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November 3, 2022 - August 6, 2023
These are essentially five such practices—five such habits of the mind that have to be acquired to be an effective executive:
Another common time-waster is malorganization. Its symptom is an excess of meetings. Meetings are by definition a concession to deficient organization for one either meets or one works. One cannot do both at the same time. In an ideally designed structure (which in a changing world is of course only a dream) there would be no meetings. Everybody would know what he needs to know to do his job. Everyone would have the resources available to him to do his job.
An organization in which everybody meets all the time is an organization in which no one gets anything done.
people in an organization find themselves in meetings a quarter of their time or more—there is time-wasting malorganization.
“What contribution from me do you require to make your contribution to the organization? When do you need this, how do you need it, and in what form?”
it will give him immunity against the arrogance of the learned—that degenerative disease which destroys knowledge and deprives it of beauty and effectiveness.
The focus on contribution by itself supplies the four basic requirements of effective human relations: • communications; • teamwork; • self-development; and • development of others.
one can either direct a meeting and listen for the important things
being said, or one can take part and talk; one cannot do both). But the cardinal rule is to focus it from the start on contribution.
For a superior to focus on weakness, as our appraisals require him to do, destroys the integrity of his relationship with his subordinates.
They need to concentrate and to set priorities instead of trying to do a little bit of everything.
Ultimately, the effective executive must set a large number of posteriorities—tasks one chooses not to tackle—so as to focus with exquisite clarity on a small number of priorities.
Focus on opportunity rather than on problem. Choose your own direction—rather than climb on the bandwagon.
And aim high, aim for something that will make a difference, rather than for something that is ‘safe’ and easy to do.”