Notes from Peter Drucker's "The Effective Executive"

Here are my personal notes from Peter Drucker's The Effective Executive.  This was a phenomenal read and a great reminder for me that the leadership gurus of today are merely identifying (and conveying in contemporary parlance and with contemporary examples) the same principles that have been known for a very long time. 

There are some fantastic nuggets here.  Interestingly, right after reading the section on time, I came across an application offered by the guys at AppSumo called RescueTime specifically designed to track time usage both on and off the computer.  I immediately have put this into use to help me identify where my time is going while in the office.    

These notes are largely unedited and not intended to be a comprehensive summary of the book, but rather for my personal use.  With special thanks to my assistant, Siri, for transcription!

The Effective Executive

Peter Drucker

Five Habits of Effective Executives

1. Effective executives know whether time goes.
2. Focus on outward contribution
3. Build on strengths — their own strengths and the strengths of their superiors, colleagues, and subordinates; and on the strength in the situation, that is, on what they can do. They do not build on weaknesses.
4. Concentrate on the few major areas where superior performance will produce outstanding results. N.b.  Compare to the principle found in Wayne Cordero's writings, the last 5%
5. Make effective decisions.

 

Time

The executives perspective of the use of their time is often out of sync with the actual use of their time.

 

At least twice a year, keep a log of time usage for 3 to 4 weeks. Frequently refer to that log to evaluate the use of time

 

Ask the following questions of one's usage of time:

1. What activities you have no results and must be stopped?
2. What activities could be done by someone else just as well or better?
3. Stop wasting other people time.  frequently asked the question, "what do I do that waste your time and does not contribute to your effectiveness?"

Pruning

 

Identify gaps in the systems. What crises reoccur year after year?

 

Avoid time wasters caused by over staffing. Major symptom of overstaffing is when the executive or senior management team spends more than a fraction of their time dealing with interpersonal relations or feuds between their people. 

 

Avoid bad organization practices. Major symptom is to any meetings. 

 

Fill up strong communications systems. Bad information or misinformation will require more time to correct.  

 

Personal question: should I do more in frequent meetings for a longer period of time? For example, one hour and a half meetings every other week

 

 

 

Staffing

 

When hiring, look for excellence in one major area and not for performance that gets by all around. 

 

  

Focusing on the right things

 

The effective executive understands that he must focus on one thing at a time. He must focus on one thing for enough time to make a difference and to get results. It is intense concentration on one task that sets the busy executive apart from the effective executive.

 

Recognize that every program has an expiration date. Make the assumption that every program will outlive its usefulness.  Ask the question, "is this still worth doing?"

 

The effective executive must select his priorities. By default, this also means that he must select his posteriority's. That is, those things which he is not going to do. He must remember that every posteriority, is someone else's priority.

 

The most important thing when it comes to selecting priorities is not intelligent analysis but courage.  

 

The rules of courage when selecting priorities are the following:

 

– Pick the future against the past 

– Focus on opportunity rather than on the problem 

– Choose your own direction-don't climb on the bandwagon

– Aim high, aim for something that will make a difference rather than something that is "safe"

 

 

Decision-making

 

Decision-making is the specific task of the executive. In reality, only executives make decisions. Therefore, effective executives must make effective decisions.

 

The key is to focus on the right decisions. It is the important decisions that are the specific task of the executive.

 

Remember, effective executives are not simply "problem-solvers". They must think through that which is strategic and generic.

 

They must also remember, that's a decision that is not followed by action, is no true decision at all. Effective decisions require implementation. Therefore the time involved in making the decision, rather the speed of the decision-making, is not the real issue.

 

1. The first element in the decision-making process is identifying whether the issue is a generic one or eight "one-time case".  

 

Almost every situation is a generic situation that can be analyzed in the context of a previously decided rules or policies. In this way the complexity of the decision-making process is greatly reduced. Very often the challenge is in identifying whether or not this specific problem is a "new type" of problem. And even in these cases, more often than not, the "new type" of problem is not really a unique case but rather a new category of cases that requires a rule or policy to govern how the decision is made. 

 

The ineffective executive is one who treats nearly every problem as a unique case. He believes that pragmatism applied to every situation is the best rule. This results in a bottleneck of decision-making because every case is treated as unique and therefore it is only the executive which can make the ultimate decision. On the other hand, when the situation is identified as part of a larger generic type, the nearly anyone can make the decision based on the criteria the executive has put into place.

 

2. The second major elements in the decision-making process is identifying what it is that the decision must accomplish. These are the "boundary conditions". The boundary conditions are those conditions which must be satisfied in order for the decision to be an effective one.

 

What are the needed results?

What are the nonnegotiable's surrounding the decision?

What cannot be done while attempting to accomplish the goal?

 

Recognizing that "boundary conditions" exist, is recognizing that "the end justifies the means" strategy is generally unacceptable when it comes to real decisions. There are always non-negotiables.

 

3. Always begin with what is "right" rather than what is "acceptable". The fact yes, there is always compromise in the end. The executive must keep at the forefront of his mind that which is right. 

 

In this way, when it does come to compromise, one knows what is an acceptable compromise and what is not.  

 

4. The next step is converting the decision into action. Unless action has been taken, there is no true decision only wishful thinking. 

 

Who has to know about this decision?

What action has to be taken?

Who will be taking the action?

Can the people assigned to do the action actually do it? 

 

5. The final step, is building feedback into the  process. This is because of two realities. First, very often the decision being made was the wrong one. Second, even the most effective of decisions eventually become obsolete. For these two reasons, continuous checks to evaluate whether or not the decision is actually accomplishing its desired result must happen.

 

The key here is, "trust but verify".

 

Anecdote: when Gen. Eisenhower was elected president, his predecessor, Harry S Truman, said:  "Poor Ike; when he was a general, he gave an order and it was carried out. Now he's going to sit in that big office and he'll give an order and not a damn thing is going to happen." 

 

The reality is not that generals have more power than presidents. It is that military organizations have learned that to be disconnected from one's orders is to fail. They learned long ago that to go and look oneself is the only reliable feedback. This is true of all military history. 

 

The further one is separated from the execution of the decision, the more risk one has of being disconnected from reality. There must always be a review process. And the reports given must not come from the person to whom the decision was delegated. This is because experience has taught us that we must distrust communications. 

 

 

The Decision

 

Decisions are rarely a choice between right and wrong. They are at best a choice between "almost right" and "probably wrong". In any decision, we are trying to get at that which is more right.

 

First, the executive must realize that he comes to any decision point with a set of preconceived notions and opinions. Because of this fact, he must have a process of being confronted with the realities of the situation.

 

One of the best ways to create this opportunity to have one's opinions and preconceived notions face the facts, is to have disagreement built into the process. 

 

The reason why effective executives do not like "yes men" is because they recognize that these men do them no good. 

 

Disagreements surface alternatives. Disagreements identify alternate views of reality. Disagreements surface cases of special pleading.  Disagreements are needed to stimulate the imagination.

 

The effective decision-maker, therefore, organizes disagreement. He recognizes that there is rarely a situation where one proposed course of action that is the correct one and every other course of action is the wrong one. Therefore he starts out with a commitment to find out why people disagree.

 

Remember, the goal of this process is understanding. It is only after obtaining understanding that the executive begins to think about who is right and who is wrong. 

 

Of course, there are always the cases when no decision needs to be made. This should not be overlooked.