and be ready to be surprised.
• Determine what is truly important – so you can outsource, delegate, or even ignore, the unimportant aspects of our lives, that serve nothing but to drain time from our schedules
• Makes decisions based upon facts and dissenting opinions - don’t surround yourself with hearsay or yes men.
• Concentrates on one important task – don’t let yourself be pulled in too many directions
• Focus on the results of your projects and people – realize that the people don’t have to be perfect in all areas, but they need to be as close to it as possible for the job you assign them.
• And finally, because you focus on results, or in order to focus on results, staff based upon people’s strengths, and grow them, minimizing their weakness.

It’s a good book to read, even if you are not going through the Personal MBA yourself, as there is a lot of good information.

The Effective Executive – Finished

Now that I’ve finished it, here are some more notes on The Effective Executive. A review will be coming shortly.

Organizing Your Time

I have been really thinking about how to implement these key elements in my own life. One of the first things I realized was in learning about my time, and as I wrote earlier, I worked on cutting out the unimportant parts of my life, and minimizing important but time consuming elements.  For example, I’ve reduced the number of times I check the blogs I read, to a couple times a day, so I don’t get interrupted as much. I can easily get distracted, and will always have to work on this I fear, but I think it is some thing I master.

Focusing on First Things First

I still have to work on making myself focused to work on the most important things to do. I look at my to do list, and notice 3 or 4 things which have been there for a few days, because they are important. But, instead of doing those things, I’ve worked on getting several smaller, but less important things done – if only so I could cross them off my list.

Making Effective Decisions

The last part I know I have to work on is making effective decisions. In the book, Drucker mentions two different stories. In both cases he talks about finding the effective outcome.

First, with the Cuban Missile Crisis Kennedy originally wanted inspectors on the ground to verify that the missiles had been removed. Something that Cuba and the Soviet Union wouldn’t allow. However, it turned out that spy aircraft with cameras could record the evidence well enough, so he could get the confirmation he needed, and compromise on the inspectors, as there was still an effective outcome.  It was an effective compromise.

The second story is with King Solomon. As the story goes, two women argued over who’s baby it was. Solomon ordered that the baby should be cut in half and one half given to each mother. The real mother knew that no baby was better than half a baby (in which he would be dead). In her case compromising wouldn’t have been truly effective. So she picked the most effective outcome, to let her child live, and thus identified who the real mother was.

I tend to make decisions and not like to compromise. I have to learn about when it is best to compromise, and over what. Something I see that many people need to do.

Notes on The Effective Executive

I’ve been reading The Effective Executive and have already been able to pull some good information from it, despite only starting a couple of days ago.

The two biggest things I can pull from the book so far is:

1. Knowing how I use my time, and
2. Determining what I can contribute.

What to Learn

The use of time is the essence of the second chapter. Drucker recommends keeping a log to see how your time is actually being spent. I view my day, realized what I should be doing by time, vs. what I am doing by time, and I wasn’t so happy with the results.

Your contribution made a large part of the third chapter. Each person can contribute, and can contribute different things.  The key is to contribute the right things at the right time.  Items, thoughts, and processes which can lead to long term growth and sustainability.

The Take Away

So I’ve started working on cutting out unimportant things, or things which are not as time critical.  One thing is reducing the number of times I check on the news and my RSS feeds.  By blocking off times to focus on them, I can be be more efficient with my remaining time, focusing without the interruption. I’ve noticed this has actually helped shave 30 minutes off my morning routine time, allowing me to squeeze some extra work out time in.

Learning what and how to contribute is more difficult, especially for the so called “knowledge worker”.  Drucker mentions how someone on the assembly line knows exactly what they contribute.  But it isn’t always so clear for someone who produces or works with knowledge situations.  So we have to look at how we can expand beyond those areas, or as a minimum make the most effective use of the area we are in.