Effective managers: they seem to understand the truth

"The Effective Manager" is so famous that I am afraid that many people have heard of it more than once; they have even collected it, including its book list. It feels like: If you dare not read this book, you will miss 100 million.

Some time ago, I participated in the co-reading activities of the reading club. I read and discussed this book with many people. Most of the time, I felt: the content in the book-"Isn't it taken for granted?"

Miss Sister, the training manager, said that the reason for this feeling is that this book was first published in 1966—according to calculations, it was more than half a century ago—and it is a classic of the management profession , the author Peter Drucker is also known as "the father of modern management". Many management concepts that we use in our daily work are further developed and evolved on the basis of it.

Therefore, for newcomers in the workplace, this book will take you through the foundation and overview of management; for senior professionals like me, this book may not have much new ideas, but you can check for gaps after reading it.

After all, as the basic framework of management, "The Effective Manager" plays the role of a map in hand, helping you quickly understand the whole picture of a discipline, and guiding you to explore and practice without being afraid of getting lost.

There is such a common misunderstanding about "managers", that: only those who have authority are "managers"; and most of us, as one of thousands of migrant workers, should belong to "managed" .

But Drucker disagrees:

Everyone who is willing to rely on professionalism, make positive contributions, and take responsibility bravely is a manager, even if he does not have the so-called authority, as long as he can make contributions to the organization. All those responsible for the actions and decisions that contribute to the effectiveness of the organization work and think like managers.

Excerpted from The Effective Manager, Peter Drucker

This is because there is a clear difference between knowledge work and physical work:

comparison item	knowledge work	manual work
Pay attention to	effectiveness	efficiency
ability	do the right thing	do things right
Nature of the work	knowledge + skills	Skill
Results of the work	measured by results	measured by quantity and quality
manager	Everyone in the organization needs to make independent decisions within the scope of their tenure	a very small percentage of the total workforce

Therefore, as long as you are a knowledge worker, whether you have authority or not, you are a manager as defined by Drucker in this book. As a manager, you need to continuously improve your ability to "do the right thing" and be effective in order to grow into an "effective manager".

So, how do you become an effective manager?

According to Drucker, there are five key elements to be an effective manager. general speaking:

time management. Clearly know where time is being used; arrange work systematically and make good use of limited time.

Results-oriented, attaches great importance to the contribution to the outside world.

Be good at using your strengths. Include your own strengths, your superiors' strengths, your colleagues' strengths, and your subordinates' strengths; and seize the favorable situation and do what you can.

Focus on a few important areas. Set priorities according to the urgency of the work, and stick to the priorities; do important things in advance, put unimportant things aside, or even not do them.

Good at making effective decisions. Taking the right steps; making judgments based on “dissenting opinions”; making deliberate decisions.

The book is divided into chapters to explain the above elements.

The reason is very simple, but how to practice?

After all, the reason why we read a book is not only for "reading" itself, but also to apply the knowledge learned in the book to practical work and obtain some kind of improvement and promotion.

I heard a friend say that I seem to be very good at "practical knowledge" - for example, after reading "Card Note Writing Method: How to Realize From Reading to Writing", I decisively entered Obsidian notes and benefited from it - the curiosity is How did you do it? Here, I briefly share my mental journey.

In the process of reading this book, I made two important reflections:

Are Documentation Engineers Manual Workers or Knowledge Workers? This reflection made me suddenly realize that some of my previously held views, even if not completely wrong, are worthy of scrutiny. This book provided me with a perspective (or some) that I had never had before, to re-examine and understand what I did, and its value.

Do you have the 5 elements of an effective manager? I regard the main points of this book as a checklist, combined with actual work, to examine whether I am satisfied one by one, and realize my own shortcomings, and be inspired to try to address some problems in my work and make improvements (see: Two recent Work Improvements | Practices ) and benefit from it.

"The Effective Manager" is a very practical book, and I hope it can also inspire and help you.

Finally, share some thoughts.

Drucker believes that knowledge managers should be independent, not attached to the platform, and actively integrate resources and create value.

This reminds me of a story I heard before, to the effect that a reporter from a well-known media, no matter where he goes, others are polite to him, try their best to give him the benefits. It made him feel really good, mistaking it for being good. Until the decline of traditional media, he left the unit where he had worked, and no one knew who he was since then...

This is a sad story, but it is a problem that every knowledge worker may encounter: When we lose the blessing of the platform halo, how should we introduce and prove who we are?

Perhaps, operating personal IP will become the fate of knowledge workers. —Do you think so?

Effective managers: they seem to understand the truth | reading notes

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