The effective executive - Peter Drucker  ## Metadata - Author: **Peter Drucker** - Full Title: The effective executive - Category: #articles - URL: https://readwise.io/reader/document_raw_content/43769913 ## Highlights - “What one does not have in one’s feet, one’s got to have in one’s head.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7qgedw19tjajtamgp2ccbk3)) - The first step toward executive effectiveness is therefore to record actual time-use. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7qhrfag6j1x575hfx2qw4dx)) - The very strong neither need nor desire organization. They are much better off working on their own. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7t6bfxpzqnnmby78mj82ncc)) - One implication is that the men who build first-class execu- tive teams are not usually close to their immediate colleagues and subordinates. Picking people for what they can do rather than on personal likes or dislikes, they seek performance, not conformance. To insure this outcome, they keep a distance between themselves and their close colleagues. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7t75m43xm85anz704hrpr94)) - • “What has he [or she] done well?” • “What, therefore, is he likely to be able to do well?” • “What does he have to learn or to acquire to be able to get the full benefit from his strength?” • “If I had a son or daughter, would I be willing to have him or her work under this person?” 1. “If yes, why?” 2. “If no, why?” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7v4bkwfvh3j0jw62w7fp1ns)) - 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. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7v6mbwfdwprtjx7ym8jasy4)) - Similarly, 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. As a rule it is just as risky, just as arduous, and just as uncertain to do something small that is new as it is to do something big that is new. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7v7z0zpx5qht7gycq2g3gg3)) - • The executive’s job is to be effective; and • Effectiveness can be learned. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7xkys5544dpn6fjythe4yqm)) - The first step toward effectiveness is a procedure: recording where the time goes. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7xm19rh4xte5jys8pv7xkp8)) - The next step, however, in which the executive is asked to focus his vision on contribution advances from the procedural to the conceptual, from mechanics to analysis, and from efficiencies to concern with results. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7xm1kvd34cw4q3f8w28jm39)) - Making strengths productive is fundamentally an attitude expressed in behavior. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7xm1zmz7qp5h4a03ptpsrd6)) - Chapter 5, “First Things First,” serves as antiphon to the earlier chapter, “Know Thy Time.” These two chapters might be called the twin pillars between which executive effectiveness is suspended and on which it rests. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7xm258kj0x2v88mwd1nqmzf)) - The effective decision, which the final chapters discuss, is concerned with rational action. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7xm29t8tz7nfb70kzbaztby)) - Management is largely by example. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j6mb4x21tw27917hq3xgmgg3)) - For manual work, we need only efficiency; that is, the ability to do things right rather than the ability to get the right things done ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j6xjm82pae4w6f3mg5h8nbmd)) -  ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j7034fa13abdak2zkh39v48j)) -  ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j708aezbbzm3xdrdj7pj37m2)) -  ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j708538wxs1p413bdxc92xx9))