One of the books I love to reevaluate at the beginning of every year is The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker.
Here's what he says are the eight practices that make them all effective:
They asked, "What needs to be done?"
They asked, "What is right for the enterprise?"
They developed action plans.
They took responsibility for decisions.
They took responsibility for communicating.
They were focused on opportunities rather than problems.
They ran productive meetings.
They thought and said "we" rather than "I."
Drucker also addresses multitasking early in the book by saying, "I have never encountered an executive who remains effective while tackling more than two tasks at a time." If there's one secret to effectiveness, Drucker says it is concentration. Find out what two or three things you're best suited to undertake and then concentrate on those tasks and delegate.
Drucker reminds us that the action plan is a statement of intentions. Do not let an action plan become a straightjacket. Make sure you revise it often because success creates new opportunities. The action plan should also have a system for checking results against expectations.
Great executives focus on opportunities. Problems are inevitable and must be solved, but problem-solving doesn't create results. Exploiting opportunities do. If you have a team, ensure the best people focus on opportunities rather than problems. One of the best things to remember is knowing where to focus your energy. The flow of events should not determine your work schedule. Make sure you stick to the criteria that enable you to concentrate on significant contributions and results.
In addition to the eight practices, he mentions one more rule that's just as important: "Listen first, speak last." Drucker emphasizes that intelligence, imagination, and knowledge are great, but effectiveness is what translates them into results.
In conclusion, the two premises for the book:
The executive's job is to be effective
Effectiveness can be learned
Drucker does a great job discussing work in our modern society and the connection to effectiveness, results, values, standards, and self-demands. According to him, education is the most expensive asset, and the knowledge worker is becoming a significant resource in developed countries and is a major investment. Drucker's goal with this book is to help people "do the right things well." The goal is to think beyond our specialty and narrow skills and shift our energy toward "the performance of the whole." His book reminds you to "be yourself, aim beyond yourself, and work with courage."
One of Drucker's favorite stories is about three stonecutters who were asked what they were doing:
The first replied: "I am making a living." The second kept hammering while he said: "I am doing the best job of stonecutting in the entire country." The third one looked up with a visionary gleam in his eyes and said: "I am building a cathedral."
The last stonecutter is ready for effectiveness, and his mind is ready for contribution. Gain and glory are the only side effects of doing the right things well. It's' all about doing. Drucker was the kind of man who didn't want you to tell him that you had a good meeting with him. He was more curious about what his consulting clients would do differently on Monday, that's distinct.
But doing something different means knowing what to do and what to bypass. Choosing a few priorities is the only way to focus with exquisite clarity. Extreme concentration is critical today because we constantly absorb tons of data, information, and knowledge. According to The Second Brain by Michael D. Gershon and many other studies, the average human consumes about 30 to 50 gigabytes of data daily. Drucker says, "The most important thing about priorities and posteriorities is...not intelligent analysis but courage." Knowledge becomes productive with courage.
The Effective Executive is a gift, but Before publishing this book, Drucker was a young man escaping totalitarianism. He didn't write this book only because it was a good idea. Drucker put this project together because he noticed the tragedies and horrors of the twentieth century and wanted to strengthen the institutions of our society against them. It's a book in which Drucker expresses his ideas about the humanistic practice of management, how to make society more productive and humane, and society's future possibilities.