The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done

by Drucker, Peter F.

Published: January 1, 1966

Read: August 17, 2021

★★★★★

Review

Though the word executive is in the title, this is the best productivity book I have read and applies whether you are a programmer, youtuber, marketer, or designer. Self management, focus, efficency are essential in our world where each worker is a mini executive constantly making decisions of importance and allocating (your own) time and attention. Though written in 1966, it feels like it could be written for the modern tech worker or entrepreneur. Not timeless, but part of our information era and a must read for the ambitious until AI starts thinking for us. A book I plan to read again that hopefully I'll get a little closer to executing.  “Being effective is learned, not born.“

Notes

#Book by [[Peter Drucker]]

50 year edition. Anyone with responsibility or self deploy is an executive. All have same hours.

first manage thyself, perform at highest level. Ratio of leader performance to those on team remains constant.
Do what you are made for. Instead of turning incompetence to competence, look for what your strength can do
Work how you work best. Vacations or best hours should take responsibility
Count your time and make it count. Self imposed limits. Secret of most effective is they do one thing at a time. Unbroken blocks of think time. 90 minutes in most creative time. Engage in meetings that matter.
Better meetings. Preparation and clear purpose.
Don’t make a hundred decisions when one will do. Overhead for good decisions
Find your one big distinctive impact. One fundamental decision that wouldn’t happen without you
Stop what you would never start
Run lean. Internal mass grows faster than external service. Accomplishments of single key person is better than many B players
Be useful. Don’t ask how to be successful but how to be useful

Drucker biggest management thinker of 20th century. Don’t think scale of organization is scale of impact.

Effectiveness of oneself must be high. Not born effective, have to be learned.

Introduction what makes an effective executive

Not a leader like usually used. Not charisma. Follow same 8 practices

Asked What needs to be done
Asked What is right for the enterprise
Developed action plans
Took responsibility for decisions
Took responsibility for communicating
They were focused on opportunities rather than problems
They ran productive meetings
Said we rather than I
Get the knowledge you need. Concentrate on one task of possible, even if two tasks. What needs to be done now? What am I best at? Else delegates.
Relative only if decided best by committe of not family members.
Plan course and desired results. Revised and anticipate revision. Basis of time management
Decision hasn’t been made if people know, know who is executing it, deadline, those affected by decision and thus kept informed. If someone is underperforming, recruiting was the failure. Let them return to their job of promotion.
Everything is understood. Ask for feedback, and give people info they need. Organization are built on information.
Problems doesn’t product results, but prevent damage. Executives exploit situations for rewards. Make sure problems are dealt with, put best people on opportunities.

unexpected success in industry
Gap in what could be
Innovation in a process or service
Changes in industry or market structure
Demographics
Mindset or values
New knowledge or tech

Even junior executives in meeting half a day. Key is deciding what time of meeting it will be. One gM executive started meeting wi tho purpose, listened only asking clarifying questions didn’t take notes, summed up and thanked everyone. Wrote memo to a specific person in meeting, short masterpiece spelling out action items and deadlines with executive responsible.
Executives have ultimate responsibility but need trust

Chapter 1 Effectiveness can be learned

Brilliant idea doesn’t make it effective. Executives are often creative and intelligent, but effectiveness is specific ability to get things done in knowledge work in organizations. Major problem in past hospitals or governments were basically just autonomous workers so doing it better. Knowledge worker produces information and by themselves it is useless, must go to other workers and produce something. Every knowledge worker is an executive of they are responsible for organizations ability to do something, making decisions. Infantry captain is responsible to make sure people know what they should do, but decision relies on each individual. Some manufacturers are not executives as they manage but just execute. Not about managing people. Junior chemist could make decisions that change org.

Doctors given problems and they try to solve them. No one tells executive what problem is. Executive realities. 1. Time belongs to everyone else. 2. Executives forced to keep operating unless they take positive action to change it. Will waste by just listening 3. Within an organization, only useful if other people take advantage of what it. 4. Within organization so he only sees the outside through blurred lens. Results are on the outside and codetermined by org and outside. The higher up you are longer you spend, the more your problems will be internally focused. Important information must be a conceptualized, recorded, and identified as important to show up as a fact somewhere. Aren’t trends not changes in trends that are important. Need to build organization that any specialist can do well, not a universally gifted polymath.weaknesses of highly educated Young people nowadays are content being strong and narrow. Our economy depends on large supply of effectiveness, so depends on that it can be learned as gifts are rare. Must himself be effective and must deliver results. Few same qualities, intro or extrovert and scholars or layman and generous or selfish. Indistinguishable from bad executives in personality. Effectiveness is a habit, a practice and repeated. Effectiveness needs competency. 1) Know where their time go and skillfully manage what little time they have under their control 2) Focus on outward contribution 3) Built on strengths 4) Concentrate where superior performance will produce outstanding results 5) few fundamental decision

Know Thy Time

Not about planning tasks. About looking at where their time actually goes. Look at where time actually goes then attempt to manage it cut back on demands and consolidate discretionary times to longest blocks. Time is inelastic and perishable. Always in exceeding short supply, all work needs it.

Much is inevitably waste, ceo always had a dinner out for company except on Christmas.

Many tasks require long stretches of time. A first draft can take long stretch but then be updated in little increments. people especially take forever, need at least an hour to have an impact on people and for relationship even more. Kidding yourself if 15 minutes is enough. Need to sit down for a while before you can know knowledge worker is doing well. Knowledge worker needs to know a lot to do his job and results and performance goals of entire org. Large org more time he spends on people not work. Make personnel slowly and several time before committing themselves, tentative judgement then tackle the question again. People decisions to put on task requires lots of time thought and judgement because people were not made to be used as company resources. Machine more effective speed means knowledge workers time and thinking even more important.

Time diagnosis

Need to record actual time use in real time. Best have 3-4 weeks or recording and find themselves drifting into wasting. Need constant effort and record regularly.

eliminate things need no be done. What would happen if no one did this? Like dinners
Which activities can be done by someone else just as well? Delegating means someone else does my work, but there isn’t time enough to do it all. Junior executive with energy best world traveler.
Eliminate time of others you waste. What do I do that wastes your time? We often overrate our importance so don’t worry about cutting too far.

Pruning time wasters.

Recurrent crisis, should always have been foreseen and handled without you. Write down how to solve it or preempt it. Well managed factory is boring, dramatic should be about future not fixing yesterday’s mistakes
Time waste result from over staffing. Workforce too big for effectiveness spends more time communicating than working. Get knowledge only needed day to day.
Malorganization with too many meetings. We meet or work. Ideal is no meeting, needed for piecing together knowledge and experience. Meetings should never be main demand on executive demand, signal responsibility is defused.
Malfunction in information. Information in right form for everyone.

Senior executives rarely have more than 1/4 of their time discretionary. He must consolidate them in one long block. Senior men work at home one day a week. Or schedule early mornings alone. Working at night is most common way, but just better manage your actual time. Set deadlines depending on how long you have discretionary time, when deadlines slipping you are slipping on time management

Chapter 3 what can I contribute

Looks up from his work and looks at how he can contribute. When asked what justifies their position, worst executives say how many people work under them and best take responsibility for their entire org. Focus on results not input. What is considered performance in most job, is pale of what job could contribute. Each org needs Direct results, building of values, and building people for tomorrow. If org didn’t have these three it will die.

Direct results: most important

Building values: Org needs something it stands for or it will devolve.

Building people: org must perpetuate itself and steadily upgrade its Human Resources and vision. Sets on condition rises sights of everyone.

One great manager reached out to managers to develop specific talent. 15 years later, still recognize by many in the org. No one can move so freely on the outside than the executive. Knowledge worker creates ideas and in general specialized and needs to understand who others will interact with his speciality to be effective. Must care about usablity of product, knowledge. When and how and in what form do you need this? Generalist is someone who is specialists that relays his own small area to universe of knowledge.

Good human relationships for an executive not because of a talent for people but because they focus on contribution and thus have productive relationships.

4 ways to focus on contribution

Communication - so much focus on the downward from boss to subordinate. The more the superior try’s to say something to subordinate, the more likely it will mishear. Executives that take responsibility in own work, demand it from others. Ask subordinate What are contributions They should be judged on and accountable, what’s best utilization of them? Often they see it very differently.

Teamwork - Hospital one of the most complex specialized workforces. Sideways and sponetous communication struggles without focus on contribution. Information is largely impersonal on computers, but need to manually communicate goals and perceptions.

Individual self development- asking what is the most important contribution I can make is basically asking what skills and standards do I need

Other to develop - sets standards which aren’t personal but grounded in requirements of task. Tasks that have chance for great impact. Grow if you demand a great deal of yourself without any more effort by non achiever.

The effective meeting and report and presentation are the everyday tools of the executive. Executive should know purpose of meeting and direct meeting to purpose. Relate final conclusions.

Chapter 4 making strength productive

Must use all the strengths and individuals in org of each men.

Staffing from strength

Make staffing decisions to not minimize weakness but maximize strength. Every Conferdate general had obvious weaknesses while Union generals were PG until Lee the drunk. Idea of well rounded people with only strengths are prescription for medicority and incompetence. No one is strong in many areas. No good man, but good for what. Subordinates paid to perform not delight their superior. What can he do uncommonly well? What does he do? Not how does he get along with me? excellence can only be achieved in only a few areas, can have many interests. Even Leonardo only performed in design despite his many interests, without art he would no more than a footnote in history. Focus on strength makes demands for performance. If you focus on lack of weakness already excusing non-performance in advance. One can’t hire hand, only man. Can structure org so strength present and weakness irrelevant.

Executive make mistake because they try to fill a job and thus one least misfit. Can structure job to fit personality, but this is worse than the disease unless very small. Jobs are interdependent and thus one shift for personality uplifts others. And you do need specific job done and need impersonal objective jobs. It’s the only way to tolerate diversity is to structure job or else focus will be on who is right not what is right. Certain to lead to favoritism and conformity. Men that build first class executive teams aren’t usually that close to their team. Stay aloof.

4 rules

Know jobs made by highly infallible men. On guard for impossible jobs that simply isn’t for normal humans. Jobs that just can’t be filled, usually caused by trying to fill hole caused by specific man in org. If people keep failing in job like 3, should decide it’s impossible. Presidency.
Job should be demanding and big. Challenge to bring out strength, scope so strength can produce significant results. Most organizations make the job small. Knowledge worker knowledge is just as important as the company’s goals and values in their effectiveness unlike a craftsman. Frustrated young all say their not being used. Small jobs quench fire.
Effective executives know they have to start with what a man can do rather than what job requires. Appraise man before you decide who to promote. US appraisals all about bringing out weaknesses , but Japan cares about strengths. Japan has lifetime employment. Appraisal too much about potential, but should only look performance. It’s all you should measure. Can only be measured against specific performance expectations. Effective executive starts with major expected performance and how they did against their goals have 4 questions: What have they done well? Therefore what are they likely to be able to do well? What do they have to learn or acquire to get full benefit of strength? Would I be willing to have my child work under this person?
To get strength, one has to put up with weaknesses. Focus on opportunity, not on problems. “I can’t spare this man”. Bad argument, three reasons: actually incompetent and needs to be shielded, conceals serious problem, shield weak superior who needs him. Indispensable man should be moved or destroys his strengths.

Inadequate workers make everyone else worse and even they dislike their job. General Marshal said general should be relieved if less than stellar, “no replacement” doesn’t matter. General relieving doesn’t mean they don’t have a great job they can do. Oeganization mist serve individual by letting them use their strengths. And manage their own boss, nothing better for success than bosses own ascent through org. Ask what they can do and make it possible for him to do.

Some are readers and some are listeners

Making yourself effective

Effective executives lead from their strength and focus on what they can do not what they can’t. Amazing what an effective executive can always find something to do that is impactful. Someone else won’t let me, is often a cop out. Need to know the best way you work as you go. Try’s to be himself and look at what he does with relative ease that others find difficult. Ask the question often and look for the answer in others and yourself. Standard of performance of any human group is set by the leaders. And easier to raise performance of leader than entire group. Difference between leader and subordinate is a constant.

Chapter 5 Firat Things Forst

If there is any one secret to effectiveness, it’s concentration. One thing at a time. Always too many things to do. More upward contribution need big chunks of time and self discipline and ability to say no. Most of us find it hard to do one thing at a time. Some like the change of pace of up to two tasks , but still large chunks. Ineffective executives do so many things and still work hard and overestimate how long things will take and then hurry. Effective executive allow margin of time and don’t race. Always ask if we weren’t already doing this, would we keep doing it. Executives always bailing out the past always takes more out of the day then any other tasks. Success line, things that don’t produce are just investments in management ego and must be culled. Government should to be conceived of a temporary as just gets bloated and budget. Effective executive policies all tasks. Hire new people to run things, use experienced insiders to start something new that is very risky. Need to bring in new people, but should be just below the top. Always more opportunities than people to do them, prioritization. No task is completed until it becomes part of organizational task and behavior and people have taken it on. Don’t let pressures make the decision, the executive should. Pressures always favor yesterday, but future and inside are the most important. You often abandon what you postpone, some then decide not to postpone anything. Everything is someone’s top priority but you must make yours. Aim high that will make a difference. Achievement for research depends more on courage of challenge of problem and less on ability. one task than concentrate, impose on time what is most important, then reevaluate.

Chapter 6 Elements of Decision Making

Fraction of time, but only executive make decisions that define the org. Concentrate on important decisions with highest level of conceptual understanding and make them slowly and sound rather than clever. Most time consuming step is putting it into work not deciding.

1910-1920 Bell best decision maker. Grew Bell phone to largest in the world and only private public utility with risk taking. 4 strategic decisions: best service stop monopoly powers from being taken from gov rather than profit motive, make regulation effective in government, bell lab to actually innovate and make present obsolete, built mass capital market allows capital intake in private businesses so it doesn’t need public support. AT&T with dividend was for the mass market and changed stock market away from purely speculative.

Two ways of strong independent man after buying their business. Leave in their own command with stock options like GM or get rid of them like Rockefeller and Carnegie. Tackle problem at highest conceptual level of understanding with principle for dealing with it, abstract problem not look at specific moment. Strategic.

Elements of decision process

Clear realization that problem is generic and need general principle to solve
1. Ask, is this a general situation or specific occurrence? 4 types, a) one is truly generic, even if unclear like broken pipes could reflect flow being too much for pipes B) Unique for institution but not industry. C) Truly unique event, these truly need specific event D) unique occurrence that is first sign of emerging generic problem.
2. Most common problem is dealing with problems that are specific when it needs a generic solution.
3. Could also be recognizing new problem as old one and applying wrong solution
4. Erroneously understanding of problem, cars used to just have safe driving campaigns and had to progress to making car crashes safe as it would happen regardless
5. With many generic solutions, he made few decisions and just executes adaptions. Constantly checking solution executes correctly and as predicted
Definition of specifications that answer has to satisfy, boundary conditions
1. Conditions solution needs to satisfy. More concisely and clearly creates better decisions. What is minimum needed to solve this problem?
2. Intelligent people don’t always agree on what they are. New York Times once only delivered half their papers as the editors argued about Hypening a word as NYT sets English standard more important than daily copies sold.
3. Don’t drive at half speed. Don’t half between two plans if it won’t satisfy boundary condition
4. Risk taking analysis
Thinking through what is right, fully satisfied before concessions
1. Need to know best solution to eventually make good necessary comprises
2. Don’t recommend they comprise to people who can do that thinking themselves
3. Half a loaf vs half a baby very different. One still satisfies need, one is a corpse
Building into it actions that will need to be carried out
1. Most time consuming one a as it must e someone’s job to execute
2. What and who must take action? What must be done so they can? Who has to know? What people are available?
3. Everyone can agree change is needed. But, people look at what is rewarded in the company.
4. Measurement and standards for accomplishment must change together
Feedback to test validity of decision
1. Decisions are made by man, and so have high probability of being wrong especially as world changes
2. Boss never believes subordinates, he goes himself or sends someone he treats. Abstracts can distract.

Chapter 7 Effective Decisions

What about decision itself? Decision is a judgement between two courses of action not provably right. You don’t start with facts but opinions. Fact need criteria that is relevant and appropriate measurement. Understanding comes form serious consideration of alternatives, not facts. You bring your opinion or priors, Can always finds facts to support some idea. Realize you start with untested hypothesis that you test. Assume traditional measurement is now wrong, or there wouldn’t be a decision to be made but an adjustment. Military had supply chain problems, so they identified the most important goods which was a very small percent that were essential and took most of budget and created separate supply chain and attentive process just for those. Injuries per employee is not as good as which departments get injuries as usually highly localized. Not Mathematica but risk taking judgement between alternatives so you need alternatives not just yes or no. Insist on alternatives of measure. Create disagreement to see clash. Don’t make a decision unless there is disagreement, one executive postponed decision if everyone agreed sot why could gain some understanding. FDR liked to pull aside two people with differing views and told them in the strictest confidence(so everyone in the world knew) to look into the issue for him. Everyone wants something so don’t be beholden o org if they want you to make a decision. Need backup alternatives.

One needs imagination, new way of seeing. Needs to be challenged with disagreement is most effective stimulating. Decision maker organizes disagreements so not lost in fog. Reach understanding before thinking about who is right. Must consider other side.

Always ask if a decision is really necessary. Like surgery as causes shock. If what will happen If we do nothing, is it will solve itself, then don’t decide. unlikely to be malignant need to look at risk of action vs inaction. Don’t half as though. Cowards always want another study, study good when you expect it to produce something new.

Computers have policies which make more people decision makers. Even something like inventory is a business decision. Need to make systemic decisions not ad how decisions so need risk taking assessment. Give much more reliable information. Computer is generic problem solving.

Conclusion

effectiveness must be learned and executive job is to be effective. Organizational and executive performance are the goals. While effectiveness can be learned, it can’t be taught. First step is recording time. Step two is to think about his contribution and assume important responsibilities. step three is making strengths productive. Step 4 first things first and time is twin pillar looking at recording what happens in environment. Leadership of dedication and purpose. Step five executive decision to make problem into generic problem and look for results.

Self development of executive is essential, not just better but changes organization and possible goals. Effective orgs are rarer than effective execs and inspire great people for working for them through systems that inspire and push people to self development. How to make knowledge worker effective? Key is executive as the decisive knowledge worker as his level and standard and demands determine dedication and direction of knowledge workers around him. Knowledge workers are affluent and have great job security and movement, but need psychological needs and values need to be met by org too. Economic conflict between worker and expanding economy was question of developing nations, position and fulfillment of knowledge is question of the developed 21st century. In danger of alientation(boredom). Personal strength can turn organizational goals into individual achievement and making opportunities makes own values become organizaTio also results. Economic opportunity.

Afterword

Drucker answered that his best achievement was helping a few good people be effective. Be yourself by looking at your unique strengths. Stone masons were asked what they were doing. One said “making a living”, “doing the best job”, “I am building a cathedral”. The last one is best looking outward and contribution. Gain and glory are done by doing right thing well. Do well. Drucker needs you to make Monday different. Aiming to be intelligent over courage is a danger. Most important thing is courage informed, create action as it pushes action. Aim for something that will make a difference rather than safe. Don’t tell me you had a good time reading these notes, tell me what you will do differently now

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