The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins Flashcards
(275 cards)
1
Q
The most effective among us have the same number of hours as everyone else, yet they deploy them better, often much better than people with far greater raw talent.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
2
Q
1: First, manage thyself.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
3
Q
2: Do what you’re made for.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
4
Q
One of Drucker’s most arresting points is that we are all incompetent at most things. The crucial question is not how to turn incompetence into excellence, but to ask, “What can a person do uncommonly well?”.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
5
Q
3: Work how you work best (and let others do the same).
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
6
Q
4: Count your time, and make it count.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
7
Q
The “secret” of people who do so many difficult things, writes Drucker, is that they do only one thing at a time; they refuse to let themselves be squandered away in “small driblets [that] are no time at all. ”.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
8
Q
5: Prepare better meetings.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
9
Q
Those who make the most of meetings frequently spend substantially more time preparing for the meeting than in the meeting itself.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
10
Q
If meetings come to dominate your time, then your life is likely being ill-spent.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
11
Q
6: Don’t make a hundred decisions when one will do.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
12
Q
7: Find your one big distinctive impact.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
13
Q
8: Stop what you would not start.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
14
Q
9: Run lean.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
15
Q
The accomplishments of a single right person in a key seat dwarf the combined accomplishment of dividing the seat among multiple B-players.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
16
Q
Get better people, give them really big things to do, enlarge their responsibilities, and let them work.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
17
Q
10: Be useful.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
18
Q
At one point, I asked him which of his twenty-six books he was most proud of, to which Drucker, then 86, replied: “The next one!” He wrote ten more.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
19
Q
A great teacher can change your life in thirty seconds.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
20
Q
Management is largely by example.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
21
Q
Have not come across a single “natural”: an executive who was born effective. All the effective ones have had to learn to be effective. And all of them then had to practice effectiveness until it became habit. But all the ones who worked on making themselves effective executives succeeded in doing so. Effectiveness can be learned—and it also has to be learned.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
22
Q
The effectiveness of the individual depends increasingly on his or her ability to be effective in an organization, to be effective as an executive.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
23
Q
• 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. ”.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
24
Q
The answer to the question “What needs to be done?” almost always contains more than one urgent task. But effective executives do not splinter themselves. They concentrate on one task if at all possible.
A
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
25
He asked himself which of the two or three tasks at the top of the list he himself was best suited to undertake. Then he concentrated on that task; the others he delegated.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
26
Effective executives try to focus on jobs they’ll do especially well.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
27
A written plan should anticipate the need for flexibility.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
28
Without an action plan, the executive becomes a prisoner of events.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
29
Take responsibility for decisions A decision has not been made until people know: • the name of the person accountable for carrying it out; • the deadline; • the names of the people who will be affected by the decision and therefore have to know about, understand, and approve it—or at least not be strongly opposed to it; and • the names of the people who have to be informed of the decision, even if they are not directly affected by it.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
30
Studies of decisions about people show that only one third of such choices turn out to be truly successful. One third are likely to be draws—neither successes nor outright failures. And one third are failures, pure and simple.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
31
Systematic decision review also shows executives their own weaknesses, particularly the areas in which they are simply incompetent. In these areas, smart executives don’t make decisions or take actions. They delegate. Everyone has such areas; there’s no such thing as a universal executive genius.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
32
Chester Barnard’s 1938 classic, The Functions of the Executive,.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
33
Organizations are held together by information rather than by ownership or command.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
34
Effective executives put their best people on opportunities rather than on problems.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
35
One way to staff for opportunities is to ask each member of the management group to prepare two lists every six months—a list of opportunities for the entire enterprise and a list of the best-performing people throughout the enterprise.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
36
In a meeting of some sort—more than half of every business day.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
37
Good executives don’t raise another matter for discussion. They sum up and adjourn.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
38
Effective executives know that any given meeting is either productive or a total waste of time.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
39
Listen first, speak last.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
40
The executive is, first of all, expected to get the right things done. And this is simply that he is expected to be effective.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
41
Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge are essential resources, but only effectiveness converts them into results.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
42
Modern society is a society of large organized institutions.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
43
The responsibility is always mine, but the decision lies with whoever is on the spot. ”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
44
I have called “executives” those knowledge workers, managers, or individual professionals who are expected by virtue of their position or their knowledge to make decisions in the normal course of their work that have significant impact on the performance and results of the whole.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
45
The executive’s time tends to belong to everybody else. If one attempted to define an “executive” operationally (that is, through his activities) one would have to define him as a captive of the organization. Everybody can move in on his time, and everybody does.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
46
The third reality pushing the executive toward ineffectiveness is that he is within an organization. This means that he is effective only if and when other people make use of what he contributes.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
47
Usually the people who are most important to the effectiveness of an executive are not people over whom he has direct control. They are people in other areas, people who in terms of organization, are “sideways. ” Or they are his superiors.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
48
The less an organization has to do to produce results, the better it does its job.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
49
It is the inside of the organization that is most visible to the executive.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
50
Unless he makes special efforts to gain direct access to outside reality, he will become increasingly inside-focused. The higher up in the organization he goes, the more will his attention be drawn to problems and challenges of the inside rather than to events on the outside.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
51
Every part of an amoeba is in constant, direct contact with the environment. It therefore needs no special organs to perceive its environment or to hold it together. But a large and complex animal such as man needs a skeleton to hold it together. It needs all kinds of specialized organs.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
52
Most of the mass of the amoeba is directly concerned with survival and procreation. Most of the mass of the higher animal—its resources, its food, its energy supply, its tissues—serves to overcome and offset the complexity of the structure and the isolation from the outside.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
53
“facts. ” For a fact, after all, is an event which somebody has defined, has classified, and, above all, has endowed with relevance.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
54
The truly important events on the outside are not the trends. They are changes in the trends.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
55
Man, however, while not particularly logical is perceptive—and that is his strength.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
56
The experience of the human race indicates strongly that the only person in abundant supply is the universal incompetent.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
57
Effectiveness, in other words, is a habit;.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
58
Effective executives know where their time goes.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
59
Effective executives focus on outward contribution. They gear their efforts to results rather than to work. They start out with the question, “What results are expected of me?” rather than with the work to be done, let alone with its techniques and tools.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
60
Effective executives build on strengths—their own strengths, the strengths of their superiors, colleagues, and subordinates; and on the strengths in the situation, that is, on what they can do. They do not build on weakness. They do not start out with the things they cannot do.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
61
Effective executives concentrate on the few major areas where superior performance will produce outstanding results. They force themselves to set priorities and stay with their priority decisions.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
62
Effective executives, finally, make effective decisions.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
63
They know that to make many decisions fast means to make the wrong decisions. What is needed are few, but fundamental, decisions. What is needed is the right strategy rather than razzle-dazzle tactics.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
64
Effective executives, in my observation, do not start with their tasks. They start with their time. And they do not start out with planning. They start by finding out where their time actually goes. Then they attempt to manage their time and to cut back unproductive demands on their time. Finally they consolidate their “discretionary” time into the largest possible continuing units.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
65
One cannot rent, hire, buy, or otherwise obtain more time.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
66
Time is totally perishable and cannot be stored. Yesterday’s time is gone forever and will never come back. Time is, therefore, always in exceedingly short supply.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
67
Everything requires time. It is the one truly universal condition.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
68
The effective executive therefore knows that to manage his time, he first has to know where it actually goes.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
69
Similar time-wasters abound in the life of every executive.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
70
If one can lock the door, disconnect the telephone, and sit down to wrestle with the report for five or six hours without interruption, one has a good chance to come up with what I call a “zero draft”—the one before the first draft. From then on, one can indeed work in fairly small installments, can rewrite, correct, and edit section by section, paragraph by paragraph, sentence by sentence.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
71
People are time-consumers. And most people are time-wasters.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
72
“What should we at the head of this organization know about your work?.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
73
The larger the organization, therefore, the less actual time will the executive have. The more important will it be for him to know where his time goes and to manage the little time at his disposal.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
74
Among the effective executives I have had occasion to observe, there have been people who make decisions fast, and people who make them rather slowly. But without exception, they make personnel decisions slowly and they make them several times before they really commit themselves.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
75
Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. , former head of General Motors, the world’s largest manufacturing company, was reported never to make a personnel decision the first time it came up. He made a tentative judgment, and even that took several hours as a rule. Then, a few days or weeks later, he tackled the question again, as if he had never worked on it before.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
76
People are always “almost fits” at best.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
77
First one tries to identify and eliminate the things that need not be done at all, the things that are purely waste of time without any results whatever.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
78
“What would happen if this were not done at all?” And if the answer is, “Nothing would happen,” then obviously the conclusion is to stop doing it. It is amazing how many things busy people are doing that never will be missed.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
79
All one has to do is to learn to say “no” if an activity contributes nothing to one’s own organization, to oneself, or to the organization for which it is to be performed.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
80
The next question is: “Which of the activities on my time log could be done by somebody else just as well, if not better?”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
81
Delegation makes little sense. If it means that somebody else ought to do part of “my work,” it is wrong. One is paid for doing one’s own work. And if it implies, as the usual sermon does, that the laziest manager is the best manager, it is not only nonsense; it is immoral.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
82
“Delegation” as the term is customarily used is a misunderstanding—is indeed misdirection. But getting rid of anything that can be done by somebody else so that one does not have to delegate but can really get to one’s own work—that is a major improvement in effectiveness.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
83
A common cause of time-waste is largely under the executive’s control and can be eliminated by him. That is the time of others he himself wastes.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
84
“What do I do that wastes your time without contributing to your effectiveness?”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
85
Even very effective executives still do a great many unnecessary, unproductive things.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
86
Poor management wastes everybody’s time—but above all, it wastes the manager’s time.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
87
A well-managed factory is boring. Nothing exciting happens in it because the crises have been anticipated and have been converted into routine.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
88
A well-managed organization is a “dull” organization.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
89
Much more common is the work force that is too big for effectiveness, the work force that spends, therefore, an increasing amount of its time “interacting” rather than working.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
90
People get into each other’s way. People have become an impediment to performance, rather than the means thereto. In a lean organization people have room to move without colliding with one another and can do their work without having to explain it all the time.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
91
Another common time-waster is malorganization. Its symptom is an excess of meetings.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
92
Meetings are by definition a concession to deficient organization for one either meets or one works. One cannot do both at the same time.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
93
In an ideally designed structure (which in a changing world is of course only a dream) there would be no meetings. Everybody would know what he needs to know to do his job. Everyone would have the resources available to him to do his job. We meet because people holding different jobs have to cooperate to get a specific task done. We meet because the knowledge and experience needed in a specific situation are not available in one head, but have to be pieced together out of the experience and knowledge of several people.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
94
There will always be more than enough meetings.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
95
But if executives in an organization spend more than a fairly small part of their time in meeting, it is a sure sign of malorganization.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
96
Every meeting generates a host of little follow-up meetings—some formal, some informal, but both stretching out for hours. Meetings, therefore, need to be purposefully directed.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
97
An undirected meeting is not just a nuisance; it is a danger.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
98
But above all, meetings have to be the exception rather than the rule. An organization in which everybody meets all the time is an organization in which no one gets anything done.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
99
There are exceptions, special organs whose purpose it is to meet—the boards of directors,.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
100
A rule, meetings should never be allowed to become the main demand on an executive’s time. Too many meetings always bespeak poor structure of jobs and the wrong organizational components.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
101
Too many meetings signify that work that should be in one job or in one component is spread over several jobs or several components.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
102
The last major time-waster is malfunction in information.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
103
I have found out that my attention span is about an hour and a half. If I work on any one topic longer than this, I begin to repeat myself. At the same time, I have learned that nothing of importance can really be tackled in much less time.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
104
I have yet to come across a crisis which could not wait ninety minutes. ”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
105
The higher up an executive, the larger will be the proportion of time that is not under his control and yet not spent on contribution. The larger the organization, the more time will be needed just to keep the organization together and running, rather than to make it function and produce.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
106
The effective executive therefore knows that he has to consolidate his discretionary time. He knows that he needs large chunks of time and that small driblets are no time at all.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
107
Even one quarter of the working day, if consolidated in large time units, is usually enough to get the important things done. But even three quarters of the working day are useless if they are only available as fifteen minutes here or half an hour there.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
108
Other men schedule all the operating work—the meetings, reviews, problem-sessions, and so on—for two days a week, for example, Monday and Friday, and set aside the mornings of the remaining days for consistent, continuing work on major issues.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
109
Another fairly common method is to schedule a daily work period at home in the morning.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
110
Effective executives start out by estimating how much discretionary time they can realistically call their own. Then they set aside continuous time in the appropriate amount.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
111
Time is the scarcest resource, and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
112
THE EFFECTIVE EXECUTIVE FOCUSES ON contribution. He looks up from his work and outward toward goals. He asks: “What can I contribute that will significantly affect the performance and the results of the institution I serve?” His stress is on responsibility.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
113
The great majority of executives tend to focus downward. They are occupied with efforts rather than with results.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
114
The man who focuses on efforts and who stresses his downward authority is a subordinate no matter how exalted his title and rank. But the man who focuses on contribution and who takes responsibility for results, no matter how junior, is in the most literal sense of the phrase, “top management. ” He holds himself accountable for the performance of the whole.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
115
Every organization needs performance in three major areas: It needs direct results; building of values and their reaffirmation; and building and developing people for tomorrow.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
116
There has to be something “this organization stands for,” or else it degenerates into disorganization, confusion, and paralysis.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
117
Organization is, to a large extent, a means of overcoming the limitations mortality sets to what any one man can contribute.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
118
It has to renew its human capital. It should steadily upgrade its human resources.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
119
An organization which just perpetuates today’s level of vision, excellence, and accomplishment has lost the capacity to adapt.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
120
Known as “Nurse Bryan’s Rule”; had learned, in other words, to ask: “Are we really making the best contribution to the purpose of this hospital?”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
121
Commitment to contribution is commitment to responsible effectiveness.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
122
The most common cause of executive failure is inability or unwillingness to change with the demands of a new position. The executive who keeps on doing what he has done successfully before he moved is almost bound to fail.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
123
The task is not to breed generalists. It is to enable the specialist to make himself and his specialty effective.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
124
Today almost everybody in modern organization is an expert with a high degree of specialized knowledge, each with its own tools, its own concerns, and its own jargon.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
125
“What contribution from me do you require to make your contribution to the organization? When do you need this, how do you need it, and in what form?”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
126
The only meaningful definition of a “generalist” is a specialist who can relate his own small area to the universe of knowledge. Maybe a few people have knowledge in more than a few small areas. But that does not make them generalists; it makes them specialists in several areas.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
127
Executives in an organization do not have good human relations because they have a “talent for people. ” They have good human relations because they focus on contribution in their own work and in their relationships with others. As a result, their relationships are productive—and this is the only valid definition of “good human relations. ”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
128
Warm feelings and pleasant words are meaningless, are indeed a false front for wretched attitudes, if there is no achievement in what is, after all, a work-focused and task-focused relationship.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
129
An occasional rough word will not disturb a relationship that produces results and accomplishments for all concerned.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
130
The focus on contribution by itself supplies the four basic requirements of effective human relations: • communications; • teamwork; • self-development; and • development of others.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
131
But communications are practically impossible if they are based on the downward relationship.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
132
The harder the superior tries to say something to his subordinate, the more likely is it that the subordinate will mishear. He will hear what he expects to hear rather than what is being said.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
133
The objectives set by subordinates for themselves are almost never what the superior thought they should be. The subordinates or juniors, in other words, do see reality quite differently.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
134
Knowledge workers must be professionals in their attitude toward their own field of knowledge. They must consider themselves responsible for their own competence and for the standards of their work.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
135
The more we automate information-handling, the more we will have to create opportunities for effective communication.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
136
People in general, and knowledge workers in particular, grow according to the demands they make on themselves. They grow according to what they consider to be achievement and attainment. If they demand little of themselves, they will remain stunted. If they demand a good deal of themselves, they will grow to giant stature—without any more effort than is expended by the nonachievers.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
137
At the end of his meetings, goes back to the opening statement and relates the final conclusions to the original intent.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
138
One can either direct a meeting and listen for the important things being said, or one can take part and talk; one cannot do both).
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
139
To focus on contribution is to focus on effectiveness.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
140
The effective executive fills positions and promotes on the basis of what a man can do. He does not make staffing decisions to minimize weaknesses but to maximize strength.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
141
Strong people always have strong weaknesses too.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
142
Andrew Carnegie, the father of the U. S. Steel industry, chose for his own tombstone: “Here lies a man who knew how to bring into his service men better than he was himself. ” But of course every one of these men was “better” because Carnegie looked for his strength and put it to work.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
143
Effective executives know that their subordinates are paid to perform and not to please their superiors.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
144
Effective executives never ask “How does he get along with me?” Their question is “What does he contribute?”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
145
Human excellence can only be achieved in one area, or at the most in very few. People with many interests do exist—and this is usually what we mean when we talk of a “universal genius. ” People with outstanding accomplishments in many areas are unknown.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
146
One way or another all makers of men are demanding bosses—always starts out with what a man should be able to do well—and then demands that he really do it.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
147
Organization is the specific instrument to make human strengths redound to performance while human weakness is neutralized and largely rendered harmless.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
148
In an organization one can make his strength effective and his weakness irrelevant.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
149
To structure a job to a person is almost certain to result in the end in greater discrepancy between the demands of the job and the available talent. It results in a dozen people being uprooted and pushed around in order to accommodate one.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
150
To tolerate diversity, relationships must be task-focused rather than personality-focused. Achievement must be measured against objective criteria of contribution and performance.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
151
Franklin D. Roosevelt had no “friend” in the Cabinet—not even Henry Morgenthau, his Secretary of the Treasury and a close friend on all non-governmental matters.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
152
General Marshall and Alfred P. Sloan were similarly remote. These were all warm men, in need of close human relationships, endowed with the gift of making and keeping friends. They knew however that their friendships had to be “off the job. ” They knew that whether they liked a man or approved of him was irrelevant, if not a distraction. And by staying aloof they were able to build teams of great diversity but also of strength.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
153
The rule is simple: Any job that has defeated two or three men in succession, even though each had performed well in his previous assignments, must be assumed unfit for human beings. It must be redesigned.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
154
He knows that the test of organization is not genius. It is its capacity to make common people achieve uncommon performance.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
155
The second rule for staffing from strength is to make each job demanding and big. It should have challenge to bring out whatever strength a man may have. It should have scope so that any strength that is relevant to the task can produce significant results.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
156
All one can do in school is to show promise. Performance is possible only in real work,.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
157
3. Effective executives know that they have to start with what a man can do rather than with what a job requires.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
158
“Your appraisals are concerned only with bringing out a man’s faults and weaknesses.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
159
The less we know about his weaknesses, the better. What we do need to know are the strengths of a man and what he can do.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
160
All one can measure is performance. And all one should measure is performance.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
161
Performance against these goals. Then it asks four questions: a. “What has he [or she] done well?” b. “What, therefore, is he likely to be able to do well?” c. “What does he have to learn or to acquire to be able to get the full benefit from his strength?” d. “If I had a son or daughter, would I be willing to have him or her work under this person?” i. “If yes, why?” ii. “If no, why?”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
162
There is, therefore, nothing more corrupting and more destructive in an organization than a forceful but basically corrupt executive.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
163
4. The effective executive knows that to get strength one has to put up with weaknesses.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
164
Effective executives rarely suffer from the delusion that two mediocrities achieve as much as one good man. They have learned that, as a rule, two mediocrities achieve even less than one mediocrity—they just get in each other’s way.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
165
I have a weak superior or a weak subordinate—or both. Whichever of these, the sooner we find out, the better. ”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
166
I have never seen anyone in a job for which he was inadequate who was not slowly being destroyed by the pressure and the strains, and who did not secretly pray for deliverance.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
167
To relieve a man from command was less a judgment on the man than on the commander who had appointed him. “The only thing we know is that this spot was the wrong one for the man,” he argued. “This does not mean that he is not the ideal man for some other job. Appointing him was my mistake, now it’s up to me to find what he can do. ”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
168
Every people-decision is a gamble. By basing it on what a man can do, it becomes at least a rational gamble.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
169
To focus on weakness is not only foolish; it is irresponsible. A superior owes it to his organization to make the strength of every one of his subordinates as productive as it can be.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
170
I have yet to find a manager, whether in business, in government, or in any other institution, who did not say: “I have no great trouble managing my subordinates. But how do I manage my boss?”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
171
If their boss is not promoted, they will tend to be bottled up behind him. And if their boss is relieved for incompetence or failure, the successor is rarely the bright, young man next in line. He usually is brought in from the outside and brings with him his own bright, young men. Conversely, there is nothing quite as conducive to success as a successful and rapidly promoted superior.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
172
The effective executive accepts that the boss is human (something that intelligent young subordinates often find hard).
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
173
People are either “readers” or “listeners”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
174
It is generally a waste of time to talk to a reader. He only listens after he has read. It is equally a waste of time to submit a voluminous report to a listener. He can only grasp what it is all about through the spoken word.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
175
All of us are “experts” on other people and see them much more clearly than they see themselves.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
176
Making strengths productive is equally important in respect to one’s own abilities and work habits.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
177
All in all, the effective executive tries to be himself; he does not pretend to be someone else. He looks at his own performance and at his own results and tries to discern a pattern. “What are the things,” he asks, “that I seem to be able to do with relative ease, while they come rather hard to other people?”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
178
To be effective he builds on what he knows he can do and does it the way he has found out he works best.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
179
He knows that only strength produces results. Weakness only produces headaches—and the absence of weakness produces nothing.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
180
The standard of any human group is set by the performance of the leaders.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
181
In human affairs, the distance between the leaders and the average is a constant. If leadership performance is high, the average will go up.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
182
The task of an executive is not to change human beings. Rather, as the Bible tells us in the parable of the Talents, the task is to multiply performance capacity of the whole by putting to use whatever strength, whatever health, whatever aspiration there is in individuals.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
183
IF THERE IS ANY ONE “secret” of effectiveness, it is concentration. Effective executives do first things first and they do one thing at a time.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
184
No matter how well an executive manages his time, the greater part of it will still not be his own. Therefore, there is always a time deficit.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
185
To get even that half-day or those two weeks of really productive time requires self-discipline and an iron determination to say “No. ”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
186
We rightly consider keeping many balls in the air a circus stunt. Yet even the juggler does it only for ten minutes or so. If he were to try doing it longer, he would soon drop all the balls.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
187
Mozart, of course. He could, it seems, work on several compositions at the same time, all of them masterpieces.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
188
This is the “secret” of those people who “do so many things” and apparently so many difficult things. They do only one at a time. As a result, they need much less time in the end than the rest of us.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
189
The people who get nothing done often work a great deal harder. In the first place, they underestimate the time for any one task.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
190
Executive tries to hurry—and that only puts him further behind. Effective executives do not race. They set an easy pace but keep going steadily.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
191
Finally, the typical executive tries to do several things at once. Therefore, he never has the minimum time quantum for any of the tasks in his program. If any one of them runs into trouble, his entire program collapses.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
192
The first rule for the concentration of executive efforts is to slough off the past that has ceased to be productive.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
193
Effective executives periodically review their work programs—and those of their associates—and ask: “If we did not already do this, would we go into it now?” And unless the answer is an unconditional “Yes,” they drop the activity or curtail it sharply.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
194
Today is always the result of actions and decisions taken yesterday.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
195
Yesterday’s actions and decisions, no matter how courageous or wise they may have been, inevitably become today’s problems, crises, and stupidities.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
196
The executive who wants to be effective and who wants his organization to be effective polices all programs, all activities, all tasks. He always asks: “Is this still worth doing?” And if it isn’t, he gets rid of it so as to be able to concentrate on the few tasks that, if done with excellence, will really make a difference in the results of his own job and in the performance of his organization.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
197
The effective executive will slough off an old activity before he starts on a new one. This is necessary in order to keep organizational “weight control. ” Without it, the organization soon loses shape, cohesion, and manageability.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
198
Social organizations need to stay lean and muscular as much as biological organisms.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
199
Everybody is much too busy on the tasks of yesterday.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
200
A decision therefore has to be made as to which tasks deserve priority and which are of less importance. The only question is which will make the decision—the executive or the pressures.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
201
If the pressures rather than the executive are allowed to make the decision, the important tasks will predictably be sacrificed.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
202
No task is completed until it has become part of organizational action and behavior. This almost always means that no task is completed unless other people have taken it on as their own, have accepted new ways of doing old things or the necessity for doing something new, and have otherwise made the executive’s “completed” project their own daily routine.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
203
The job is, however, not to set priorities. That is easy. Everybody can do it. The reason why so few executives concentrate is the difficulty of setting “posteriorities”—that is, deciding what tasks not to tackle—and of sticking to the decision.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
204
Most executives have learned that what one postpones, one actually abandons.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
205
• Pick the future as against the past; • Focus on opportunity rather than on problem; • Choose your own direction—rather than climb on the bandwagon; and • Aim high, aim for something that will make a difference, rather than for something that is “safe” and easy to do.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
206
Achievement (at least below the genius level of an Einstein, a Niels Bohr, or a Max Planck) depends less on ability in doing research than on the courage to go after opportunity.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
207
In business the successful companies are not those that work at developing new products for their existing line but those that aim at innovating new technologies or new businesses.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
208
It is more productive to convert an opportunity into results than to solve a problem—which only restores the equilibrium of yesterday.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
209
The effective executive does not, in other words, truly commit himself beyond the one task he concentrates on right now. Then he reviews the situation and picks the next one task that now comes first.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
210
Concentration—that is, the courage to impose on time and events his own decision as to what really matters and comes first—is the executive’s only hope of becoming the master of time and events instead of their whipping boy.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
211
They make these decisions as a systematic process with clearly defined elements and in a distinct sequence of steps.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
212
Effective executives do not make a great many decisions. They concentrate on the important ones.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
213
The most time-consuming step in the process is not making the decision but putting it into effect.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
214
Industries are more commonly taken over by government because they fail to attract the capital they need than because of socialism. Failure to attract the needed capital was a main reason why the European railroads were taken over by government between 1860 and 1920.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
215
The first question the effective decision-maker asks is: “Is this a generic situation or an exception?” “Is this something that underlies a great many occurrences? Or is the occurrence a unique event that needs to be dealt with as such?” The generic always has to be answered through a rule, a principle. The exceptional can only be handled as such and as it comes.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
216
Truly unique events are rare, however. Whenever one appears, one has to ask: Is this a true exception or only the first manifestation of a new genus?.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
217
All events but the truly unique require a generic solution. They require a rule, a policy, a principle. Once the right principle has been developed all manifestations of the same generic situation can be handled pragmatically; that is, by adaptation of the rule to the concrete circumstances of the case. Truly unique events, however, must be treated individually. One cannot develop rules for the exceptional.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
218
By far the most common mistake is to treat a generic situation as if it were a series of unique events;.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
219
Equally common is the mistake of treating a new event as if it were just another example of the old problem to which, therefore, the old rules should be applied.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
220
Shows why the incomplete explanation is often more dangerous than the totally wrong explanation.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
221
The effective decision-maker, therefore, always assumes initially that the problem is generic. He always assumes that the event that clamors for his attention is in reality a symptom. He looks for the true problem. He is not content with doctoring the symptom alone. And if the event is truly unique, the experienced decision-maker suspects that this heralds a new underlying problem and that what appears as unique will turn out to have been simply the first manifestation of a new generic situation.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
222
A decision on principle does not, as a rule, take longer than a decision on symptoms and expediency.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
223
The effective executive does not need to make many decisions. Because he solves generic situations through a rule and policy, he can handle most events as cases under the rule;.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
224
“A country with many laws is a country of incompetent lawyers,” says an old legal proverb. It is a country which attempts to solve every problem as a unique phenomenon, rather than as a special case under general rules of law. Similarly, an executive who makes many decisions is both lazy and ineffectual.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
225
The second major element in the decision process is clear specifications as to what the decision has to accomplish.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
226
The more concisely and clearly boundary conditions are stated, the greater the likelihood that the decision will indeed be an effective one and will accomplish what it set out to do.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
227
The effective executive knows that a decision that does not satisfy the boundary conditions is ineffectual and inappropriate. It may be worse indeed than a decision that satisfies the wrong boundary conditions.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
228
Clear thinking about the boundary conditions is needed so that one knows when a decision has to be abandoned.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
229
The trouble with miracles is not, after all, that they happen rarely; it is that one cannot rely on them.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
230
A decision that has to satisfy two different and at bottom incompatible specifications is not a decision but a prayer for a miracle.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
231
One has to start out with what is right rather than what is acceptable.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
232
There are two different kinds of compromise. One kind is expressed in the old proverb: “Half a loaf is better than no bread. ” The other kind is expressed in the story of the Judgment of Solomon, which was clearly based on the realization that “half a baby is worse than no baby at all. ”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
233
Converting the decision into action is the fourth major element in the decision process.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
234
This is the trouble with so many policy statements, especially of business: They contain no action commitment. To carry them out is no one’s specific work and responsibility. No wonder that the people in the organization tend to view these statements cynically if not as declarations of what top management is really not going to do.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
235
Converting a decision into action requires answering several distinct questions: Who has to know of this decision? What action has to be taken? Who is to take it? And what does the action have to be so that the people who have to do it can do it?.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
236
If the greatest rewards are given for behavior contrary to that which the new course of action requires, then everyone will conclude that this contrary behavior is what the people at the top really want and are going to reward.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
237
A feedback has to be built into the decision to provide a continuous testing, against actual events, of the expectations that underlie the decision.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
238
Decisions are made by men. Men are fallible; at their best their works do not last long. Even the best decision has a high probability of being wrong. Even the most effective one eventually becomes obsolete.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
239
A battalion commander is expected to go out and taste the food served his men.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
240
One needs organized information for the feedback. One needs reports and figures. But unless one builds one’s feedback around direct exposure to reality—unless one disciplines oneself to go out and look—one condemns oneself to a sterile dogmatism and with it to ineffectiveness.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
241
Most books on decision-making tell the reader: “First find the facts. ” But executives who make effective decisions know that one does not start with facts. One starts with opinions.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
242
People inevitably start out with an opinion; to ask them to search for the facts first is even undesirable. They will simply do what everyone is far too prone to do anyhow: look for the facts that fit the conclusion they have already reached. And no one has ever failed to find the facts he is looking for. The good statistician knows this and distrusts all figures—he.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
243
Opinions come first—and that this is the way it should be. Then no one can fail to see that we start out with untested hypotheses—in.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
244
“What do we have to know to test the validity of this hypothesis?”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
245
He insists that people who voice an opinion also take responsibility for defining what factual findings can be expected and should be looked for.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
246
Effective executives therefore insist on alternatives of measurement—so that they can choose the one appropriate one.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
247
Much as it annoys the accountants, the effective executive will insist on having the same investment decision calculated in all three ways—so as to be able to say at the end: “This measurement is appropriate to this decision. ”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
248
This, above all, explains why effective decision-makers deliberately disregard the second major command of the textbooks on decision-making and create dissension and disagreement, rather than consensus.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
249
The first rule in decision-making is that one does not make a decision unless there is disagreement.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
250
He always emphasized the need to test opinions against facts and the need to make absolutely sure that one did not start out with the conclusion and then look for the facts that would support it. But he knew that the right decision demands adequate disagreement.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
251
Everybody is a special pleader, trying—often in perfectly good faith—to obtain the decision he favors.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
252
A decision without an alternative is a desperate gambler’s throw, no matter how carefully thought through it might be.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
253
Disagreement is needed to stimulate the imagination.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
254
The effective decision-maker does not start out with the assumption that one proposed course of action is right and that all others must be wrong. Nor does he start out with the assumption, “I am right and he is wrong. ” He starts out with the commitment to find out why people disagree.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
255
The effective executive is concerned first with understanding. Only then does he even think about who is right and who is wrong.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
256
No matter how high his emotions run, no matter how certain he is that the other side is completely wrong and has no case at all, the executive who wants to make the right decision forces himself to see opposition as his means to think through the alternatives. He uses conflict of opinion as his tool to make sure all major aspects of an important matter are looked at carefully.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
257
He alone saw that private business had to make public regulation into an effective alternative to nationalization.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
258
If the answer to the question “What will happen if we do nothing?” is “It will take care of itself,” one does not interfere.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
259
• Act if on balance the benefits greatly outweigh cost and risk; and • Act or do not act; but do not “hedge” or compromise.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
260
The effective decision-maker either acts or he doesn’t act. He does not take half-action. This is the one thing that is always wrong, and the one sure way not to satisfy the minimum specifications, the minimum boundary conditions.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
261
Coward achieves is to die a thousand deaths where the brave man dies but one.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
262
He does not waste the time of good people to cover up his own indecision. But at the same time he will not rush into a decision unless he is sure he understands it.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
263
Socrates called his “daemon”: the inner voice,.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
264
Executives are not paid for doing things they like to do. They are paid for getting the right things done—most.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
265
PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique), which aims at providing a road map for the critical tasks in a highly complex program such as the development and construction of a new space vehicle.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
266
The sooner operating managers learn to make decisions as genuine judgments on risk and uncertainty, the sooner we will overcome one of the basic weaknesses of large organization—the absence of any training and testing for the decision-making top positions.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
267
Effectiveness is, after all, not a “subject,” but a self-discipline.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
268
Self-development of the effective executive is central to the development of the organization,.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
269
Organizations are not more effective because they have better people. They have better people because they motivate to self-development through their standards, through their habits, through their climate.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
270
Effective organizations are not common. They are even rarer than effective executives.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
271
WHEN PETER DRUCKER was asked at the end of his long life what his greatest contribution was, he answered: “What I would say is I helped a few good people be effective in doing the right things. ”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
272
Effectiveness, he said, is “doing the right things well. ”.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
273
In The Practice of Management, Drucker retells a favorite story about three stonecutters who were asked what they were doing: The first replied: “I am making a living. ” The second kept on hammering while he said: “I am doing the best job of stonecutting in the entire county. ” The third one looked up with a visionary gleam in his eyes and said: “I am building a cathedral. ” The last person is the one who is ready for effectiveness. He is focused outward, on contribution.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
274
For the effective executive, gain and glory are only ever side effects of doing the right things well.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
275
Frederick Herzberg (with B. Mauser and B. Snyderman), The Motivation to Work.
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker and Jim Collins
