Quotes About Leadership

Executives may become blind to everything that is perception (i.e., event) rather than fact (i.e., after the event).

He knows that the test of organization is not genius. It is its capacity to make common people achieve uncommon performance.

Drucker highlights two common ingredients: preparation with a clear purpose in mind ("why are we having this meeting?") and disciplined follow-up.

Effectiveness as an executive demands doing certain—and fairly simple—things.

Now the effectiveness of the individual depends increasingly on his or her ability to be effective in an organization, to be effective as an executive.

But innovation and change make inordinate time demands on the executive. All one can think and do in a short time is to think what one already knows and to do as one has always done.

The first two practices gave them the knowledge they needed. The next four helped them convert this knowledge into effective action. The last two ensured that the whole organization felt responsible and accountable.

Note that the question is not "What do I want to do?" Asking what has to be done, and taking the question seriously, is crucial for managerial success.

Effective executives build on strengths

Effective executives concentrate on the few major areas where superior performance will produce outstanding results.

Effective executives, finally, make effective decisions

Without an action plan, the executive becomes a prisoner of events.

Write an Action Plan

Gerenciar é fazer as coisas do jeito certo; liderar é fazer as coisas certas.

The Functions of the Executive, that organizations are held together by information rather than by ownership or command.

The task of an executive is not to change human beings. Rather, as the Bible tells us in the parable of the talents, the task is to multiply the performance capacity of the whole by putting to use whatever strength, whatever health, whatever aspiration there is in individuals.

The worst kind of replacement planning is the search for a "crown prince." A crown prince either has a legal right to succeed; or else nomination is likely to destroy him. No matter how carefully concealed, picking a crown prince is an overt act which the whole organization very rapidly perceives. And then all the other possible contenders unite against the crown prince and work to bring him down—and they usually succeed.

The effective executive knows that it is easier to raise the performance of one leader than it is to raise the performance of a whole mass.

Good follow-up is just as important as the meeting itself.

Even a conversation with only one other person is a meeting. Hence, if they are to be effective, executives must make meetings productive.

Make meetings productive

thus, as the organization grows, an increasing proportion of energy diverts to managing the internal mass rather than contributing to the outside world. Combine this with another Druckerian truth: The accomplishments of a single right person in a key seat dwarf the combined accomplishment of dividing the seat among multiple B-players.

Resist the temptation to redesign seats on the bus to specific personalities (except for the exceptionally rare genius)

They asked, "What needs to be done?" • They asked, "What is right for the enterprise?" • They developed action plans. • They took responsibility for decisions. • They took responsibility for communicating. • They were focused on opportunities rather than problems. • They ran productive meetings. • They thought and said "we" rather than "I.