Air Pollution - The Causes and Effect - 1116 Words

Air Pollution - The Causes amp; Effect . Defi-Air pollution, both indoors and outdoors, poses health risks to millions of Americans every day, contributing to asthma, emphysema, heart disease, and other potentially lethal conditions. Managing air pollution causes, and defending successful safeguards like the Clean Air Act, is critical to the human, economic, and environmental health of our communities. America’s power plants are our biggest industrial polluters. Each year they pump more than two billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air. Carbon pollution is causing climate change that drives dangerous heat waves and worsening smog pollution, which causes asthma attacks and other serious respiratory illnesses. Thus climate†¦show more content†¦last revised 7/20/2011 Air Pollution: Smog, Smoke and Pollen National Map: Air Pollution Vulnerability Rising temperatures can make smog pollution worse and increase the number of bad air days when it s hard to breathe. This puts many of us at risk for irritated eyes, noses, and lungs -- but it is particularly dangerous for people with respiratory diseases like asthma. As the climate changes, unhealthy air pollution will get worse. Here s how: Ozone smog forms when pollution from vehicles, factories, and other sources reacts with sunlight and heat. Increasing temperatures speed this process and result in more smog. Added to the mix are ragweed and other allergens in the air -- which are expected to worsen as rising carbon dioxide levels cause plants to produce more pollen. Also, as dry areas get dryer, wildfire risks go up and smoke from burning landscapes intensifies poor air quality. iStockCarbon pollution from vehicles, power plants and other sources drives climate change, increasing ozone smog, allergens, and sending health-harming particles and toxics into the air. Exposure to increased smog, pollen pollution, and wildfire smoke puts a wide range of people at risk for irritated eyes, throats and lung damage (the U.S. EPA likened breathing ozone to getting aShow MoreRelatedWhat Causes Air Pollution And What Effect Does It Have On Us Essay924 Words   |  4 PagesTOPIC: What causes air pollution and what effect does it have on us. SPECIFIC PURPOSE: At the end of my speech, the audience will be able to understand what is air pollution, what causes air pollution and what effect does it have on us. INTRODUCTION: What is air? That is the answer I want you to ask yourself. Air is an essential thing we need in our life. It is the most important thing in our life. 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This outrageous number of people dyingRead MoreTypes, Effects, and Controls of Air Pollution936 Words   |  4 PagesTypes, Effects, and Controls of Air Pollution Air pollution depending upon which source you use is broken down in a couple of ways. No matter how you look at it though, air pollution is still air pollution and it is both harmful to humans and the environment. One source breaks air pollution down into two categories or seven primary and two secondary pollutant types (Wright Boorse, 2008, p. 487). 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Air pollution has brought in high increases of poisonous gases that impact the weather by global warming, and the air we breathe. As we breathe this toxic air we get in the same chemicals that are mostly found in cigarettes. Some people could get many diseases breathing this kind of air today, because the cigarettesRead MoreCauses Of Air Pollution Essay874 Words   |  4 PagesAir Pollution Poignant Matters Air pollution refers to a chemical, physical or biological alteration to the atmospheric air. It results whenever harmful gasses, smoke, or dust enters the atmosphere and in turn, hinders the survival of animals and plants as the air contains toxic substances. The survival of human beings and animals greatly depend on the combination of gasses in the atmosphere; slight disruption of this composition can cause devastating effects on their existence. 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Air pollution can be prevented by performing many simple tasks. Air pollution is extremely dangerous to the human body and the environment and should be dealt with more seriously

What Makes an Effective Executive Free Essays

string(84) " the Marie Rankin Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at the Peter F\." ARTICLE www. hbr. org What Makes an Effective Executive by Peter F Drucker . We will write a custom essay sample on What Makes an Effective Executive or any similar topic only for you Order Now Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article: 1 Article Summar y The Idea in Brief—the core idea The Idea in Practice—putting the idea to work 2 What Makes an Effective Executive 8 Further Reading A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further exploration of the article’s ideas and applications Product 6980 What Makes an Effective Executive The Idea in Brief The Idea in Practice Worried that you’re not a born leader? That you lack charisma, the right talents, or some other secret ingredient? No need: leadership isn’t about personality or talent. In fact, the best leaders exhibit wildly different personalities, attitudes, values, and strengths— they’re extroverted or reclusive, easygoing or controlling, generous or parsimonious, numbers or vision oriented. GET THE KNOWLEDGE YOU NEED So what do effective leaders have in common? They get the right things done, in the right ways—by following eight simple rules: Ask what needs to be done. When Jack Welch asked this question while taking over as CEO at General Electric, he realized that dropping GE businesses that couldn’t be first or second in their industries as essential—not the overseas expansion he had wanted to launch. Once you know what must be done, identify tasks you’re best at, concentrating on one at a time. After completing a task, reset priorities based on new realities. †¢ Develop action plans. Ask what’s right for the enterprise. Don’t agonize o ver what’s best for owners, investors, employees, or customers. Decisions that are right for your enterprise are ultimately right for all stakeholders. †¢ Take responsibility for decisions. CONVERT YOUR KNOWLEDGE INTO ACTION †¢ Take responsibility for communicating. Develop action plans. Devise plans that specify desired results and constraints (is the course of action legal and compatible with the company’s mission, values, and policies? ). Include check-in points and implications for how you’ll spend your time. And revise plans to reflect new opportunities. †¢ Ask what needs to be done. †¢ Ask what’s right for the enterprise. †¢ Focus on opportunities, not problems. COPYRIGHT  © 2004 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. †¢ Run productive meetings. †¢ Think and say â€Å"We,† not â€Å"I. † Using discipline to apply these rules, you gain the knowledge you need to make mart decisions, convert that knowledge into effective action, and ensure accountability throughout your organization. gies, product innovations, new market structures), asking â€Å"How can we exploit this change to benefit our enterprise? † Then match your best people with the best opportunities. ENSUR E COMPANYWIDE ACCOUNTABILITY Run productive meetings. Articulate each meeting’s purpose (Making an announcement? Delivering a report? ). Terminate the meeting once the purpose is accomplished. Follow up with short communications summarizing the discussion, spelling out new work assignments and deadlines for ompleting them. General Motors CEO Alfred Sloan’s legendary mastery of meeting followup helped secure GM’s industry dominance in the mid-twentieth century. Think and say â€Å"We,† not â€Å"I. † Your authority comes from your organization’s trust in you. To get the best results, always consider your organization’s needs and opportunities before your own. Take responsibility for decisions. Ensure that each decision specifies who’s accountable for carrying it out, when it must be implemented, who’ll be affected by it, and who must be informed. Regularly review decisions, especially hires and promotions. This enables you to correct poor decisions before doing real damage. Take responsibility for communicating. Get input from superiors, subordinates, and peers on your action plans. Let each know what information you need to get the job done. Pay equal attention to peers’ and superiors’ information needs. Focus on opportunities, not problems. You get results by exploiting opportunities, not solving problems. Identify changes inside and outside your organization (new technolopage 1 Great managers may be charismatic or dull, generous or tightfisted, visionary or numbers oriented. But every effective executive follows eight simple practices. What Makes an Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker COPYRIGHT  © 2004 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. An effective executive does not need to be a leader in the sense that the term is now most commonly used. Harry Truman did not have one ounce of charisma, for example, yet he was among the most effective chief executives in U. S. history. Similarly, some of the best business and nonpro? t CEOs I’ve worked with over a 65-year consulting career were not stereotypical leaders. They were all over the map in terms of their personalities, attitudes, values, strengths, and weaknesses. They ranged from extroverted to nearly reclusive, from easygoing to controlling, from generous to parsimonious. What made them all effective is that they followed the same eight practices: †¢ They asked, â€Å"What needs to be done? † †¢ They asked, â€Å"What is right for the enterprise? † †¢ They developed action plans. †¢ They took responsibility for decisions. †¢ They took responsibility for communicating. †¢ They were focused on opportunities rather than problems. harvard business review †¢ june 2004 They ran productive meetings. †¢ They thought and said â€Å"we† rather than â€Å"I. † The ? rst two practices gave them the knowledge they needed. The next four helped them convert this knowledge into effective action. The last two ensured that the whole organization felt responsible and accountable. Get the K nowledge You Need The ? rst practice is to ask what needs to be done. Note that the question is not â€Å"What do I want to do? † Asking what has to be done, and taking the question seriously, is crucial for managerial success. Failure to ask this question will render even the ablest executive ineffectual. When Truman became president in 1945, he knew exactly what he wanted to do: complete the economic and social reforms of Roosevelt’s New Deal, which had been deferred by World War II. As soon as he asked what needed to be done, though, Truman realized that foreign affairs had absolute priority. He organized his working day so that it began with tutorials on foreign policy by the secretaries of state and page 2 W hat Makes an Effective Executive Peter F. Drucker is the Marie Rankin Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at the Peter F. You read "What Makes an Effective Executive" in category "Essay examples" Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. He has written nearly two dozen articles for HBR. harvard business review †¢ june 2004 defense. As a result, he became the most effective president in foreign affairs the United States has ever known. He contained Communism in both Europe and Asia and, with the Marshall Plan, triggered 50 years of worldwide economic growth. Similarly, Jack Welch realized that what needed to be done at General Electric when he took over as chief executive was not the overseas expansion he wanted to launch. It was getting rid of GE businesses that, no matter how pro? able, could not be number one or number two in their industries. The answer to the question â€Å"What needs to be done? † almost always contains more than one urgent task. But effective executives do not splinter themselves. They concentrate on one task if at all possible. If they are among those people—a sizable minority—who work best with a c hange of pace in their working day, they pick two tasks. I have never encountered an executive who remains effective while tackling more than two tasks at a time. Hence, after asking what needs to be done, the effective executive sets priorities and sticks to them. For a CEO, the priority task might be rede? ning the company’s mission. For a unit head, it might be rede? ning the unit’s relationship with headquarters. Other tasks, no matter how important or appealing, are postponed. However, after completing the original top-priority task, the executive resets priorities rather than moving on to number two from the original list. He asks, â€Å"What must be done now? † This generally results in new and different priorities. To refer again to America’s best-known CEO: Every ? ve years, according to his autobiography, Jack Welch asked himself, â€Å"What needs to be done now? And every time, he came up with a new and different priority. But Welch also thought through another issue before deciding where to concentrate his efforts for the next ? ve years. He asked himself which of the two or three tasks at the top of the list he himself was best suited to undertake. Then he concentrated on that task; the others he delega ted. Effective executives try to focus on jobs they’ll do especially well. They know that enterprises perform if top management performs—and don’t if it doesn’t. Effective executives’ second practice—fully as important as the ? rst—is to ask, â€Å"Is this the ight thing for the enterprise? † They do not ask if it’s right for the owners, the stock price, the employees, or the executives. Of course they know that shareholders, employees, and executives are important constituencies who have to support a decision, or at least acquiesce in it, if the choice is to be effective. They know that the share price is important not only for the shareholders but also for the enterprise, since the price/earnings ratio sets the cost of capital. But they also know that a decision that isn’t right for the enterprise will ultimately not be right for any of the stakeholders. This second practice is especially important for executives at family owned or family run businesses—the majority of businesses in every country—particularly when they’re making decisions about people. In the successful family company, a relative is promoted only if he or she is measurably superior to all nonrelatives on the same level. At DuPont, for instance, all top managers (except the controller and lawyer) were family members in the early years when the ? rm was run as a family business. All male descendants of the founders were entitled to entry-level jobs at the company. Beyond the entrance level, a family member got a promotion only if a panel composed primarily of nonfamily managers judged the person to be superior in ability and performance to all other employees at the same level. The same rule was observed for a century in the highly successful British family business J. Lyons Company (now part of a major conglomerate) when it dominated the British food-service and hotel industries. Asking â€Å"What is right for the enterprise? † does not guarantee that the right decision will be made. Even the most brilliant executive is human and thus prone to mistakes and prejudices. But failure to ask the question virtually guarantees the wrong decision. Write an Action Plan Executives are doers; they execute. Knowledge is useless to executives until it has been translated into deeds. But before springing into action, the executive needs to plan his course. He needs to think about desired results, probable restraints, future revisions, check-in points, and implications for how he’ll spend his time. First, the executive de? nes desired results by asking: â€Å"What contributions should the enterprise expect from me over the next 18 months page 3 W hat Makes an Effective Executive Asking what has to be done, and taking the question seriously, is crucial for managerial success. to two years? What results will I commit to? With what deadlines? † Then he considers the restraints on action: â€Å"Is this course of action ethical? Is it acceptable within the organization? Is it legal? Is it compatible with the mission, values, and policies of the organization? † Af? rmative answers don’t guarantee that the action will be effective. But violating these restraints is certain to make it both wrong and ineffectual. The action plan is a statement of intentions ather than a commitment. It must not become a straitjacket. It should be revised often, because every success creates new opportunities. So does every failure. The same is true for changes in the business environment, in the market, and especially in people within the enterprise—all these changes demand that the plan be revised. A written plan should anticipate the need for ? exibility. In addition, the action plan needs to create a system for checking the results against the expectations. Effective executives usually build two such checks into their action plans. The rst check comes halfway through the plan’s time period; for example, at nine months. The second occurs at the end, before the next action plan is drawn up. Finally, the action plan has to become the basis for the executive’s time management. Time is an executive’s scarcest and most precious resource. And organizations—whether government agencies, businesses, or nonprofits—are inherently time wasters. The action plan will prove useless unless it’s allowed to determine how the executive spends his or her time. Napoleon allegedly said that no successful battle ever followed its plan. Yet Napoleon also lanned every one of his battles, far more meticulously than any earlier general had done. Without an action plan, the executive becomes a prisoner of events. And wi thout check-ins to reexamine the plan as events unfold, the executive has no way of knowing which events really matter and which are only noise. Act When they translate plans into action, executives need to pay particular attention to decision making, communication, opportunities (as opposed to problems), and meetings. I’ll consider these one at a time. Take responsibility for decisions. A deci- harvard business review †¢ june 2004 ion has not been made until people know: †¢ the name of the person accountable for carrying it out; †¢ the deadline; †¢ the names of the people who will be affected by the decision and therefore have to know about, understand, and approve it—or at least not be strongly opposed to it—and †¢ the names of the people who have to be informed of the decision, even if they are not directly affected by it. An extraordinary number of organizational decisions run into trouble because these bases aren’t covered. O ne of my clients, 30 years ago, lost its leadership position in the fast-growing Japanese market because the company, after deciding to enter into a joint venture with a new Japanese partner, never made clear who was to inform the purchasing agents that the partner de? ned its speci? cations in meters and kilograms rather than feet and pounds—and nobody ever did relay that information. It’s just as important to review decisions periodically—at a time that’s been agreed on in advance—as it is to make them carefully in the ?rst place. That way, a poor decision can be corrected before it does real damage. These reviews can cover anything from the results to the assumptions underlying the decision. Such a review is especially important for the most crucial and most dif? cult of all decisions, the ones about hiring or promoting people. Studies of decisions about people show that only one-third of such choices turn out to be truly successful. One-third are likely to be draws—neither successes nor outright failures. And one-third are failures, pure and simple. Effective executives know this and check up (six to nine months later) on the results of their people decisions. If they ? nd that a decision has not had the desired results, they don’t conclude that the person has not performed. They conclude, instead, that they themselves made a mistake. In a well-managed enterprise, it is understood that people who fail in a new job, especially after a promotion, may not be the ones to blame. Executives also owe it to the organization and to their fellow workers not to tolerate nonperforming individuals in important jobs. It may not be the employees’ fault that they are underperforming, but even so, they have to be removed. People who have failed in a new job should be given the choice to go back to a job page 4 W hat Makes an Effective Executive Executives owe it to the rganization and their fellow workers not to tolerate nonperforming people in important jobs. harvard business review †¢ june 2004 at their former level and salary. This option is rarely exercised; such people, as a rule, leave voluntarily, at least when their employers are U. S. ?rms. But the very existence of the option can have a powerful effect, encouraging people to leave safe, comfortable jobs and take risky new assignments. The organization’s performance depends on employees’ willingness to take such chances. A systematic decision review can be a powerful tool for self-development, too. Checking the results of a decision against its expectations shows executives what their strengths are, where they need to improve, and where they lack knowledge or information. It shows them their biases. Very often it shows them that their decisions didn’t produce results because they didn’t put the right people on the job. Allocating the best people to the right positions is a crucial, tough job that many executives slight, in part because the best people are already too busy. Systematic decision review also shows executives their own weaknesses, particularly the areas in which they are simply incompetent. In these areas, smart executives don’t make decisions or take actions. They delegate. Everyone has such areas; there’s no such thing as a universal executive genius. Most discussions of decision making assume that only senior executives make decisions or that only senior executives’ decisions matter. This is a dangerous mistake. Decisions are made at every level of the organization, beginning with individual professional contributors and frontline supervisors. These apparently low-level decisions are extremely important in a knowledge-based organization. Knowledge workers are supposed to know more about heir areas of specialization—for example, tax accounting—than anybody else, so their decisions are likely to have an impact throughout the company. Making good decisions is a crucial skill at every level. It needs to be taught explicitly to everyone in organizations that are based on knowledge. Take responsibility for communicating. Effective executi ves make sure that both their action plans and their information needs are understood. Speci? cally, this means that they share their plans with and ask for comments from all their colleagues—superiors, subordinates, and peers. At the same time, they let each person know what information they’ll need to get the job done. The information ? ow from subordinate to boss is usually what gets the most attention. But executives need to pay equal attention to peers’ and superiors’ information needs. We all know, thanks to Chester Barnard’s 1938 classic The Functions of the Executive, that organizations are held together by information rather than by ownership or command. Still, far too many executives behave as if information and its ? ow were the job of the information specialist—for example, the accountant. As a result, they get an enormous amount of data they do not need and cannot use, but little of the information they do need. The best way around this problem is for each executive to identify the information he needs, ask for it, and keep pushing until he gets it. Focus on opportunities. Good executives focus on opportunities rather than problems. Problems have to be taken care of, of course; they must not be swept under the rug. But problem solving, however necessary, does not produce results. It prevents damage. Exploiting opportunities produces results. Above all, effective executives treat change s an opportunity rather than a threat. They systematically look at changes, inside and outside the corporation, and ask, â€Å"How can we exploit this change as an opportunity for our enterprise? † Speci? cally, executives scan these seven situations for opportunities: †¢ an unexpected success or failure in their own enterprise, in a competing enterprise, or in the industry; †¢ a gap between what is and what could be in a market, process, product, or service (for example, in the nineteenth century, the paper industry concentrated on the 10% of each tree that became wood pulp and totally neglected he possibilities in the remaining 90%, which became waste); †¢ innovation in a process, product, or service, whether inside or outside the enterprise or its industry; †¢ changes in industry structure and market structure; †¢ demographics; †¢ changes in mind-set, values, perception, mood, or meaning; and †¢ new knowledge or a new technology. Effective executives also make sure that problems do not overwhelm opportunities. In most companies, the ? rst page of the monthly management report lists key problems. It’s far page 5 W hat Makes an Effective Executive In areas where they are simply incompetent, smart executives don’t ake decisions or take actions. They delegate. Everyone has such areas. harvard business review à ¢â‚¬ ¢ june 2004 wiser to list opportunities on the ? rst page and leave problems for the second page. Unless there is a true catastrophe, problems are not discussed in management meetings until opportunities have been analyzed and properly dealt with. Staf? ng is another important aspect of being opportunity focused. Effective executives put their best people on opportunities rather than on problems. One way to staff for opportunities is to ask each member of the management group to prepare two lists every ix months—a list of opportunities for the entire enterprise and a list of the best-performing people throughout the enterprise. These are discussed, then melded into two master lists, and the best people are matched with the best opportunities. In Japan, by the way, this matchup is considered a major HR task in a big corporation or government department; that practice is one of the key strengths of Japanese business. Make meetings productive. The most visible, powerful, an d, arguably, effective nongovernmental executive in the America of World War II and the years thereafter was not a businessman. It was Francis Cardinal Spellman, the head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York and adviser to several U. S. presidents. When Spellman took over, the diocese was bankrupt and totally demoralized. His successor inherited the leadership position in the American Catholic church. Spellman often said that during his waking hours he was alone only twice each day, for 25 minutes each time: when he said Mass in his private chapel after getting up in the morning and when he said his evening prayers before going to bed. Otherwise he was always with people in a meeting, starting at breakfast ith one Catholic organization and ending at dinner with another. Top executives aren’t quite as imprisoned as the archbishop of a major Catholic diocese. But every study of the executive workday has found that even junior executives and professionals are with other people—that is, in a meeting of some sort—more than half of every business day. The only exceptions are a few seni or researchers. Even a conversation with only one other person is a meeting. Hence, if they are to be effective, executives must make meetings productive. They must make sure that meetings are work sessions rather than ull sessions. The key to running an effective meeting is to decide in advance what kind of meeting it will be. Different kinds of meetings require different forms of preparation and different results: A meeting to prepare a statement, an announcement, or a press release. For this to be productive, one member has to prepare a draft beforehand. At the meeting’s end, a preappointed member has to take responsibility for disseminating the ? nal text. A meeting to make an announcement—for example, an organizational change. This meeting should be con? ned to the announcement and a discussion about it. A meeting in which one member reports. Nothing but the report should be discussed. A meeting in which several or all members report. Either there should be no discussion at all or the discussion should be limited to questions for clari? cation. Alternatively, for each report there could be a short discussion in which all participants may ask questions. If this is the format, the reports should be distributed to all participants well before the meeting. At this kind of meeting, each report should be limited to a preset time—for example, 15 minutes. A meeting to inform the convening executive. The executive should listen and ask questions. He or she should sum up but not make a presentation. A meeting whose only function is to allow the participants to be in the executive’s presence. Cardinal Spellman’s breakfast and dinner meetings were of that kind. There is no way to make these meetings productive. They are the penalties of rank. Senior executives are effective to the extent to which they can prevent such meetings from encroaching on their workdays. Spellman, for instance, was effective in large part because he con? ned such meetings to breakfast and dinner and kept the est of his working day free of them. Making a meeting productive takes a good deal of self-discipline. It requires that executives determine what kind of meeting is appropriate and then stick to that format. It’s also necessary to terminate the meeting as soon as its speci? c purpose has been accomplished. Good executives don’t raise another matter for discussion. They sum up and adjourn. Good follow-up is just as important as the page 6 W hat Makes an Effective Executive meeting itself. The great master of follow-up was Alfred Sloan, the most effective business executive I have ever known. Sloan, who eaded General Motors from the 1920s until the 1950s, spent most of his six working days a week in meetings—three days a week in formal committee meetings with a set membership, the other three days in ad hoc meetings with individual GM executives or with a small group of executives. At the beginning of a formal meeting, Sloan announced the meeting’s purpose. He then listened. He never took notes and he rarely spoke except to clarify a confusing point. At the end he summed up, thanked the participants, and left. Then he immediately wrote a short memo addressed to one attendee of the meeting. In that note, he summarized the discussion and its conclusions and spelled out any work assignment decided upon in the meeting (including a decision to hold another meeting on the subject or to study an issue). He speci? ed the deadline and the executive who was to be accountable for the assignment. He sent a copy of the memo to everyone who’d been present at the meeting. It was through these memos—each a small masterpiece—that Sloan made himself into an outstandingly effective executive. Effective executives know that any given meeting is either productive or a total waste of time. arvard business review †¢ june 2004 Think and Say â€Å"We† The ? nal practice is this: Don’t think or say â€Å"I. † Think and say â€Å"we. † Effective executives know that they have ultimate responsibility, which can be neither shared nor delegated. But they have authority only because they have the trust of the organization. This means that they th ink of the needs and the opportunities of the organization before they think of their own needs and opportunities. This one may sound simple; it isn’t, but it needs to be strictly observed. We’ve just reviewed eight practices of effective executives. I’m going to throw in one ? nal, bonus practice. This one’s so important that I’ll elevate it to the level of a rule: Listen ? rst, speak last. Effective executives differ widely in their personalities, strengths, weaknesses, values, and beliefs. All they have in common is that they get the right things done. Some are born effective. But the demand is much too great to be satis? ed by extraordinary talent. Effectiveness is a discipline. And, like every discipline, effectiveness can be learned and must be earned. Reprint R0406C Harvard Business Review OnPoint 6980 To order, see the next page r call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500 or go to www. hbr. org page 7 What Makes an Effective Executive Further Reading ARTICLES Your Best Managers Lead and Manage Harvard Business Review OnPoint Collection November 2003 Product no. 5402 Drucker’s rules imply that effective executives know how to lead and manage. This Harvard Business Review OnPoint collection reinforces th e notion that leadership and management aren’t discrete jobs. Together, they form a tapestry of interwoven roles—all of which are essential if executives are to boost their organization’s performance. How to embrace this multifaceted role? First, deeply understand each aspect of it. In the classic article â€Å"Managers and Leaders: Are They Different? ,† Abraham Zaleznik shines the spotlight on the traits required for leadership—including passion, innovativeness, and a keen awareness of â€Å"the big picture. † According to Zaleznik, the best leaders also have a talent for inspiring others, embracing chaos, captivating imaginations, and welcoming fresh approaches to problems. Zaleznik suggests ways companies can create the right conditions for individuals to develop these abilities. To Order For reprints, Harvard Business Review OnPoint orders, and subscriptions to Harvard Business Review: Call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500. Go to www. hbr. org For customized and quantity orders of reprints and Harvard Business Review OnPoint products: Call Frank Tamoshunas at 617-783-7626, or e-mail him at ftamoshunas@hbsp. harvard. edu In â€Å" The Five Minds of a Manager,† Jonathan Gosling and Henry Mintzberg update Mintzberg’s emphasis on reflection and analysis with five mandatory mind-sets for executives: 1) reflective, 2) analytical, 3) worldly, 4) collaborative, and 5) action. When you understand each and move flexibly among all five, you deepen your understanding of your organization’s challenges, boost innovation, strengthen collaboration, and take more precise action. Interweave your mind-sets with your colleagues’, and you enhance the collective impact on your company’s performance. In â€Å" The Manager’s Job: Folklore and Fact,† another Harvard Business Review classic, Henry Mintzberg shifts the focus to the managerial role. The manager’s job, he maintains, has always been more complicated than the textbook mantra of â€Å"plan, organize, coordinate, and control. In reality, managers play so many roles that it’s hard to excel at any one. Job overload can lead to superficial analysis and premature decisions that miss the big picture. To surmount these challenges, stop and think. Reflect on the roles you naturally prefer. Stretch beyond those you’re most comfortable in, depending on what the situ ation demands. Reduce your impossible workload by delegating and taking advantage of in-house analysts. Most important, force yourself to do the things you believe are crucial. page 8 How to cite What Makes an Effective Executive, Essay examples What Makes an Effective Executive Free Essays Karrie Sebring BU531: Session 2 Harvard Article Review â€Å"What Makes an Effective Executive? † by Peter F. Drucker What is this article about as a whole? There is no science on how to improve effectiveness; effectiveness is a disciple and therefore can be learned by anyone. Drunker concludes that you don’t have to be a leader or possess specific personalities, strengths, values or beliefs to be an effective executive. We will write a custom essay sample on What Makes an Effective Executive or any similar topic only for you Order Now Utilizing the following eight simple practices allows executives to be effective: Asking, â€Å"What needs to be done? † Asking, â€Å"What is right for the enterprise? † Developing action plans Taking responsibility for decisions Taking responsibility for communicating Focusing on opportunities rather than problems Running productive meetings Speaking as â€Å"We† rather than â€Å"I† The first two practices give executives the knowledge they need. The next four help them convert this knowledge into effective action. The last two ensure that the whole organization feels responsible and accountable. What are the essential points in this article? Executives need to ask what is right for the enterprise, rather than what is right for the owners, stock price, the employees or the executives. Asking this question does not guarantee the correct decision will be made; however failure to ask this question will nearly guarantee the wrong decision. Knowledge is useless until it has been translated into actions but actions need to first be planned to identify possible restraints and implications. The action plan should be a statement of intention rather than commitment and should be revised often because every success and failure creates new opportunities. The action plan needs to have a system for checking results against expectations. Lastly, the action plan has to become the basis for the executive’s time management, which is an executive’s most scarce and valuable resource. Executives need to take responsibility for communicating; executives need to share their plans, ask for feedback and indicate specifics on what information they need from their subordinates to get the job done. Good executives focus on opportunities rather than problems; they treat change as an opportunity rather than a threat. Effective executives ensure problems do not overwhelm opportunities and put their best people onopportunity tasks. Executives must make meetings productive and ensure that meetings are work sessions rather than bull sessions. A few key notes are to decide in advance what kind of meeting each session will be, end each session when the purpose has been accomplished and lastly, follow-up on each meeting. Effective executives have authority because they have the trust of the organization and therefore think of the organizations needs and opportunities before their own. Lastly, one rule stands; listen before you speak. How can you apply what you learned to business? How to cite What Makes an Effective Executive, Papers

Employability Skill Behaviors Free samples-Myassignmenrthelp.Com

Question: Discuss about the "Employability Skill Behaviours". Answer: Introduction Das Rao (2016) illustrates that students often think the skills they study at schools is different from that they use at their work environment. Surprisingly, these two skills links and students should place much emphasis on the class work to ensure that they succeed in the job market as well. That will enable them to acquire the necessary skills in order for them to execute their duties with competency and professionalism. Additionally, every student should develop various study skills since they are transferrable to a work environment (Agrawal, Rao Venkatesh, 2016). During the job application, students have to fill various application forms, which ask them to validate their competencies such as teamwork, project management, as well as taking initiatives. Notably, students should keep a record of actual examples of the previous meetings that relate to any of the above aspects. Situation Information Management: Janet studies at the local university in the United States of America and works at the square pie. That is one of the leading fast food stores in the United Kingdom. Janet possesses a number of qualities that makes her suitable for the task. For instance, she has strong information management skills that allow her to organize the stocks and equipment. Additionally, Janet could order supplies as well as to oversee the various building maintenance. She also has other skills such as financial management and people management. Using technology: Technology is an important aspect of the contemporary community. It ensures efficient operations within various sectors of the economy and enables stakeholders to resolve a number of conflicts that range from time management as well as proper communication. Janet could use the computers to perform a number of tasks such as data entry and analysis. That ensures that she presents her findings from the hotel in the most prudent manner. Again, she could use the email to communicate with different member within the premise. Numeracy: Janet possesses many numerical skills that enable her to manage the restaurant. She could quickly decide on the amount of raw materials that will help in producing various foodstuffs within the premise. That enables her to balance the books of account. With the right methods and technology, she could observe and record data and helps in communication as well as decision making within the premise. Additionally, the knowledge she got from college enables her to make estimates as well as to verify calculations that pertains the management of the fast food enterprise. Verbal Communication: she finds it easy to read information present in different formats. That ranges from tables and graphs. Additionally, she can synthesize this kind of information and communicate meaning to the various stakeholders. Again, she has the authority that enables her to write and speak while others are paying attention. She provides room for questions, which makes the entire process engaging. Public speaking: The public speaking concepts that Janet learned is school enables her to work with a various member of the team. She could articulate her ideas and communicate them in the most appropriate way. Again, Janet chairs some meetings within the premise that enables her to practice the public speaking skills at various levels. Notably, she was the best speaker in the last Workshop in California, and she demonstrated a high degree of composure and competency while addressing various concerns that affect the food industry in the region. That signifies her as a good public speaker. Written Communication: Apart from the verbal communication, Janet presents an excellent command in written communications. That surfaces through the reports that she documented during the workshop in California. She could also submit a well-written report to her boss, which signifies her competency in the particular domain. Task As a member of the executive, Janet ensured that she adopted the right communication skills that help in managing the organization with much ease. Again, she had to utilize the technological advancement to better the performance of the team. That includes the simplification of most operations using the computer as well as to improve data storage using the storage of equipment. Again, the computer was useful in solving complex tasks that required much time and resources. Action To do that, Janet had to undertake multiple courses in the University to equip her with the necessary skills for the task. Again, it was paramount to attend some seminars and training workshops that enabled her to understand the market demands. That led to her exemplary performance in the organization. Result Janet received a promotion to be the Managing Director of the fast food enterprise. That is due to her competency as well as the ethical behaviour that she presented while services as the staff. Employees should ensure that they relate what they learn in the classroom with the job requirements to improve their skills (Bell, 2016). Additionally, they should conduct themselves with some level of professionalism and embrace ethical aspects within their environments. References Agrawal, N. M., Rao, M. R., Venkatesh, S. (2016). Labour Market and Recruitment: Education and EmployabilityLearning from the Indian IT/ITES Industry. In India: Preparation for the World of Work (pp. 311-329). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. Bell, R. (2016). Unpacking the link between entrepreneurialism and employability: An assessment of the relationship between entrepreneurial attitudes and likelihood of graduate employment in a professional field. Education+ Training, 58(1). Das, S. C., Rao, S. (2016). Capabilities in Employability Skills (Self Perceived) among Under-Graduate Commerce Students: A Cross Sectional Study. The Indian Journal Of Commerce, 69(1).