Sunday, January 25, 2009

The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker

I recently re-read Peter Drucker's book, "The Effective Executive - The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Thing Done". This is one of my all time favorites. It is a true management/executive classic.

He identifies the five essential practices to business effectiveness that can and must be learned. They include:

- Managing time (OK so you know why I like it)
- Choosing what to contribute to the organization
- Knowing where and how to mobilize strength for best effect
- Setting the right priorities
= Knitting all of them together with effective decision making

The book starts with an introduction on What Makes an Effective Executive and he asks several simple questions including:

- What needs to be done?

- What is right for the enterprise?

- Develop Action Plans (this is one of my key tools)

- Take Responsibilities for Decisions (Although I would extend it to "Take Responsibility")

- Take Responsibility for Communicating (The message must be heard and understood)

- Focus on Opportunities rather than problems

- Run productive meetings

Think "we" instead of "I"

Later on in the book, he add one more important point which is, "Listen first, speak last." This reminds me of Stephen Covey's first habit of highly effective people - seek first to understand. It seems that many great business minds have the same idea.

This is all such common sense. Sometimes common sense is not so common. And it is always good to get back to the basics.

This book is worth re-reading!

3 Comments:

At 9:01 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I read the book for the first time last month and was struck by how much sense it made - and by how some of the ideas had been wrapped into more modern things. I put it back in my stack of "to reads" with the idea that when I get to it again - probably about a week from now I will read it more deiberately with the intent of developing ways to apply it to my specific work environment.

 
At 5:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Simply the best book ever. Beth read it last week and got value. I read it for the first time right after it came out in the sixties. I wore out my original copy and I'm not on my second.

 
At 3:46 AM, Blogger SUBHASHIS said...

This book is a perfect winner .What I liked best is the focus on " contribution " . As Drucker told his interviewer - "Go out and make yourself useful ".I think thats what I tell myself ,thats what I tell my peers and colleagues .Thanks for the post
Subhashis - Practising Manager,Calcutta,India

 

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