What makes an effective executive?

I was reading this article in ‘Harvard Business Review’. Here is the summary of this article.

To become an effective leader, one need not necessarily be a man with charisma. What made them all effective is that they followed the same eight phases.


1) They asked, “What needs to be done”.
This question, almost all the times will have more then one urgent task. Jack Welch came up with answer, every five years, “what are needs to be done, now” and each time he came up with different answer.

2) They asked, “What is right for enterprise”.
Asking this question while making important decisions do not some times guarantee the best results, but not asking this question always leads to bad decisions.

3) They developed action plans.

Executives are doers. Knowledge is of no use for executives unless it is been translated into deeds. But before jumping in to action, executive needs to plan his course of action. How he wants to execute, about desired results, problems, check-in points etc.
In addition to an execution plan, this action plan should contain a system for checking the results. Typically two; one halfway through and other towards the end. Without an action plan executives becomes a prisoner of events.

4) They took responsibility for decisions.
5) They took responsibility for communicating.
6) They were focused on opportunities rather then on problems.
Problems should be taken care of off course, but taking action on problems will not create results, it prevents the damage, where as focusing on opportunities produce results. Executives should put their best people on opportunities then on problems.

7) They ran productive meetings.
Decide before meeting, what kind of meeting this would be and set a fixed agenda. Its equally important to take MOM and distribute the action items to all present in the meeting. Also, it’s important to follow-up on these action items.

8) They thought and said, “we’ rather then “I”.



Effective executives differ widely in their personalities, strengths, weaknesses, values and beliefs. All they have in common is, they will get the things done. Effectiveness is a discipline and like any other discipline, effectiveness can be learned and must be learned.