This post is part of a series on The Effective Executive (by Peter F. Drucker). You can find the first post here. In this post I’m going to tackle chapter 3: what can I contribute?
Tag: Career (Page 2 of 3)
The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker is one of my favorite business books of all time. It should be on every 10x programmer’s reading list for two reasons. First, it offers knowledge workers (including computer programmers) a guide to becoming ridiculously effective. Secondly, many millions of business people have read this very influential book and by reading it, you will gain insight into how many business people set priorities and approach their work.
No matter how good of a programmer you are, I promise you that you can get better by reading this book and applying its lessons.
This is my final post in this series on how to be a wildly successful small business programmer. We’re going to do a quick review of everything I’ve talked about in this series. And then I’ll leave you with some parting words to help you continue your journey and show you where we’re going next.
Today I’m going to show you how to pitch your first project. This is my follow-up post to how to choose your first project.
In my last post I showed you how to handle multiple possible constraints. Today I’m going to show you how to choose your first project.
If you have all the skills and influence you need to go straight after the constraint in your company, you should go for it. Overcoming your constraint is, by far, the most effective thing you can do for your company.
Unfortunately, unless you are an owner or a senior manager, attacking your constraint directly is probably impossible. You’ll need an indirect approach where you can improve your skills, influence, and understanding of your constraint. Almost everyone will need to go this route.
In my last post I talked about the importance of building your influence with the decision makers in your company. Today I’m going to show you how to handle multiple possible constraints.
If you’ve been following my advice, you’ve taken an interest in figuring out how your company actually works. You’ve probably found lots of things happening in your company that could be improved. Perhaps you’ve created a current reality tree or used the “5 whys” technique to drill down and find what you think might be the constraint in your company. Or maybe you drilled down and found a couple things that look like they might be the constraint but you’re not sure how to figure out which one is your actual constraint.
In my last post I talked about change. Today I want to talk to you about the importance of building your influence within your company.
In my last post I encouraged you to learn more about your business and start looking for your constraint. It might take you a while to find your constraint company’s constraint so I’m going to let you continue that journey on your own and talk about change today. Why is change important to 10x programmers? Why do people resist it? What’s the best way to change yourself? What’s the best way to help others change?
In my last post I showed you the power of applying the Theory of Constraints to yourself to increase your individual effectiveness. Today, I’m going to show you where to look for the constraint in your company.
In my last post I described the power of seeing your whole company as a single system and using the Theory of Constraints to zero in on the area that is most likely to benefit from improvement and focus your efforts there. This should be your ultimate goal. But you likely need new skills and practice with thinking in systems before you can operate at this level. So, in this post, I’m going to show you how to use the Theory of Constraints on yourself to increase your effectiveness.