For Knowledge Workers, "Effectiveness" Is What Matters

Peter F. Drucker and Thomas J. Watson Sr. empowered employees to be effective.

I would challenge any executive or employee to look at these following insights and not wonder, "Why can't we learn from the past?" As much as every generation has its differences, human nature is a constant that evolves over eons, not generations. These thoughts are over five decades old, but as new as every article you read today on "Quiet Quitting," and "Acting Your Wage." Eventually, everything comes back to and onto the individual.

"Knowledge workers" should control their destinies and attitudes.

​Be effective!

Peter E. Greulich, April 19, 2023

Quotes from Peter F. Drucker's "The Effective Executive"

-     Achieving Effectiveness, not Efficiency?

"For manual work, we need only efficiency; that is, the ability to do things right rather than the ability to get the right things done. … Working on the right things is what makes knowledge work effective."

-     Why Do Employees Check Out?

"The knowledge worker cannot be supervised closely or in detail. He can only be helped. But he must direct himself, and he must direct himself toward performance and contribution, that is, toward effectiveness. … The motivation of the knowledge worker depends on his being effective, on his being able to achieve.

​"If effectiveness is lacking in his work, his commitment to work and to contribution will soon wither, and he will become a time-server going through the motions from 9 to 5."

-     What is an Executive?

"I have called 'executives' those knowledge workers, managers, or individual professionals who are expected by virtue of their position or their knowledge to make decisions in the normal course of their work that have significant impact on the performance and results of the whole."

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