3. Making strength productive

Welcome back to this short series on The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker. Here’s what we’ve covered so far:

• 1. What makes an effective executive?
• 2. Know thy time

Here’s what we’ll be going over today…

Making strength productive

“Making strengths productive is fundamentally an attitude expressed in behaviour. It is fundamentally respect for the person — one’s own as well as others. It is a value system in action. But it is again “learning through doing” and self-development through practice. In making strengths productive, the executive integrates individual purpose and organization needs, individual capacity and organization results, individual achievement and organization opportunity.”

Let’s say you’re on top of your own constant and never-ending self-development journey.

You play to your strengths.

And you allow others to help you where you’re weak.

But what if you’re having a tough time finding someone reliable and effective to help you (and/or your organization) where it’s bleeding?

Well, for starters, you should know that effective executives do not hire people based on personality, potential, or promise—none of these are measurable.

Instead, they hire based on strengths.

And they develop their employees based on strengths as well.

Actionable insights

So, how can you staff for strength?

By keeping the following 4 rules in mind:

• 1. Effective executives never assume that jobs are “created by nature or by God.” They understand that they’ve been designed by highly fallible men.
• 2. Effective executives make big and demanding jobs that are designed to be challenging enough to let someone’s strengths shine.
• 3. Effective executives understand that they have to start with what a new hire CAN DO rather than what a job requires. They do not focus on weaknesses in their performance appraisals.
• 4. Effective executives know that to get strength, one has to put up with weaknesses.