What Makes an Effective Executive

Subject: Leadership Styles
Pages: 2
Words: 675
Reading time:
3 min

The task of the head of any level – from the general director to the head of the department – is to build the most effective work of the team entrusted to them. According to the YouTube video The Effective Executive, leaders share characteristics that enable them to be efficient (Drucker 0:25-0:40). In accordance with Drucker, efficiency is a set of habits, five of which are particularly important (Drucker 0:30-0:55). Time management is essential for good leadership, and a leader should keep a record, such as a calendar plan, to track their daily progress.

A leader can plan a schedule by allocating space for each action to avoid wasting time. Managers should be prepared to delegate some of their responsibilities to others so that they may devote their time to other tasks inside a company. Successful leaders are conscious of their value to the companies they work for, where they are able to find untapped potential, resulting in improved company effectiveness. Other than developing talent, leaders can have a direct impact on results, mentor future CEOs, and reinforce organizational values.

Leaders should be able to identify their own strengths and weaknesses to increase overall performance. An effective executive should define activities that come easy to them while others find them difficult by making sure all jobs are well designed. Doing hard and challenging work, for example, brings out the best in a team. In this regard, one completes one task at a time, and the more tasks completed, the more likely one is to attain the desired objective. Effective executives do not set goals but instead decide what to tackle, sticking to posteriorities and their decisions. Based on the YouTube video, effective decision-making is paramount to an executive (Drucker 5:30-5:55). Instead of seeking out facts; leaders should encourage generating opinions. Effective decisions are achieved when a slew of opposing viewpoints collide; thus, leaders should promote diverse viewpoints to improve their reasoning.

Lussie and Christopher’s book Leadership: Theory, Application, and Skill Development, Chapter 6, discusses the concepts of personal interaction, coaching, and conflict resolution that The Effective leader complements. Communication involves both sending and receiving messages, a trait that good executives should have when discussing their decisions, delegating their duties, and also listening to the opinions of others (Lussie and Christopher 190). As observed in the video, effective decision-making is based on the crushing of conflicting ideas (Drucker 5:55-6:30). Thus, effective leaders should be able to put forward their ideas and be ready to listen to other opinions.

Coaching is identified as the process of giving motivational feedback to maintain and improve performance (Lussie and Christopher 201). As identified in the video, effective leaders should build and develop future leaders, a task that can be accomplished by maximizing employees’ strengths and minimizing weaknesses (Drucker 6:30-7:10). Conflict in the workplace is inevitable, especially when making critical decisions in an organization. As such, effective executives should be able to manage conflicts in the workplace (Lussie and Christopher, 210). Conflict is inevitable in the workplace due to contradicting opinions when it comes to making effective decisions. As a result, constructive conflict resolution is a crucial leadership talent.

The principles discussed in this essay, the principles of being a good communicator, a motivator, and resolute conflict resolution, apply in my current and future positions. Although the effective leadership habits discussed earlier are prominent for a good leader, they are guided by principles that make them effective in their mandate. Hence, communication, conflict resolution, and motivation principles would be effective for a team leader for current or future job roles. As earlier identified in the YouTube video, effective leadership is a collection of habits. Those habits are ineffective unless governed by principles in chapter 6 of Lussie and Christopher’s book on Leadership: Theory, application, and skill development. Thus, effective leadership is a set of skills and abilities that allow for achieving goals and establishing relationships with subordinates. Among the essential skills is the ability to allocate time, a reasonable assessment of one’s strength, and the ability to make the right decisions.

Works Cited

Video Review for the Effective Executive by Peter Drucker.YouTube, uploaded by Callibrain, 2015, Web.

Lussier, Robert N., and Christopher F. Achua. Leadership: Theory, Application, & Skill Development. 6th ed., Cengage Learning, 2015.