"Becoming an Effective Executive Analyzed" Series - by Pete Lorins

In order to run an effective organization, one has to either be or hire an effective "executive".  The executive in any organization is an entirely different position. According to Peter Drucker, author of many landmark writings in the managerial profession, there are four (4) major realities over which  an executive, essentially, has no control. Hence it is very important that an executive is aware of such realities as to be more effective and also control stress and frustration <smile>.

These realities are built into  the organization, and into the executive's day and work. Thus, he has not choice but to "cooperate with the inevitable." It is important to know about these realities because every one of them exerts pressure towards NON-RESULTS and NON-PERFORMANCE. In the field of Human Performance Management, I learned that Performance is a Function of Motivation, Ability and Opportunity (P = M x A x O), and throughout my graduate and post-graduate career, I've learned that if Motivation, Ability and Opportunity are not present, one cannot perform effectively. In other words, even the most brilliant person needs to have the motivation and opportunity to exercise his brilliance.

Anyhow, back to the four (4) realities, it is important to be aware of them because when one knows what he ha no control over, he can tailor his activities accordingly, so that he will focus more on the things on which s/he has control while being aware of the things on which he has no control.

The Four (4) Realities are:

1) His/her time tends to belong to everybody else --  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 his boss.

2) S/he is forced to keep on "operating" UNLESS s/he takes positive action to change the reality in which  s/he lives and work --  The fundamental problem is the reality around the executive. Unless he changes it by deliberate action, the flow of events will determine what he is concerned with and what he does.

3) S/he is effective only if and when other people make use of what he contributes --  Organization is a means of multiplying the strength of an individual. It takes his knowledge and uses it as the resource, the motivation, and the vision of other knowledge workers. Knowledge workers are rarely in sync with each other, and it's precisely because they are knowledge workers. Each has his own skill and his own concerns. And usually the people who are most important to the effectiveness of the executive are not people over whom he has direct control. They are people in other areas, including his/her superiors. And unless the executive can reach these people, and make his contribution effective for them and in their work, he has no effectiveness at all.

4) Whether an organization is large or small, the executive is within it, and sees the outside only through THICK and DISTORTED LENSES if at all. -- What goes on outside is usually not even known firsthand. It is received through an organization filter of reports, that is, in an already predigested and highly abstract (non-concrete) form that imposes organizational criteria of relevance on the outside reality. But , the organization is an abstraction. Mathematically, it would have to be represented as a single POINT ("."). That is, as having neither size nor extension. In fact, even the largest organization is unreal compared to the reality of the environment in which it exists. Specifically, there are no results within the organization. All the results are on the outside. The only business results, for instance, are produced by a customer who converts the costs and efforts of the business into revenues and profits through his willingness to exchange his purchasing power for the products and services of the business.

An understanding of the above realities will place any executive in a much better level of preparedness to be as effective as he is willing to be on any given project.  <STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT  POST IN THIS SERIES>

Posted by: Pete Lorins, PhD CD., JD (Engineer, Author, Lawyer, Educator and Entrepreneur)
Contact Information : (407) 272-0873 (Phone)  -- pete@snirol.com (email)