The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done (Harperbusiness Essentials)

The knowledge worker does not produce something that is effective by itself. He does not produce a physical product —a ditch, a pair of shoes, a machine part. He produces knowledge, ideas, information.

1. Effective executives know where their time goes.

Such a man (or woman) must make decisions; he cannot just carry out orders.

4. Finally, the executive is within an organization.

“Delegation” as the term is customarily used, is a misunderstanding—is indeed misdirection. But getting rid of anything that can be done by somebody else so that one does not have to delegate but can really get to one’s own work—that is a major improvement in effectiveness.

3. Effective executives build on strengths—their own strengths, the strengths of their superiors, colleagues, and subordinates; and on the strengths in the situation, that is, on what they can do.

The manual worker can always be judged in terms of the quantity and quality of a definable and discrete output, such as a pair of shoes.

They know that an effective decision is always a judgment based on “dissenting opinions” rather than on “consensus on the facts.”

the difference between time-use and time-waste is effectiveness and results.