WHAT MAKES AN EFFECTIVE EXECUTIVE?
Welcome to the STRUGZ platform where various life principles, career and business tips are shared.
The topic for this week’s edition is An Effective Executive. An executive is an individual who coordinates operational activities for organizations and strategies to meet company goals, while Effectiveness is the capability of producing the desired result.
What makes an effective executive? The measure of the executive, Peter F. Drucker reminds us, is the ability to "get the right things done." This usually involves doing what other people have overlooked as well as avoiding what is unproductive. Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge may all be wasted in an executive job without the acquired habits of mind that mould them into results. Drucker identifies five practices essential to business effectiveness that can, and must be learned:
Managing time
Choosing what to contribute to the organization
Knowing where and how to mobilize strength for best effect
Setting the right priorities
Knitting all of them together with effective decision-making
Working remotely is now the new norm during this pandemic and this has created management blind spots. In a recent Leadership training that I had with a BDC company, the management challenge was geared towards low productivity of staff due to remote working, especially with the marketing team.
I reminded management what it entails to be an Effective Executive, which includes:
a. Developing action plans for the team
b. Creating daily task sheets
c. Submitting daily deliverables
d. Sourcing for a diverse measure of network
e. Creating a platform for team members to thrive
f. Focusing on opportunities rather than problems within the team
g. Virtual team meetings with team heads
h. Daily reports and handovers
I was able to recap that an Effective Executive needs to be strategic, creative, methodical and intentional in leading and managing its organization.
