Author: Peter Drucker

Notes:

What makes an Effective Executive

1. Get the knowledge you need
   • Concentrate only on two or three tasks at the top of your list, delegate the rest
2. Write an action statement
3. Act
4. Take responsibility for communicating
5. Focus on opportunities instead of problems
6. Make Meetings Productive
7. Think and say “We”

Know Thy Time

• To be effective, executives need to be able to dispose of their time in fairly large chunks - Particularly true with people
• Time Diagnosis
  • Record Time Use
  • Eliminate things that need not be done at all
  • Delegate things that can be done by others just as well or better
  • Eliminate others time that are wasted - “What do I do that wasted your time without contributing to your effectiveness?”
• Pruning Time Wasters
  1. Identify time wastes from lack of system or foresight
  2. Time waste from overstaffing
  3. Malorganisation (Symptom - excessive meetings)
• Consolidate discretionary time (plan chunks of time)

What Can I Contribute?

• Focus on contribution turns attention away from own specialty, narrow skills department and focuses on the performance of the whole. It turns attention outside, where there are results.
• Every organisation needs results in three areas
  1. Direct Results
  2. Building of values and reaffirmation
  3. Building and developing people for tomorrow
• Knowledge worker can only be effective if he learns to do one thing very well - specialise.