The Effective Executive

This was how the bank president handled his time. Monday and Friday he had his operating meetings, saw senior executives on current matters, was available to important customers, and so on. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons were left unscheduled—for whatever might come up; and something of course always did, whether urgent personnel probl

1. Effective executives know where their time goes. They work systematically at managing the little of their time that can be brought under their control.

always in exceedingly short supply. Time is totally irreplaceable. Within limits we can substitute one resource for another, copper for aluminum, for instance. We can substitute capital for human labor. We can use more knowledge or more brawn. But there is no substitute for time.

What is needed are few, but fundamental, decisions. What is needed is the right strategy rather than razzle-dazzle tactics.

In either case the decision-maker is outside rather than inside the business.

In a business, there can be attempts to mold the customers’ preferences and values through promotion and advertising.

important, that is, on contributions and results, even though the criteria are not found in the flow of events.

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. They do not build on weakness. They do not start out with the things they cannot do. 4.

gossip reach him and touch him at every point. Unless he makes special efforts to gain direct access to outside reality, he will become increasingly inside-focused.