Mediacast
Transcript
The effective executive runs effective meetings.
At the outset of each meeting, state the purpose and contribution the meeting is to achieve.
At the end of each meeting, go back to the opening statement and relate the final conclusions to the original intent.
Alfred Sloan, the CEO of GM, is one of the most effective executives Peter Drucker had ever known.
In meetings, Sloan never took notes. He rarely spoke, except to clarify a confusing point.
At the end, he summed up, thanked participants, and immediately sent out a summary of the discussion, conclusions, and follow up work.
For each work assignment, he specified the deadline and the directly responsible individual.
To be truly effective in an organization, the executive must not only manage subordinates, but also their boss.
If their boss is not promoted, they will be bottled up behind him.
If their boss is fired, the successor is usually brought in from the outside, and they bring their own bright young talents with them.
The effective executive accepts that their boss is human. Any human has strengths and limitations.
Thus, managing one’s boss is the same as managing one’s subordinates.
To make the boss effective, one must enable the boss to build on their strength, to do what they can do best.