The single most useful management advice are the eight practices of effective executives defined by Peter Drucker. The insights are so profound that he deserves a place among the most significant thinkers on leadership and management over the last 1,000 years.

Drucker said: Great managers may be charismatic or dull, generous or tightfisted, visionary or numbers oriented. But every effective executive follows eight simple practices:

1. They ask “What needs to be done?”
2. They ask “What is right for the enterprise?”
3. They develop action plans
4. They take responsibility for decisions
5. They take responsibility for communicating
6. They are focused on opportunities rather than problems
7. They run productive meetings
8. They think and say “we” rather than “I”