Knowledge workers need to do the right things, not just do things right. Results are the only worthy measure.
A manager's key job is to work with the team to determine and define goals, articulate them clearly in terms of the desired outcome, and lead the team to efficiently achieving that outcome.
Every employee who is expected to make decisions in the normal course of their work that impact the performance and results of the organization is an executive.
Executives face four challenges to being effective:
1. Their time belongs to everybody else.
2. They need to focus on what's important based on criteria outside the flow of events.
3. They need to work through people outside their direct control in order to create results.
4. They need to look beyond the organization as results are only defined outside of it.
The truly important events on the outside are the change in trends, which must be perceived as they cannot be counted, defined, or classified.
A weakness of highly educated people is the tendency to specialize to the extent of being in contempt of other areas. We have the responsibility to at least know what related areas are about.
The effective person focuses on contribution. He asks "What can I contribute that will significantly affect the performance and the results of the institution I serve?". His focus is on responsibility.
The person who focuses on contribution and takes responsibility for results, no matter how junior, is in the most literal sense, "top management".
Every organization needs performance in 3 areas:
1. Direct results
2. Building of values and their reaffirmation
3. Building and developing people for tomorrow.
"Would this have satisfied Nurse Bryan?": "Are we doing the best we can to help this patient?"
Specialists must effectively share their knowledge to be effective. They must focus on what their partners need: When, how, and in what form.
The focus on contribution supplies the four basic requirements of effective human relations:
1. Communication
2. Teamwork
3. Self development
4. Development of others.
Managers should as their people: "What are the contributions for which the organization and I should hold you accountable? What should we expect of you? And what is the best utilization of your knowledge and your ability?"
Most people don't really know what their strengths are. The only way to find out is though feedback analysis: Whenever you make a decision or take a key action, write down what you expect will happen. Review this vs. the outcome 9-12 months later. You will be surprised.
Study and understand how you perform:
1. How do you learn? Are you a listener or a reader?
2. Do you work well with people? In what role?
3. How do you perform under stress?
4. Do you work better in a large or small organization?
5. Are you a better advisor or decision maker?
A well-managed organization is a "dull" organization. Nothing "exciting" happens because the crises have been anticipated and have been converted into routine.
The elements of effective decision making are:
1. The realization that a decision is needed.
2. The definition of the specifications that the answer has to satisfy
3. The thinking through of what is "right", before considering necessary concessions
4. The building into the decision of the action to carry it out
5. The feedback test of the validity and effectiveness of the decision against the actual course of events.