Management Archives

Eliminate Time-Wasting Activities in 4 Easy Step

What are three to five time-wasting activities that affect your day-to-day work? Can you think of ways to reduce the amount of time you spend on them? Wasting time on things that don’t produce results is unfortunate but unavoidable. In his book The Effective Executive, management consultant Peter Drucker offers four-step advice on how to minimize time-wasting activities and free up time for tasks that yield real, tangible results. Follow these four steps to root out your time-wasters.

Amazon and Zappos: The Fight for Acquisition

Why did Amazon want to buy Zappos? To what length did Amazon go to get what they wanted? Why did Zappos finally decide to sell to Amazon? In 2005, Zappos was well-known for its online, shoe selling business and Amazon wanted a part of it. Zappos wanted to remain independent but when Amazon sets its sights on an acquisition they always get what they want. Continue reading to learn all about the war between Amazon and Zappos.

Peter Drucker: Efficiency and Effectiveness Dichotomy

What is the difference between efficiency and effectiveness? Which attribute do you think is more important when it comes to organizational performance? When it comes to results, Drucker differentiates between efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency is getting a lot of things done, while effectiveness is choosing and getting the right things done. Keep reading to learn about Peter Drucker’s efficiency and effectiveness dichotomy.

First, Break All the Rules: Quotes and Passages

Looking for First, Break All the Rules quotes by Marcus Buckingham? What are some of the most noteworthy passages worth revisiting? In First, Break All the Rules, Marcus Buckingham lays out the Four-Key management roadmap that will help you hire the right people, create a productive working environment, and guide employees to success. The following quotes and passages highlight some of his key recommendations and management best practices discussed in the book. Keep reading for First, Break All the Rules quotes by Marcus Buckingham.

What Is a Strength-Based Management Approach?

What is strength-based management? How can you maximize the strength of your employees to boost the performance of your organization? Strength-based management is a management style that is focused on the strengths of the employees. According to management consultant Peter Drucker, maximizing strengths —your own strengths and the strengths of those around you—is more effective than trying to fix weaknesses. Here is why to increase the effectiveness of your organization, it’s important to build the strengths of those around you, as well as your own.

Peter Drucker: Contribution Equals Results

What unique contribution do you offer to your organization? How does your contribution improve the performance of the business? Your job as an executive is to determine your contribution to the organization’s performance and results and to maximize it. According to management consultant Peter Drucker, contribution should be focused outward—that is, on what you can offer, as opposed to what you can get. In his book The Effective Executive, Drucker outlines several ways in which you can focus your contribution outwardly.

Peter Drucker on Executive Decision-Making

How should executives make decisions? What are some things you can do to streamline your decision-making process? Executives’ decisions significantly affect the entire organization and its performance. Therefore, effectiveness in this area is a must. Management consultant Peter Drucker advocates a five-step approach to executive decision-making. In this article, we’ll first introduce Drucker’s decision-making steps and compare them to other executive decision-making approaches.

First, Break All the Rules: Book Overview

Is Marcus Buckingham’s First Break All the Rules book worth reading? What are its key takeaways? In his book First, Break All The Rules, Marcus Buckingham simply and clearly lays out proven management best practices. Then, he teaches how to hire the right people, create a productive working environment, and guide employees to success. Here is a brief overview of First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham.

Micromanagement in the Workplace: Sometimes It’s OK

Is micromanagement always a bad thing? Can overseeing every little detail of employees’ workflow ever be good? Micromanagement is a common practice in modern workplaces. Most of the time, micromanagement is toxic in that it hinders employee performance. However, there are occasions when micromanagement is the way to go. Here’s why managers think they must oversee every detail and when that can actually be helpful.

Peter Drucker’s The Effective Executive: Book Overview

What is The Effective Executive about? What can you do to increase the effectiveness of your organization? In his book The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker argues that effectiveness derives from a set of five practices anyone can learn rather than from unique talents or charisma. Drucker’s five effectiveness practices are as follows: 1) manage your time, 2) focus, 3) make a unique contribution, 4) maximize your strengths, and 5) make sound decisions. This article examines how Drucker’s ideas on effectiveness hold up today and how others have built on them.