Introduction:

Have you ever wondered why companies thrive while others fail?Why some executives perform efficiently while others just fail?Are these skills taught, or are successful executives born with special abilities?Learn the secrets of top executives that help them thrive.An executive is a very important person to any organization.Their decisions largely affect the organization’s growth and advancement, and poor choices can result in the fall of a company.An effective executive should always know what to do and choose the right steps for a positive outcome.

It is important to remember no one is born an effective executive, and anyone can learn how to be an effective executive.This book will teach the skills to be an effective leader by outlining the traits of the most effective executives.Are you ready to be a great executive that will help an organization be successful?This book will be your guide.

KNOW THY TIME

The first thing an effective executive does is analyze how they spend their time.They will then minimize the time spent on unproductive activities and integrate their time on top priorities.Time is important to everyone: once time has passed it is gone forever, even if it was unproductive or wasted.No one is well-equipped to manage his or her time effectively; a psychological experiment was done whereby people were put in a dark room with no access to the outside.While they still had their sense of space, they quickly lost their sense of time.

The experiment was repeated with the lights on; most people were still unable to estimate how much time they had been inside the room.Many executives are pressured to waste their precious time on unproductive activities.One particular executive shared that his position requires him to attend dinners almost every night.These dinners tend to waste a lot of his time, but he must attend them nonetheless.Ineffective activities are a reality for all executives, but the most effective executives learn how to minimize such wasted time.

Some executives attempt to reduce wasted time by allocating the minimum time possible to various tasks: but this is not an effective approach.If you want to be productive, you must allocate a huge chunk of time to each activity, and if you want to establish good human relations with your employees, you will be required to allocate sufficient time to interact with them.When an executive is leading a large organization he or she is responsible for making decisions for the benefit of the organization.A hastily-made decision is likely to hurt the organization.Many effective executes take enough time to ensure they have reached the right decision,and have considered all their options before committing to it.

Alfred P Sloan, Jr. was the former CEO of General Motors, the largest manufacturing company of automobiles globally.It is reported that he never made a decision the moment a problem came up, instead he would offer a tentative solution the first time.A few days or weeks later, he would analyze the problem again.If he came up with the same decision again, only then would it be implemented.A senior administrative official in his fifties had been working in a government research institute all his life.The man had served the institution well, but then he began performing poorly.

The man could not be fired, nor would he be demoted because the company owed the man for his many years of service and loyalty, but being in an administrative position was a big compromise to the entire organization.The director and his deputy went through the matter of this administrative official’s poor performance quickly, but did not come up with a solution.However, when they dedicated lengthy time to the matter, they came up with a solution.It was such a simple solution that left them wondering why they had not thought it before.In any organization, an effective executive will always take time before making any major decision.

An effective executive will prune all time-wasters.The first step in pruning time-wasters is to identify what activities waste time due to the lack of a system.A lot of time is wasted because of hiring too many employees and holding many meetings.Harry Hopkins was President Roosevelt's advisor during World War II.Since Hopkins was dying, he decided not to focus on less important things and instead to work on what mattered the most.As a result, he ended up being more effective than anyone else at the time.

If you want to be an effective executive, you must learn how to manage your time effectively.Sit down and list out where all your time is going.This way, you will know what areas to cut back on and where to increase your time.Only then will you be able to accomplish more tasks and focus on the most important activities.

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HOW CAN I CONTRIBUTE?

An effective executive looks around and asks themselves, “What can I do to contribute to the greater good of the organization?” Many executives are unable to deliver because they focus on their efforts rather than their juniors' results.They believe that the organization owes them something or should have done something.Such executives never take responsibility for their actions.A large company had a director of publications who had been with the company since the 1930’s.

The director wrote on scientific topics even though he was not a scientist nor a writer, and as a result, he produced low-quality publications.When he retired, he was replaced by a  professional who could produce high-quality materials.The company saw much improvement with the new professional, but the target audience for these publications stopped reading the published work.A scientist told the company that the readers were losing interest because the publications were written ‘at them’ instead of ‘for them’, as they experienced with the previous writer.

The old director had been effective because he constantly asked himself, “What can I do to contribute to high reads for these publications?” He realized the answer was to make young scientists become interested in working for the agency.Every decision and publication was, therefore, aimed to achieve this end.He knew that the quality of the publications was not as important as the goal of attracting more scientists to apply for jobs in the agency.When you ask yourself  how you can contribute, consider how you can tap into unused potential.If an executive does not ask this question, they aim too low and contribute very little.

When an executive focuses on contribution, they end up developing people in the company.One such instance is of a new administrator working in a hospital. During the first staff meeting, a decision was reached for a major problem they were facing. Then one nurse asked, “Will Nurse Bryan be okay with this decision?” and the discussion started again.The administrator learned later that Nurse Bryan was not a distinguished employee or in a high-ranking position in the hospital.But Nurse Bryan always asked herself, “Will this be good for my patients?”

As a result, the patients in her unit always recovered quickly.She influenced the rest of the hospital staff, so they in turn began to ask, “Is this what is best for our patients?” Even though Nurse Bryan had retired almost a decade before, she set high staff standards.When executives commit to contributing to the organization, then they become more effective.Many execute fail because they are unwilling to change.When they are promoted to higher positions, they continue doing the same as they had done before, which is the road to failure.

Today, almost everyone who works in an organization has acquired higher education and is very knowledgeable.Converting this knowledge into ideas and concepts is not something just anyone can do.To be effective, one must focus on one area and perfect it.If one wants to be regarded as effective, he or she must make sure to deliver good results, which only comes through applying knowledge.Many executives do not relate well with their juniors, including General George  and Alfred P Sloan.Their employees highly valued them however, because they inspired affection.

Even though they were distant, they were tasked with making major decisions.They took the time to make these decisions, and these decisions turned out to be good because they were focused on everyone's well-being.If you want to be an effective executive, focus on communicating  effectively from the bottom to the top.The next step is to encourage and to enhance teamwork.Then focus on developing yourself and developing others.Always take time in making major decisions and constantly think of ways to make things better.

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