What is Effective?

What is effective?

Discipline

Sacrifice

Courage

Resilience

Faith
Fairness

Proactivity

Patience

Urgency

Good Communication

Responsibility
SMART Goals
Lifelong, Systematic Learning

What is not?

Procrastination

Shortcuts

Wishful Thinking

Blaming

Impulsivity

The Three Barriers to Effectiveness

The three barriers to effectiveness are: Fear, Doubt, and Apathy.

As the antidotes, Drucker says we need: Courage, Faith, and Work.

How do we develop courage?

A little bit at a time. By facing our fears. By listening to Josh Groban or Sara Bareilles. By studying Brené Brown. You see, we cannot go around fear. We must go through it.

How do we develop faith?

Through education and by getting around people that have accomplished what we are looking to accomplish. Remember, what one person has done, another can always do again. Perhaps you listen to Craig Ferguson singing a Dead Man Fall song.

How do we keep on working?

I do not know. Motivation is a tricky thing. Some people are motivated extrinsically by dreams, goals, and possessions. Others are motivated more internally by autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Then, others are motivated by anger and revenge. What I do know is that motivation is an inside job. It is up to each of us to motivate ourselves. It is not something I can teach you. Although, I would recommend reading Ed Deci's book.

One thing I do know is that fear and doubt zap motivation. Conquer your fear, and build your faith, and your motivation should improve.

Lest you think I am full of so much hot air, we need to remember what Geoff Colvin wrote, Talent is Overrated.

Drucker writes, "A good many studies of research scientists have shown that achievement (at least below the genius level of an Einstein, Niels Bohr, or a Max Planck) depends less on ability in doing research than on the courage to go after opportunity."

The Effective Executive

Last week I spoke briefly about Peter Drucker's book The Effective Executive. This week I will quickly run through the main elements of the book.

There are five, main prescriptions in Drucker's masterful book. They are:

1. Know Thy Time – I think we have all heard the Delphic maxim, “Know thyself.” It is wise advice. And, it plays a large roll in effectiveness. Effective executives always start with their time. Because, if you cannot control your time, you will not be very effective. Here is a little hint, time management is largely a function of self-discipline. Specifically, effective time management is highly dependent upon your ability to say, “No.” Simply in theory. Difficult in practice.

2. What Can I Contribute? – Peter would say, to focus on contribution is to focus on effectiveness. A lot of people are focused on success. And, Drucker would suggest focusing on success is a mistake. Success, like happiness, is a byproduct not a destination. Success comes from acting on the question, “What should my contribution be?” And, in order to answer that question, we need to possess self-knowledge. Which leads us to Peter's next point.

3. Making Strength Productive – Drucker would say most people are not aware of their strengths. People think they know their strengths. But, more often than not, they are incorrect. I will give you two ways to identify your personal strengths. The first comes from Peter. Drucker recommended what he called “Feedback Analysis.” The technique goes like this. Whenever you make a significant decision, or make a big change in your life, write down the expectations you have. Meaning, write down the reason for your decision and the decisions' expected outcomes. Then, 9-12 months later, review what you had written and compare it is what actually happened. The other method, for identifying your strengths, comes from Professor Martin Seligman. If you go to Marty's website you can take a free, strengths test. Simply visit authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu and create a free profile. On Seligman's site, there are numerous tests you can take. And, for our purposes, I am recommending the test titled, “VIA Survey of Character Strengths”

4. First Things First – This is, very simply, a question of priorities. When I say “very simply,” I most certainly do not mean “easy.” In fact, keeping first things first is very difficult. Like time management, keeping first things first is largely a function of self-discipline. Which ain't easy. However, part of the problem is confusion. When we lack focus, we are much more easily distracted. Focusing on your strengths, and contribution, will help you to stay focused on the important stuff. Because, like Heidi Grant Halvorson says, successful people, “Don't Tempt Fate.” Drucker writes, “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.”

5. Decision-making – Effectiveness is a function of action. It is all about action. And, in as much as we can only do so many things, action is a function of decision. Drucker writes, “Effective executives do not make a great many decisions. They concentrate on the important ones. They try to think through what is strategic and generic, rather than “solve problems.” They know that the trickiest decision is that between the right and the wrong compromise and have learned to tell one from the other. They know that the most time-consuming step in the process is not making the decision but putting it into effect.”

I will leave you with Drucker's five elements for effective decision-making:

1. The clear realization that the problem was generic and could only be solved through a decision which established a rule, a principle.

2. The definition of the specifications which the answer to the problem had to satisfy, that is, of the “boundary conditions.”

3. The thinking through what is “right,” that is, the solution which will fully satisfy the specifications before attention is given to the compromises, adaptations, and concessions needed to make the decision acceptable.

4. The building into the decision of the action to carry it out.

5. The “feedback” which tests the validity and effectiveness of the decision against the actual course of events.

Effectiveness Can, and Must, Be Learned

If you have not read him before, let us talk some Peter Drucker. Peter was so eloquence in his writing. One thing he would talk about is the importance of perception. He would say one of the most important areas of education is the development of the ability to perceive.

So many people are good at analysis, at breaking things apart. It is what we are taught in school. What is needed is to add the ability to perceive that which is around us. Perception is about looking out the window and observing what is really there (Something I wrote about is the post about here) It is a lot harder than it sounds.

If you have ever studied calculus, you know the two main functions are differentiation and integration. Analysis is like differentiation and perception is the integration. So, let us do a little integrating. In this post I will continue to integrate the teachings of Drucker into this blog.

The first Drucker book, that everybody should read, is The Effective Executive. Though The Effective Executive was released in 1967, do not let its age detract you. The book truly is a golden oldie.

Here are a few quotes from the beginning of the book:

An effective executive is not “talent,” let along “genius.” The effective executive follows practices that can be learned and must be learned.

The Effective Executive is both a concise blueprint for effectiveness as an executive within an organization and a practical guide to managing oneself for performance and achievement, whether within an organization or on one's own.

This is a program first developed for the senior executives of the Eisenhower administration.

Every developed society has become a society of organizations. And every organization, whatever its specific function, depends for its performance (and indeed its survival) on the effectiveness of its executives.

Here is a verbatim transcription of the book's Preface:

Management books usually deal with managing other people. The subject of this book is managing oneself for effectiveness. That one can truly manage other people is by no means adequately proven. But one can always manage oneself. Indeed, executives who do not manage themselves for effectiveness cannot possibly expect to manage their associates and subordinates. Management is largely by example. Executives who do not know how to make themselves effective in their own job and work set the wrong example.

To be reasonably effective it is not enough for the individual to be intelligent, to work hard or to be knowledgeable. Effectiveness is something separate, something different. But to be effective also does not require special gifts, special aptitude, or special training. Effectiveness as an executive demands doing certain – and fairly simple – things. It consists of a small number of practices, the practices that are presented and discussed in this book. But these practices are not “inborn.” In forty-five years of work as a consultant with a large number of executives in a wide variety of organizations – large and small; businesses, government agencies, labor unions, hospitals, universities, community services,; American, European, Latin American and Japanese – I have not come across a single “natural”: an executive who was born effective. All the effective ones have learned to be effective. And all of them then had to practice effectiveness until it became a 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.

Society has become a society of organizations in all developed countries. Now the effectiveness of the individual depends increasingly on his or her ability to be effective in an organization, to be effective as an executive. And the effectiveness of a modern society and its ability to perform – perhaps even its ability to survive – depend increasingly of the effectiveness of the people who work as executives in the organization. The effective executive is fast becoming a key resource for society, and effectiveness as an executive a prime requirement for individual accomplishment and achievement – for young people at the beginning of their working lives fully as much as for people in mid-career.

I did not link to the book because next week I am going to give you an overview.
Stay tuned.