Chapter 8 in conclusion

The content discussed in this book is based on the following two points 1.The manager's work should be fruitful; 2.Being productive can be learned. People hire managers because they want their work to be effective.A manager should do an effective job within the agency or do a disservice to the agency that hired him.In order not to disgrace this title, what should managers learn and do? In answering this question, this book regards the work performance of organizations and managers as two major goals. The second premise mentioned above is that being effective can be learned.Therefore, this book presents the manager's work performance from all aspects, and the order of its arrangement will help readers learn how to become an effective manager.Of course, this book is not a textbook, because although being effective can be learned, it cannot be taught by teaching alone.It is not a "discipline" after all, it is just a self-restraining practical process.No matter from the structure of the book or from the content of the book, there is a question that runs through the whole book: what makes organizations and managers effective? However, this book rarely mentions such a question: why should we pursue Being Effective 2 Because being effective is something that managers should take for granted.

Looking back at the arguments and demonstration results presented in each chapter of this book, readers will find that there is another aspect of the effectiveness of managers that is completely irrelevant.It is essential to the advancement of individuals, to the growth of institutions, and to the survival and functioning of modern societies. 1.To be effective, you must first perform a procedure: keep track of your time usage.This is a mechanical job, and the manager doesn't even have to do it himself. He can ask a secretary or an assistant to do it for him.If the manager can really do this, then his gains will be great.Although I dare not say that the effect is immediate, the effect still comes quickly.If sustained, this approach will also drive his acceptance of our second efficiency gain.

To analyze the manager's time arrangement and eliminate unnecessary waste requires joint action.Fundamental decisions are required, as well as some changes in behavior, relationships, and focus from managers.This analysis can ask reflective questions about the use of time, about activities and their goals.This kind of introspection will play a positive role in improving the quality and level of many jobs.Of course, the same purpose can also be achieved by checking the record of usage time every few months.The key to the problem is to improve the utilization of time, which is the most scarce resource at present.

2.This second requirement is that the manager must keep his eyes on the contribution.That is to say, the manager's work should be raised from procedural operations to a theoretical level, from mechanical operations to analytical methods, from focusing only on improving work efficiency to focusing on work results.While doing so, managers should also be strict with themselves, to understand why others are willing to spend money to hire themselves, and to understand why they must contribute.It's not too complicated to do this.Managers simply ask themselves some straightforward, more or less outline-like questions.However, the answers to these questions will lead the manager to put forward higher demands on himself, prompt him to consider the goals of himself and the organization, and pay more attention to the value that the work can produce.More importantly, these problems will also require managers to take responsibility, and no longer be satisfied with simply executing orders and only seeking "boss satisfaction".If there is enough emphasis on making contributions, then managers will definitely consider their goals and results seriously, rather than just considering means.

3.The third requirement of being effective is to give full play to the strengths of people, which is also a fundamental attitude that managers must have in their behavior.Make such a request.It is respect for people, for managers themselves and for others.This involves value system issues in terms of behaviour.However, giving full play to one's strengths also requires "learning by doing".It takes practice to improve.In terms of giving full play to the strengths of individuals, managers will well combine personal motivations with organizational needs, personal capabilities with organizational benefits, and personal achievements with organizational opportunities.

4.Chapter 5 "Do Important Things First" and Chapter 2 "Control Your Time" are complementary.We can also say that these two chapters are the two pillars that support the effective work of managers.In those two chapters, our concern was no longer how to deal with time resources, but how to deal with the final product-the performance of institutions and managers.It is no longer the events happening around us that are recorded and analyzed.It's something we're trying to make happen.What is being developed in those two chapters is not information.Rather, it is the character of the manager who sustains the signs: insight, self-reliance and courage.In other words, what is being developed is definitely not outstanding and genius leadership, but some leadership qualities that ordinary managers can achieve, which can help managers withstand the test, make them have lofty goals, firm determination, dedication.

5.The final chapters of this book deal with the problem of effective decision-making, which is closely related to rational behavior.There will not be a broad road leading to great results, but on how to achieve great results, this book still provides some clear test standards, which can play a role of direction and guidance.For example, this book does not explain in detail how managers should identify general problems and then determine the boundary conditions that must be met for decision-making, because it depends on the specific situation at the time.However, he has made it very clear what needs to be done and in what order.Based on these standards, managers can train and develop themselves to make responsible judgments about things.Effective decision-making requires both steps and analysis, but most critically, there must be some code of professional ethics.

Managers' self-improvement is often more important than effective training.He must first have knowledge and skills.During his time as a manager, he also had to form many new habits and occasionally had to break old ones.But then again, if he doesn't develop the habit of paying attention to efficiency first, no matter how much knowledge he has, how good his skills and habits are, it won't be of much help. There's nothing special about being an effective manager, he's just doing his job like everyone else.No one will compare this effective managerial self-training book to Kiergaard's great book, Making Christians.There are higher goals in life than being an effective manager, but it is because this goal is not unattainable that we can be effective, and it is possible to create the effective management that a large number of modern societies and institutions require. By.If we only needed saints, poets, or first-rate scholars to fill the management positions in intellectual institutions, then great institutions would probably not exist.actually

What big organizations need are "ordinary people" who can accomplish "extraordinary tasks".This is what effective managers must strive to do.Although this goal is not too high, anyone can achieve it as long as they work hard, but being able to learn to improve themselves is the true meaning of cultivating and training people.This self-improvement should include everything from technical details to work attitude, values, personality, etc., including from performing ordinary procedures to undertaking various obligations. The self-improvement of effective managers is central to the development of an institution whether it is a business, a government agency, a research institute, a hospital, or the military.This is the only way to improve institutional performance.As managers become more productive, the performance of the organization as a whole will continue to rise.The improvement of managers' own conditions can help them and those around them to look further.

The result is that not only does the work of the institution get better and better, but it can also continuously undertake new tasks and pursue new goals.In order to train and cultivate managers effectively, it is necessary to challenge the current direction and goals of the organization.With this spirit of challenge, people's vision can be raised from some preconceived things to seek new opportunities, from only caring about people's shortcomings to making full use of people's strengths.If the organization can achieve this state, it will have a great attraction to outstanding talents, and it will be able to inspire people's dedication to their careers and make them make greater contributions to performance.Having capable people in an organization does not necessarily improve the efficiency of the organization.Capabilities emerge in institutions because they have high standards, require people to form new habits and create new environments, and encourage people to improve themselves through practice.The formation of these standards, habits and environments is inseparable from orderly, focused, purposeful self-training aimed at improving effectiveness.

The functioning (if not survival) of modern society depends on the effectiveness of many large institutions, on their performance and results, on their values, standards and requirements for themselves. The performance of institutions has become increasingly decisive, not only in the economic field, but also in the social fields such as education, health care, knowledge advancement and so on.Gradually, some of the most important institutions have become knowledge institutions.These institutions hired knowledge workers and made them take on the role of managers.When they carry out their work, they must take responsibility for the effectiveness of the entire organization, or because of the characteristics of their work and knowledge, the decisions they make will affect the performance and results of the entire organization. There are not too many institutions that are truly effective.They are even rarer than effective managers.Examples abound to illustrate this point.Overall, however, institutional performance is nascent.A lot of resources have been invested in modern large enterprises, large government agencies, large hospitals or universities, but in most cases, the results are not very good. Yesterday's business" went.The purpose is also very clear: to avoid decision-making and take no action.Organizations and managers need to systematically improve their effectiveness and develop productive work habits.They must learn how to solve problems and how to create opportunities.They need to concentrate their energy and work out the order of work, instead of superficially, doing everything a little bit. Managers work effectively, which is certainly one of the basic requirements of an effective organization, and it is also a very important reason for the development of the organization. Improving the work efficiency of managers is the hope of promoting the economic growth of modern society, and it is also a major guarantee for the survival and development of modern society. The thesis repeated throughout this book is that knowledge workers are rapidly becoming a major resource in developed countries.Knowledge workers have become an important investment for these countries, as education has always been the most expensive of all investments.Knowledge authors are becoming important cost centers.How to make them play to their strengths.This has become an economic necessity of a highly developed industrial society.In such a society, the cost of manual labor cannot compete with that of manual labor in developing countries.Only the labor productivity of knowledge workers can help them resist low-wage competition from developing countries and enable them to maintain an advantage in living standards. So far, only extremely optimistic people have no worries and worries about the productivity of knowledge workers in industrial countries.Since the end of World War II, the appeal to the workforce has shifted from manual to mental work, a shift that has not shown great economic benefits.In general, in terms of efficiency and profit There has been no significant improvement in terms of performance, and these are just the two yardsticks to measure the economic benefits of enterprises.Although the highly industrialized countries have done well in the postwar period and their records are impressive, there is still a long way to go in fully exploiting the strengths of knowledge workers.And the most critical issue must be how to make the management examination effective, because managers themselves are decisive knowledge workers.Their level, their standards, and their demands on themselves largely determine the direction, motivation, and dedication of the knowledge workers around them. The society's need for effective managers is even more prominent.The exertion of social advantages and the cohesion of society have increasingly depended on whether knowledge workers can combine their psychological and social needs with the goals of institutions and industrial society. Generally speaking, knowledge workers are not an economic problem for society, they are generally richer, and their jobs are more secure.Because of their knowledge, they can often change jobs.But how to satisfy their psychological needs and realize their life value by doing a good job in the organization is still a problem.Although everyone thinks they are professionals, they are also employees and therefore have to do what others want them to do.They have obligations to certain areas of knowledge, but at the same time they must subordinate the authority of knowledge to the needs of institutional goals.In the field of knowledge, there is no distinction between superiors and subordinates, but only the distinction between young people and elders.But institutions cannot do without hierarchies.This isn't exactly a new problem; those in the military and government are familiar with this hierarchy and know how to deal with similar problems.Of course, these problems are real.Knowledge workers don't worry about poverty; their danger is loneliness, which means they're prone to internal boredom and disappointment. In the 19th century, one of the social problems facing developing countries was the conflict between the needs of manual workers and the growing economy.And in the 20th century, how to make knowledge workers get proper positions.How to make them fully play their role and how to make them feel that they have done their duty has become a social problem in developed countries. The problem doesn't go away just because we deny its existence.Claiming that only the "objective reality" of economic and social benefits exists objectively does not solve the problem.Even the neo-romanticism of those social psychologists (such as Professor Chris Argyris of Yale University) cannot solve this problem.These social psychologists correctly pointed out that the goals of institutions do not necessarily coincide with the desires of individuals, so they concluded that these goals are best set aside.We meet both society's objective need for institutional effectiveness and the individual's need for achievement and conscientiousness. Managerial self-improvement in terms of effectiveness is the only viable solution to this problem.It can align well with the goals of the institution and the needs of the individual.Managers who intend to develop their own strengths and those of others must reconcile organizational performance with individual achievement.He seeks to make his knowledge a catalyst that can help the organization seize opportunities and succeed.By emphasizing contribution, he can make his own value into the effectiveness of the institution. People in the 19th century believed that manual workers had only economic goals.As long as there is financial reward, he is satisfied.In fact, as the "human relationship school" said, the above statement is not all true.Once wage compensation rises above the poverty line, the above argument does not hold water.Knowledge workers also have requirements for financial compensation.Economic rewards are also a restrictive factor for knowledge workers; however, economic rewards alone do not mean that they have everything.He also needs opportunities and achievements, and hopes that he can fulfill his duties and realize his life value.Only by making himself an effective manager can he obtain the above-mentioned satisfactions.Only by improving the effectiveness of managers can society be helped to reconcile the need for institutions to allow individuals to contribute what they need and the need for individuals to use institutions as a means to achieve their own life goals.Therefore, managers must learn to be effective. PCter F. Drucker THE EFFECTIVE EXECUTIVE Harper & Row, Publishers, New York, 1985 Translated from the 1985 edition of Harper Rowe Publishing House in New York