The effective executive

To be reasonably effective it is not enough for the individual to be intelligent, to work hard or to be knowledgeable. Effectiveness is something separate, something different. But to be effective also does not require special gifts, special aptitude, or special training. Effectiveness as an executive demands doing certain——and fairly simple–things. It consists of a small number of practices, the practices that are presented and discussed in this book. But these practices are not “inborn”. In forty-five years of work as a consultant with a large number of executives  in a wide variety of organizations——large and small; businesses,  government agencies, labor unions, hospitals, universities, community services; American, European, Latin American and Japanese---I have not come across a single “natural”: an executive who was born effective. All the effective ones have had to learn to be effective. And all of them then had to practice effectiveness until it became habit. But all the ones who worked on making themselves effective executive succeeded in doing so. Effectiveness can be learned——and it also has to be learned.