Summary about 'The Effective Executive'

In the book The Effective Executive, Peter F. Drucker guides on how to be executive self-management, so that we could "get the right things done" .

to effect - get the right things done

• knowledge worker

  • 知识工作者的生产力, 就是“做好该做的事情”的能力, 也就是有效性
  • 无法对知识工作者进行严密和细致的督导, 只能协助他们
  • 知识工作者本人必须自己管理自己, 自觉地完成任务, 自觉地做出贡献, 自觉地追求工作效益
  • 知识工作者生产的是知识, 创意和信息

• 管理者 (knowledge worker or manager) - 促进机构有效运转并负有行动与决策责任的人

  • 不仅执行命令为满足, 他必须能做决策, 并承担起做出贡献的责任
  • 衡量知识工作主要应看其结果, 而不是机构的规模或者管理的繁简
  • 基于知识权威所做的决策, 与高级管理层做的决策具有相同性质

• 有效性

  • 使能力和知识资源能够产生更多更好成果的一种手段

善用自己的时间

• 一开始不着手工作, 往往从时间安排上着手

• 记录时间

  • 定期地了解自己的时间怎么消耗
  • 处理工作当时就加以记录
  • 连续三四个星期为一个时段记录

• 管理时间

  • 将非生产性的和浪费时间的活动找出来
  • 专注于对重要的事, 自己希望做的事, 已经承诺的事
  • 是否有助于成果 - ”如果不做, 会有什么后果?“
    • 审读对于组织,对他本人,或对于对方的组织有无贡献
    • 是否可由别人代为参加而不影响成果

• 统一安排真正属于自己可支配的时间

  • 组织越大, 用于维系组织运行, 而非用于发挥组织功能及生产的时间也一定越多
  • 很多例行工作
    • 次要事情, 身不由己的事情, 杂事
  • 集中一段真正属于自己的时间
    • 比如以 90 分钟为一个单元
  • 给一些重要活动定下必须完成的期限
    • 紧急事件
    • 非做不可

What can I contribute?

• 注重贡献, 注意对成果负责, 并将自己的工作与长远目标结合起来

  • 重视贡献才能使管理者注意力不为本身的专长, 所属部门所限, 才能看到整体绩效, 同时更重视外部世界

  • 贡献

    • direct results - 生存需要
    • value commitment and reaffirmation - 组织自己的主张和想法 - 维生素和矿物质
    • renew its human capital

  • 适应新职位而变, 适应不同价值观承诺而变

    • “如果做得好,能使本公司有所改变”

• 专业人员的成效

  • 肩负贡献的责任
    • 有责任让别人了解自己,进而使自己的工作有成效
    • 应该了解别人的需要,方向,理解, 以使别人能够应用他的成果

  • ask other people, the superiors, the subordinates, the colleagues

    • "what contribution from me do you require to make your contribution to the organziation?"
    • "when do you need this, how do you need it, and in what form?"

  • realte his narrow area to a genuine whole

    • learn enough of the needs, the directions, the limitations, and the perceptions of others to enable them to use his own work

• The right human relations - 建立在 “贡献”的基础上

  • communications - contribution in the own work

    • "what should we expect of you?"
    • "what is the best utilization of your knowledge and your ability?"
    • the superior has both the right and the responsibility to judge the validity of the proposed contribution
    • the more capable they are, the more willing to take responsibility

  • teamwork

    • "Who has to use my output for it to become effective?"

  • inside - resonsible for their own competence and for the standards of the work

  • outside - belonging to a functional specialty - task-focused

    • act as responsible members of a team with people with differ knowledge areas
    • orgainzed around the specific task on hand

  • self-development

    • “What is the most important contribution I can make to the performance?”
    • "what knowledge and skill do I have to acquire to make it"
    • "What Strengths do I have to put to work"
    • "What standards do I have to set myself?"

  • stimulate others to develop themselves

    • he sets standard which are not personal but grounded in the requirements of the task
    • he demands a good deal of himself

• 有效会议

  • 会前 想清楚会议的目的和要求达成的贡献
  • 让会议围绕主题

用人所长

• 选人

  • 用人是来做事, 而不是投人所好
    • “他能做些什么?”

  • 以一个人能做些什么为基础, 如何发挥人的长处

    • “他贡献了什么”

  • 管理者首要的任务在于 因事用人

    • 将管辖的职位设置合理
      • 不会设计一个“常人”不能胜任的职位

  • 职位涵盖要广 且具有挑战性

    • 对有才干的人的挑战
    • 可以把与任务有关的优势转化为确实的成果
    • 能使新人有发展机会
    • 该职位能够衡量他自己, 也应使他能衡量他组织

  • 以当事人的长处为重心,以当事人能做些什么开始

    • “此人能做些什么?” 为开始
  • 正直和诚实

• Manage your Boss

  • focus on the strengths of the boss and on what he can do
    • enable boss to do what he can do
      • "what can my boss do really well?"
      • "what does he need to know to use his strength?"
      • "what does he need to get from me to perform?"
    • know the boss has his own ways of being effective
      • either "readers" or "listeners"

• Make yourself effective

  • start out with the question "what can I do"
  • 了解自己的类型, 配合自己的习惯而行动
    • 顺应自己的个性特点,不勉强自己
    • 注意的事自己的绩效,自己的成果,从而发展自己的工作方式
  • 了解自己的性情
    • 了解自己能做些什么为基础,然后以最适合自己的方式做下去
  • 认识我们的下属, 观察上司, 多问“此人能做些什么”

• 管理者的任务

  • If leadership performance is high, the average will go up

  • easier to raise the performance of one leader, and set it into the standard-setting.

  • 找出有条件做出突出贡献, 并起带头作用的人才

    • 赋予他们领导人的地位
    • 安置到能“制定标准”并能创造成绩的位置上

  • 让每一个人的才智充分发挥

要事优先 - first things first

• 集中个人所以才能于一件要务上

• 一次只做好一件工作

• 摆脱昨天

  • 摆脱已经不再有价值的过去
  • 经常检讨过时和无效的计划
    • “这件事现在还有继续做的价值吗?”

• 确定优先次序

  • 重视机会, 不能只看到困难
  • 选择自己的方向, 而不盲从
  • 目标要高, 有新意, 不能只求安全和方便
    • 真正的成就,属于善于抓住机会选定课题的人
    • 成功的事业, 以开发新技术或开发新事业为宗旨

Decision-Making

• the effective decision

  • trackle a problem at the highest level of conceptual understanding
  • try to develop a principle for dealing with it
  • the action to carry it out is close to the working level and simple

• the elements of the decision process

  • find the true problem -> classify the situation - generic or an exception ?

  • define the specification and set Satisfy the boundary conditions -> 这个决策希望达成什么目标? 或满足什么需求?

    • the purpose of is ...

  • start out with what is right rather than what is acceptable precisely

    • one always has to compromise in the end

  • convert the decision into action

    • 谁该知道这个决策
    • 应该采取什么行动
    • 谁要采取那个行动
    • 行动的内容应该如何规划, 才能让必须采取行动的人胜任

  • feedback provide a continuous testing, against actual events

Effective Decisions

• think the specifications

• encourage opinions

  • they start out with an opinion not a fact

  • "What do we have to know to test the validity of this hypothesis?"

    • people who voice an opinion also take responsibility for defining what factual findings can be expected and should be looked for

  • "What is the criterion of relevance?"

    • go into find the appropriate measurement

• explore the alternatives

  • start out with the commitment to find out why people disagree

    • concerned first with understanding
    • conflicting views, the dialogure between diff view, the choice between diff judgments

  • develop disagreement and perhaps gain some understanding of what the decision is all about

    • the right decision demands adequate disagreement
    • disagreement alone can provide alternatives to a decision
    • disagreement is needed to stimulate the imagination -> a new and diff way of perceiving and understanding

  • use conflict of opinion as his tool to make sure all major aspects of an important matter are looked at carefully

• weigh the risks and gains

  • "Is a decision really necessary?"
  • act if benefits greatly outweigh cost and risk
  • act or do not act; but not half-action

• a decision requires courage as much as it requires judgment

  • "Is there any reason to believe that additional study will produce any new "
  • will not rush into a decision unless he is sure he understands it

• Executives are not paid for doing things they like to do

  • they are paied for getting the right things done

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