Sublime

This was illustrated brilliantly to me by Professor Bill Meehan, who spent thirty years with McKinsey advising CEOs and senior leaders on strategy and now teaches a class called “The Strategic Management of Nonprofits” at the Stanford School of Business.

People-decisions are time-consuming, for the simple reason that the Lord did not create people as “resources” for organization.

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

As I have said many times, our success depends in large part on giving the responsibility to the level where it can be exercised effectively, usually on the lowest possible level of the organization, the level nearest the customer.

“The purpose of going into business is to get free of a job so you can create jobs for other people.

the typical small business owner prefers Management by Abdication to Management by Delegation. Unfortunately, the inevitable result of this kind of thinking is that the business also grows to depend on the whims and moods of its people.

THE EFFECTIVE EXECUTIVE FOCUSES ON contribution. He looks up from his work and outward toward goals. He asks: “What can I contribute that will significantly affect the performance and the results of the institution I serve?” His stress is on responsibility.

To be effective, every knowledge worker, and especially every executive, therefore needs to be able to dispose of time in fairly large chunks.