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The Effective Executive audiobook

  • By: Peter F. Drucker
  • Narrator: Jim Collins
  • Length: 6 hours 15 minutes
  • Publisher: HarperAudio
  • Publish date: January 24, 2017
  • Language: English
  • (30976 ratings)
(30976 ratings)
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The Effective Executive Audiobook Summary

A handsome, commemorative edition of Peter F. Drucker’s timeless classic work on leadership and management, with a foreword by Jim Collins.

What makes an effective executive?

For decades, Peter F. Drucker was widely regarded as “the dean of this country’s business and management philosophers” (Wall Street Journal). In this concise and brilliant work, he looks to the most influential position in management–the executive.

The measure of the executive, 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 mold them into results.

Drucker identifies five practices essential to business effectiveness that can–and must–be mastered:

  • 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

Ranging across the annals of business and government, Drucker demonstrates the distinctive skill of the executive and offers fresh insights into old and seemingly obvious business situations.

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The Effective Executive Audiobook Narrator

Jim Collins is the narrator of The Effective Executive audiobook that was written by Peter F. Drucker

Jim Collins is a student and teacher of what makes great companies tick, and a Socratic advisor to leaders in the business and social sectors. Having invested more than a quarter-century in rigorous research, he has authored or coauthored six books that have sold in total more than 10 million copies worldwide. They include Good to GreatBuilt to LastHow the Mighty Fall, and Great by Choice.

Driven by a relentless curiosity, Jim began his research and teaching career on the faculty at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1992. In 1995, he founded a management laboratory in Boulder, Colorado.

In addition to his work in the business sector, Jim has a passion for learning and teaching in the social sectors, including education, healthcare, government, faith-based organizations, social ventures, and cause-driven nonprofits.

In 2012 and 2013, he had the honor to serve a two-year appointment as the Class of 1951 Chair for the Study of Leadership at the United States Military Academy at West Point. In 2017, Forbes selected Jim as one of the 100 Greatest Living Business Minds.

Jim has been an avid rock climber for more than forty years and has completed single-day ascents of El Capitan and Half Dome in Yosemite Valley.

Learn more about Jim and his concepts at his website, where you’ll find articles, videos, and useful tools. jimcollins.com

About the Author(s) of The Effective Executive

Peter F. Drucker is the author of The Effective Executive

The Effective Executive Full Details

Narrator Jim Collins
Length 6 hours 15 minutes
Author Peter F. Drucker
Publisher HarperAudio
Release date January 24, 2017
ISBN 9780062678065

Additional info

The publisher of the The Effective Executive is HarperAudio. The imprint is HarperAudio. It is supplied by HarperAudio. The ISBN-13 is 9780062678065.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

Andrew

January 30, 2015

Stop reading boring blogs and books about productivity and go straight to the source of many of these ideas. Then, stop thinking about being productive and go do something.

Janet

March 08, 2008

I used to be a large reader of Jack Welch practices at GE, until I read that he looked to Drucker. I've been reading Drucker and re-reading Drucker ever since. He is the master at learning how to be "effective" and from him, I learned how to filter what are the best effectiveness 21st century leadership practices. Now, after 14 years of running a company and 8 years of trying to create a leadership engine to run a company, I believe that the 21st century practices for effectiveness in order of sequence:1. Self love & taking care of oneself daily (for me, taught by Richard Bach, M. Scott Peck, Gay Hendrix, others)2. Life vision (parents' life history, Richard Bach, Tao Te Ching, Tao of Mentoring)3. Being resonant. Using a ratio of 7 PEA to 1 NEA(For me, taught by Resonant Leader and developing a self care agenda)4. Using Appreciative Inquiry style to help others get in touch with when they felt their highest, when I feel my highest5. Facilitative communication style (Roger Schwarz, other facilitator techniques)I am still in process on learning on all these dimensions. As AA says, and M.Scott Peck quotes..."I'm not okay, you're not okay and that's okay." Learning to forgive one's self and others and accept the mystery of life is a life long leadership and life journey.

Gene

August 27, 2022

No one in a managerial role should be allowed to manage others without having read at least one book from Peter Drucker. Drucker is widely acclaimed as The Father of Modern Management and published 39 books in a lifetime that spanned 95 years. The Effective Executive was published in 1967 and this book is as good a starting point as any for the uninitiated.Effectiveness is a habit and habits can be learned through practice, lots of it. According to Drucker there are five habits that, once acquired, determine the effectiveness of an executive. If you want to be effective in your work—and in your life—practice these five habits:1. Know where your time goes.2. Focus on outward contribution.3. Build on strengths.4. Concentrate on the few major areas where superior performance will produce outstanding results.5. Make effective decisions.The book provides detail and substance to these five habits of executive effectiveness. The examples are a time capsule from the "Mad Men" era drawing on events from the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Don't let these dated examples lull you into thinking that "times have changed." While they certainly have, the practices that lead to executive effectiveness have stood the test of time.Access Gene Babon's reviews of books on Business Leadership and Business Strategy at Pinterest.

Tõnu

August 26, 2018

"Don't tell me that you had a wonderful time reading this book, tell me what you are going to do differently on Monday". The higher up the organization, the less time he has under his own control (senior executives rarely have more than quarter of their time under their control), so you have to take control of your time. Understand what are the things that waste your time without contributing to effectiveness. Ask your subordinates how you are preventing them from doing their work effectively.The first version of the book was written in 1965, but majority of the assumptions are still valid on 21th century (like the perception that computers will take over decision making VS actually expecting serious mental effort from people because one cannot compete with computer on standard computation). 1. Know where your time goes; relentlessly prune unproductive activities.2. Know the contribution you're expected to make - to others' contributions and to the organization.3. Make your strengths productive and hone them; focus on the absence of weakness leads to mediocrity.4. There are always more opportunities available than time to pursue them – prioritize and focus on the truly impactful.5. Continually shed unproductive programs and processes by asking, "If we didn't already do this, would we go into it now?"6. Most events are generic and should be handled by rules, policies, and procedures; solutions to truly unique events should be formed on the highest conceptual level possible. Decisions without disagreement are not effective. Doing nothing might be a good option (Warren Buffet).“Converting a decision into action requires answering several distinct questions: Who has to know of this decision? What action has to be taken? Who is to take it? And what does the action have to be so that the people who have to do it can do it? The first and the last of these are too often overlooked—with dire results.” “Working on the right things is what makes knowledge work effective.”“If the executive lets the flow of events determine what he does, what he works on, and what he takes seriously, he will fritter himself away “operating.” He may be an excellent man. But he is certain to waste his knowledge and ability and to throw away what little effectiveness he might have achieved. What the executive needs are criteria which enable him to work on the truly important, that is, on contributions and results, even though the criteria are not found in the flow of events.” “A well-managed factory is boring. Nothing exciting happens in it because the crises have been anticipated and have been converted into routine.” “The first rule in decision-making is that one does not make a decision unless there is disagreement.”“The danger is that executives will become contemptuous of information and stimulus that cannot be reduced to computer logic and computer language. Executives may become blind to everything that is perception (i.e., event) rather than fact (i.e., after the event). The tremendous amount of computer information may thus shut out access to reality.” “The executive’s time tends to belong to everybody else. If one attempted to define an “executive” operationally (that is, through his activities) one would have to define him as a captive of the organization. Everybody can move in on his time, and everybody does. There seems to be very little any one executive can do about it. He cannot, as a rule, like the physician, stick his head out the door and say to the nurse, “I won’t see anybody for the next half hour.” Just at this moment, the executive’s telephone rings, and he has to speak to the company’s best customer or to a high official in the city administration or to his boss—and the next half hour is already gone.*” “The job is, however, not to set priorities. That is easy. Everybody can do it. The reason why so few executives concentrate is the difficulty of setting “posteriorities”—that is, deciding what tasks not to tackle—and of sticking to the decision.” “Executives are not paid for doing things they like to do. They are paid for getting the right things done—most of all in their specific task, the making of effective decisions.”

Mark

September 03, 2012

Know Thy Time - take a time inventory & eliminate "need not be done", "could be done by others", and "wasting other's time". - prune time wasters - lack of systems --> crisis - overstaffing --> unnecessary coordination - malorganization --> excessive mtgs - malfunction in information - consolidate discretionary time into meaningful chunks to facilitate effectiveness (eg 1.5 hr)What can I contribute? - in terms of EXTERNAL results - aim highMaking strengths productive - focus on indvidual STRENGTHS and the strengths of others, not trying to improve on weaknessesFirst things first - focus on single BHAGs at a time - slough off yesterday (sunk cost, don't just do things to finish them if ineffective) - to-do AND to-don't listsDecision making - establish generic problem - set boundary conditions - determine what is RIGHT, not what is acceptable - build in action to carry out decision - DIRECT feedback (go see) to test validity/effectiveness of decision once enactedEffective decisions - not effective without disagreement - must define a measure of effectiveness before enacting - "do-nothing" is an option

Dave

April 06, 2019

I loved this book - so packed with wisdom that I moved through it slowly, filing away many quotes for reference.There are two main thoughts which might dissuade you from reading this. I don’t want you to miss out, so I’d like to address both:“Effective Executive? This sounds like it's only for people who wear suits and spend their days in board meetings..."The author defines executive broadly as someone who "is responsible for a contribution that materially affects the capacity of the organization to perform and to obtain results”. I think that description can apply to most people I know, and certainly as a software engineer I found the advice in the book relevant.“This sounds like cold, boring, business talk, about how to make you a more efficient cog in the machine..."The author actually comes across as incredibly caring and insightful about people - their motivation, their happiness, their self-development etc. Some quotes which I loved, and which show what I mean:The motivation of the knowledge worker depends on his being effective, on his being able to achieve. If effectiveness is lacking in his work, his commitment to work and to contribution will soon wither, and he will become a time-server going through the motions from 9 to 5.I have never seen anyone in a job for which he was inadequate who was not slowly being destroyed by the pressure and the strains, and who did not secretly pray for deliverance.The knowledge worker is not poverty-prone. He is in danger of alienation to use the fashionable word for boredom, frustration, and silent despair.

Chris

February 06, 2017

The Effective Executive – Peter E. DruckerBook Review for Goodreads.Originally published 1967. Edition read was Harper Business, 1993. I’m too young to have been part of the Drucker Generation. I had always heard him talked of and quoted among the staid and dusty corners of mainstream business, but I never thought to reach back and read him. Drucker’s words and ideas were the Esperanto of an emerging class in the business world of post WWII. He was part and parcel of important board room conversations in the 1950’s and 1960’s. By the 1980’s when I entered the business world things had changed, or people were tired of basic business sense. We got Peters and Porter and a cadre of super smart guys from Harvard and Stanford who tried to take it to the next level. They all owed their chops to the work of Drucker though. Drucker was their text book. Drucker was the original management consultant the likes of which many owe their profession to today. I’m not even sure how I came into possession of this book. Perhaps the book sale at the local library where you can buy them for $5 a shopping bag? I’m not sure how this book pushed its way to the front of the queue ahead of the other 30 books that are waving their little book-arms to get my attention. But, I’m glad it did because it was a minor revelation to me. This book must be read not as a small collection of business advice, like a Poor Richards for the executive class, but as a manifesto for the times. A manifesto for an emerging class of business professionals. A manifesto for a society caught in the sea change from basic, patriarchal, industrial capitalism to effective organizations that would be needed to compete and thrive on the world’s stage. It is Drucker’s plea for American business to get their act together. The Effective Executive can be seen as anachronistic but also as a history lesson. It is birthed from a point in time in America where the knowledge worker was emerging and a new style of leadership was needed to utilize them. Drucker recognized that this new class of workers needed to be harnessed as the driving force for a new generation of organizations. He is also interestingly prescient. He talks about how big American car companies needed to change. He talks about Government being made ineffective by competing priories. He scolds that global labor is cheap and the only way to stay competitive in to empower our resources and innovate. Beyond all the histrionics this little book is also chock full of great tips for anyone who is in business. I particularly liked the chapters on decision making. Perhaps these chapters might help those currently embroiled in their New Year’s Resolutions? How do you set your priorities? If you don’t set your priorities, circumstance or ‘pressures’ will set your priorities for you. If you let ‘pressure’ drive your priorities and decisions you’ll always be focusing on the past. This is what Drucker amuses himself by calling them Priorities vs Posterities. Pressure causes us to react and the future-looking priorities are crowded out by the backward-looking posterities. Decisions that are posterities, when analyzed will likely be someone else’s priority, not yours. What are some other ways to make bad decisions? Postponing a decision usually makes it less relevant because decisions are rooted in the time of decision. You can also try to make decisions that spread a compromise around to make everyone happy. That guarantees an ineffective solution. What are the attributes of a good decision? - Aim high and make it meaningful. - Make the decision unique to you and your business, don’t put on someone else’s decision. - Make decisions outward facing.- Make decisions future focused. - Make the decision take advantage of an opportunity, not solve a problem. Good decisions will require courage. Truly great decisions will seem like heresy to the rest of the world. Good decisions are going to make someone mad. That’s ok. As a matter of fact, if you don’t have a dissenting opinion you haven’t looked at the decision well enough. Most effective decisions are disagreeable. Above all, the thing that makes a decision effective is follow through and execution. The executive must use grit and will power to drive the execution of that decision for it to have effect. How do you do this? How do you execute a game-changing decision so that it propagates throughout the organization? In the new (at the time) knowledge worker stacked organization you leverage those knowledge workers to implement the decisions. This is really the key and ties the whole work together. The old capitalist regimes with a handful of executives making decisions and everyone else hopping to were no longer effective and were a dying breed. In order to compete in the post WWII world the knowledge workers throughout the organization needed to be capable of making decisions on their own that aligned with and drove the organization to effectiveness. That’s what Drucker saw. Organizations that could learn to leverage the knowledge worker would be more effective and more competitive. This is still the hallmark of effective organizations. The ability to communicate and leverage the individual genius of each worker in a way that is passionately aligned with the goals of the organization. Think about Starbucks or Zappos or any other company that uses culture to enable knowledge workers to do the right thing at the right time for the benefit of the company. We owe a lot to Peter Drucker. He was a smart observer of the times at a time when modern business was being born. The Effective Executive is a worthy investment of your time, even now in 2016. If not for the timeless business tenants, then for the context it gives us. Chris Russell – January 2017

Sri

February 01, 2021

A timeless Peter Drucker classic on time-tested aspects of strategy, planning, decision making, delegation, communicating, meeting management, and collaboration in being an effective executive. I like doing a periodic refresh of such books.

Guilherme

December 23, 2019

This is a short read, and not the most engaging one (it's not a page-turner by any means).But it is a classic, full of insights. It was written decades ago, but the advice is timeless.Great resource and food for thought for all the "knowledge workers" out there - which means most of us. Great books

Adriano

June 29, 2022

Although the book was first released in 1967, it still presents relevant advice for today's management practices.As a high-level overview, the book talks about:- time management (register how you are using your time)- prioritization of tasks (apply focus and minimum of no interrupted time to finish important work)- focus on work results (what are we aiming to achieve with this work at the end?)- focus on the direct reports (from your boss as well) forces instead of weaknesses, considering those weaknesses don't impact the goals- decision making (give space to divergence of opinions and check opinions with reality).Some parts of the book are too dense because the stories used are a bit long (mainly on decision-making topic), and it was hard for me to stay along, but even with that, I think it still deserves five stars because of the excellent advice it brings.

Ashlyn

January 31, 2022

I've had this book since I was in college, but never got around to reading it. I think it was actually very insightful. It talks about how you can learn to be an effective executive. Basically, it's about the person themselves learning to manage their time and make effective decisions rather than focusing on how to manage other people. I thought the time management chapter was probably the most useful. I know I struggle with time management. Also, I thought the concentrating chapter about how to focus on one thing at a time to be more effective was interesting. This book had a lot of examples to go along with what that author was trying to communicate. Sometimes those were a little boring. But overall, I did like the book, and I will come back to re-read it sometime in the future.

Niklas

January 15, 2022

Although the book was first released in 1967, the ideas in this book still hold up today. I found the clarity of the ideas and the principles very helpful. I can recommend this book to everyone in a Leadership position or people interested in the topic.

Gaurav

July 17, 2022

10 star ⭐️ read Hearty and heavily recommend to anyone doing knowledge work.Most information dense management book I have ever read

Yevgeniy

July 29, 2018

This isn't a book on how to manage others, but how to manage yourself. Some parts feel a little dated (especially the language in the book and assumption all "executives" are male), some parts are obvious (though I learned many of them the hard way, so perhaps if I'd read this earlier in my career, it would've saved me some pain!), and some parts contain gems that are well worth reading.A few of my favorite take aways:* The executive is a hostage to their organization. The executive's time belongs to everyone else: employees, customers, investors, etc are all constantly asking for the executives time.* Time is almost always the most scarce resource. You can spend money to buy products or hire people, but you can never buy more time. Once it's gone, it can never be replaced. Therefore, time management is a critical skill for every executive.* One trick for time management: for every activity on your schedule, first ask, "What would happen if this activity wasn’t done at all?" If the negative consequences are minor (or there are no negative consequences!) stop doing that activity. After that, the next question is, "What things are better done by someone else?" If someone else could do some part of your job better, have that happen, and focus your energy on what you do well.* The people you hire aren't machines. This sounds obvious, but I often fall into the trap of expecting optimal performance in every aspect of work from everyone. The reality is that everyone has strengths and weaknesses and good days and bad days; the amount of talent in the world is limited, and people talented in one area, usually aren't talented in others; and you'll rarely find a "perfect" fit for the job (and if they are, the job will change and no longer be perfect). The role of the executive is to build an organization that works well _despite_ the fact that people aren't perfect. * When hiring, hire people who have special strengths, rather than looking for people who have no weakness. The latter doesn't exist. The former is essential to a successful organization. In fact, you can define an effective organization as one which best (a) makes the best use of people's strengths and (b) helps mitigate their weaknesses. * The distance between the leader and their subordinates is a constant. If you raise the effectiveness of the leaders, the rest will follow, and rise with them.* Good decision making tips: (1) When a lawyer is first starting their career, their first assignment is often to build the strongest possible case for the opposition. This teaches you to consider all sides of an argument. (2) Good decisions require disagreement. If everyone in your org agrees, it's either a very easy decision, or you're missing critical information. (3) If you're going to decide to do something, do it all the way. Otherwise, it's like a surgeon that operates and only removes half the appendix: you have all the pain and risk of infection, but don't get the cure. (4) A good decision consists of knowing what action to take, who should take it, who should know about it, when is the deadline, and what alternatives you have in case things don't work out.* Send a follow-up email after every meeting. This email should outline what decisions were made, who is responsible for them, and the deadline. If any of this information is missing, you didn't do the meeting right!As always, I've saved a few of my favorite quotes:“Converting a decision into action requires answering several distinct questions: Who has to know of this decision? What action has to be taken? Who is to take it? And what does the action have to be so that the people who have to do it can do it? The first and the last of these are too often overlooked—with dire results.” “If the executive lets the flow of events determine what he does, what he works on, and what he takes seriously, he will fritter himself away “operating.” He may be an excellent man. But he is certain to waste his knowledge and ability and to throw away what little effectiveness he might have achieved. What the executive needs are criteria which enable him to work on the truly important, that is, on contributions and results, even though the criteria are not found in the flow of events.”“A decision without an alternative is a desperate gambler’s throw.” “One cannot hire a hand—the whole man always comes with it.” “If there is any one “secret” of effectiveness, it is concentration. Effective executives do first things first and they do one thing at a time.”

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