After completing a task, reset priorities based on new realities. Decisions that are right for your enterprise are ultimately right for all stakeholders. Develop action plans. And revise plans to reflect new opportunities. Take responsibility for decisions. Regularly review decisions, especially hires and promotions.
This enables you to correct poor decisions before doing real damage. Take responsibility for communicating. Get input from superiors, subordinates, and peers on your action plans. Let each know what information you need to get the job done.
Focus on opportunities, not problems. You get results by exploiting opportunities, not solving problems. Run productive meetings. Delivering a report? Terminate the meeting once the purpose is accomplished.
Follow up with short communications summarizing the discussion, spelling out new work assignments and deadlines for completing them.
An effective executive does not need to be a leader in the sense that the term is now most commonly used. Harry Truman did not have one ounce of charisma, for example, yet he was among the most effective chief executives in U. They were all over the map in terms of their personalities, attitudes, values, strengths, and weaknesses.
The first two practices gave them the knowledge they needed. The next four helped them convert this knowledge into effective action. The first practice is to ask what needs to be done. Failure to ask this question will render even the ablest executive ineffectual.
Asking what has to be done, and taking the question seriously, is crucial for managerial success. As soon as he asked what needed to be done, though, Truman realized that foreign affairs had absolute priority. He organized his working day so that it began with tutorials on foreign policy by the secretaries of state and defense. As a result, he became the most effective president in foreign affairs the United States has ever known.
He contained Communism in both Europe and Asia and, with the Marshall Plan, triggered 50 years of worldwide economic growth. Similarly, Jack Welch realized that what needed to be done at General Electric when he took over as chief executive was not the overseas expansion he wanted to launch.
It was getting rid of GE businesses that, no matter how profitable, could not be number one or number two in their industries. But effective executives do not splinter themselves. They concentrate on one task if at all possible. If they are among those people—a sizable minority—who work best with a change of pace in their working day, they pick two tasks. I have never encountered an executive who remains effective while tackling more than two tasks at a time. Hence, after asking what needs to be done, the effective executive sets priorities and sticks to them.
Other tasks, no matter how important or appealing, are postponed. However, after completing the original top-priority task, the executive resets priorities rather than moving on to number two from the original list.
But Welch also thought through another issue before deciding where to concentrate his efforts for the next five years. He asked himself which of the two or three tasks at the top of the list he himself was best suited to undertake.
Then he concentrated on that task; the others he delegated. Of course they know that shareholders, employees, and executives are important constituencies who have to support a decision, or at least acquiesce in it, if the choice is to be effective. In the successful family company, a relative is promoted only if he or she is measurably superior to all nonrelatives on the same level. At DuPont, for instance, all top managers except the controller and lawyer were family members in the early years when the firm was run as a family business.
All male descendants of the founders were entitled to entry-level jobs at the company. Beyond the entrance level, a family member got a promotion only if a panel composed primarily of nonfamily managers judged the person to be superior in ability and performance to all other employees at the same level.
The same rule was observed for a century in the highly successful British family business J. Even the most brilliant executive is human and thus prone to mistakes and prejudices.
But failure to ask the question virtually guarantees the wrong decision. Executives are doers; they execute. Knowledge is useless to executives until it has been translated into deeds. But before springing into action, the executive needs to plan his course. What results will I commit to? With what deadlines? Is it acceptable within the organization?
Is it legal? Is it compatible with the mission, values, and policies of the organization? But violating these restraints is certain to make it both wrong and ineffectual. The action plan is a statement of intentions rather than a commitment. It must not become a straitjacket.
It should be revised often, because every success creates new opportunities. So does every failure. The same is true for changes in the business environment, in the market, and especially in people within the enterprise—all these changes demand that the plan be revised. A written plan should anticipate the need for flexibility. In addition, the action plan needs to create a system for checking the results against the expectations.
Effective executives usually build two such checks into their action plans. The second occurs at the end, before the next action plan is drawn up. And organizations—whether government agencies, businesses, or nonprofits—are inherently time wasters.
Napoleon allegedly said that no successful battle ever followed its plan. Yet Napoleon also planned every one of his battles, far more meticulously than any earlier general had done.
Without an action plan, the executive becomes a prisoner of events. And without check-ins to reexamine the plan as events unfold, the executive has no way of knowing which events really matter and which are only noise.
When they translate plans into action, executives need to pay particular attention to decision making, communication, opportunities as opposed to problems , and meetings. One of my clients, 30 years ago, lost its leadership position in the fast-growing Japanese market because the company, after deciding to enter into a joint venture with a new Japanese partner, never made clear who was to inform the purchasing agents that the partner defined its specifications in meters and kilograms rather than feet and pounds—and nobody ever did relay that information.
That way, a poor decision can be corrected before it does real damage. These reviews can cover anything from the results to the assumptions underlying the decision. Favor your right ear. As strange as it sounds, the left side of the brain contains the primary processing centers for both speech comprehension and emotions. Since the left side of the brain is connected to the right side of the body, favoring your right ear can help you better detect the emotional nuances of what someone is saying.
Avoid interrupting or trying to redirect the conversation to your concerns. Nod occasionally, smile at the person, and make sure your posture is open and inviting.
Try to set aside judgment. However, you do need to set aside your judgment and withhold blame and criticism in order to fully understand them. The most difficult communication, when successfully executed, can often lead to an unlikely connection with someone. Provide feedback. If there seems to be a disconnect, reflect what has been said by paraphrasing. You can become more attuned to these frequencies—and thus better able to understand what others are really saying—by exercising the tiny muscles of your middle ear the smallest in the body.
You can do this by singing, playing a wind instrument, or listening to certain types of high-frequency music a Mozart symphony or violin concerto, for example, rather than low-frequency rock, pop, or hip-hop. Nonverbal communication, or body language, includes facial expressions, body movement and gestures, eye contact, posture, the tone of your voice, and even your muscle tension and breathing.
Developing the ability to understand and use nonverbal communication can help you connect with others, express what you really mean, navigate challenging situations, and build better relationships at home and work. Be aware of individual differences. An American teen, a grieving widow, and an Asian businessman, for example, are likely to use nonverbal signals differently.
Look at nonverbal communication signals as a group. Consider all of the nonverbal signals you receive, from eye contact to tone of voice to body language.
Anyone can slip up occasionally and let eye contact go, for example, or briefly cross their arms without meaning to. Use nonverbal signals that match up with your words rather than contradict them. Adjust your nonverbal signals according to the context. Avoid negative body language. Instead of tentatively entering a room with your head down, eyes averted, and sliding into a chair, try standing tall with your shoulders back, smiling and maintaining eye contact, and delivering a firm handshake.
It will make you feel more self-confident and help to put the other person at ease. How many times have you felt stressed during a disagreement with your spouse, kids, boss, friends, or coworkers and then said or done something you later regretted? When a conversation starts to get heated, you need something quick and immediate to bring down the emotional intensity. Are your muscles or stomach tight? Are your hands clenched? Is your breath shallow? Take a moment to calm down before deciding to continue a conversation or postpone it.
Bring your senses to the rescue. The best way to rapidly and reliably relieve stress is through the senses—sight, sound, touch, taste, smell—or movement. For example, you could pop a peppermint in your mouth, squeeze a stress ball in your pocket, take a few deep breaths, clench and relax your muscles, or simply recall a soothing, sensory-rich image. Each person responds differently to sensory input, so you need to find a coping mechanism that is soothing to you.
Look for humor in the situation. Your goal in every communication is to influence your target audience change their current attitudes, belief, knowledge, and behavior. Information alone rarely changes any of these. Research confirms that well-designed stories are the most effective vehicle for exerting influence. Stories about professional mistakes and what leaders learned from them are another great avenue for learning.
Appealing to all sorts of learners. Risk-free learning. Inspiring motivation. Conveying learning that sticks. Email her at vanessa. Bring us your leadership development challenges. All rights reserved. We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience.
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