Becoming a great executive is easy. Just follow management guru Peter Drucker’s eight simple practices.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
We can all become effective executives if we follow eight practices that management guru Peter Drucker gave us.
Number one, we ask what needs to be done. What’s the action we need to take? What needs to be done and what are the results that we’re trying to accomplish?
Number two, what’s best for the enterprise? Not what’s best for me, what’s best for my group, what’s best for my product, what’s best for my bonuses, but what is best for the enterprise? Meaning what’s best for the company that we’re working for?
Number three, they make actions plan. They make plans for the work they’re going to do.
Number four, they take responsibility for decisions. Meaning once decisions are made, they take responsibility really happening.
Number five, they take responsibility for communicating. They may not be the best communicators and they may not be charismatic, it may not be their innate skill, but they take responsibility for making sure that everybody knows what’s happening, what needs to happen, where we are heading. So take responsibility for communicating.
They also are always focused on opportunities rather than problems, and of course, if you are an executive or a leader, you must solve a lot of problems, but you are focused on opportunities. When you have spare time, when your brain is creative, you think about the opportunities that lay ahead not the problems. You solve the problems, but your mind is focused on the opportunities.
They also run productive meetings, and it’s interesting that such a concrete act is one of the top eight practices to follow. Meaning the effective executives, those who get things done, who are successful, all of them know how to run productive meetings. Small meetings, large meetings, all kinds of meetings.
Finally, number eight, they think and say ‘we’ and not ‘I’. Meaning they see themselves as part of a group, they see it as a group effort, it’s a team effort, and they don’t highlight their own role their except of course to make blame and responsibility, but they share success and they see it as a collective effort.
With those eight practices, anybody can become an effective executive and it also means that other things that are not mentioned in these eight things are not that important. They are important, but they are not that important. These eight things are what define an effective executive and a successful business leader.
