The Effective Executive

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo

Peter Drucker is considered the Father of Modern Management.  This best-seller of his, “The Effective Executive: The Definite Guide to Getting the Right Things Done” was first published in 1967 and has not lost a bit of relevance and usefulness for today’s manager in getting the right things done.

That’s by the way is the definition of being effective, “getting the right things done” in contrast to just being efficient which is “doing things right”. A manager could accomplish many things, but only doing the “right things” can achieve company growth.  This management book is not about managing people but managing oneself first.  The five big ideas of this book are Time, Contribution, Strengths, Concentration and Decisions.

Time

The most precious resource of an executive is his or her time.  A big chunk of the executive’s time should be devoted to accomplishing that most important task or the “right thing”.  Peter Drucker talks about not just half a day of focused work but even two weeks of concentrated effort to get things done.  To make good use of time, he recommends tracking where your time goes, by writing down what regularly happens every work day, then manage it by eliminating those time wasters, and consolidate it by working 3 or 5 hours straight daily with no distractions.

Contribution

To zero in on the right thing to be done, the executive needs to ask, “What contribution is expected of me by the organization?”  Contribution can also mean more training or improving one’s skills to be more effective with your role in the organization.  Or perhaps you need an assistant to do things faster.  Before you can say, “What needs to be done?” you ask first, “What is expected of me in this executive position?” and then decide what needs to be done.

Otherwise, if you don’t know your role, you might be doing things that can be done by others (thus a waste of time) or doing something that will contribute less to the overall growth of the company.  This “knowing your role” concept reminds me of my stint as a basketball coach during intramurals in a school where I used to teach in CITE Technical Institute.

I always emphasized to my players that only the point guard can bring the ball down the court and no one else unless it’s a fast break.  I insisted on this rule to instill discipline to players as well as put order into our offense.  The idea I wanted my players to keep in mind was that teamwork can only be achieved if all the players stick to the role they were assigned.

Strengths

Peter Drucker says, build on your strengths and your people’s strengths rather than on their weaknesses.  If you have an accountant that can’t get along with other people in the workplace but is quite good in crunching numbers make him or her work alone in a cubicle or in a separate room.  The author says, no one is without weakness and sometimes it’s a big weakness (but should not be a character or honesty weakness) and the manager should be able to make it irrelevant.  If you as a manager feel that you are weak in marketing, you should hire a good marketer to make your weakness insignificant.

Concentration

Peter Drucker says, “If there is one ‘secret’ of effectiveness, it is concentration.” Effective executives do first things first, and they do one thing at a time.  There will always be many things to be done that you as a manager would think will contribute to your company’s growth.  But your time will always be limited.  Thus, you will have to focus on that most important one because you can’t do them all given the time constraints.  That one thing necessary on a daily basis is the answer to the question effective executives would always ask themselves, “What needs to be done?”.

Decisions

Effective executives, finally, make effective decisions. They know that this is, above all, a matter of system—of the right steps in the right sequence. They know that an effective decision is always a judgment based on ‘dissenting opinions’ rather than on ‘consensus on the facts.’ You as a manager should question a decision if no one is questioning it.  If all of your subordinates always “agree” to whatever you propose in a meeting, then its easy to miss out things detrimental to your decision because your subordinates might be afraid to oppose you.   You should always encourage dissenting opinions during meetings.  And lastly, quick decisions on important matters always lead to wrong decisions.   You should take time to make big decisions.