Be the Hypotanuse Your were born to be!

What does it take to be an "effective executive" in your sphere of influence or place of work.  It is not necessarily the number of hours that you spend working, because this is not always a measure of effectiveness.  Results is probably a better indication of the effective executive, but this too is not always as clear cut because we often do not work alone and functioning as a team is very often crucial to success because it incorporates elements of different strengths, specialities and skills.  Decision making is a vital part of running a business and executives know how to make decisions.  In reaching decisions you could ask two questions namely, in a particular situation, what would happen if you did nothing? And secondly, would the outcome of your decision outweigh the the risks and costs.  The result is that too many ineffective decisions get made and until action commitments are made the new regulations will not be enforceable.  It is the risk in taking the decision that defines the executive whether there is criticism for a decision or not.  There is a lot of pressure being an executive because you are always judged for your results, but predicting the outcome of every decision is near impossible.  All one can do is to follow the path that you think is best.  You can be wise in listening to the viewpoints of others, but this must be tested against your own beliefs, before you make a call.  Getting feedback is also of great use in improving your skills as an executive and choosing to listen to the advice of key people at the right times, is what makes a success of a business.  There are always restraints and adjustments may be necessary on occasion, yet the only thing that is truly limited is time.  This is such a precious resource and one has to use it effectively because you never know what awaits you daily and how circumstances can change.  Using time as far as possible, is valuable, because we can end up wasting so much time on the process of getting to a decision that there is not time to enjoy the fruit of the labour.  Having said that, it is important not to try to push every decision which you may think important because it may take much more time than we think before we reach the right decision.  The best  executive learns to share the load of responsibility and they delegate well.  Only delegate when someone is better at a task than you are and remember that simply delegating is not what makes a good executive.  It is still important for the executive to focus on what he or she can contribute to the organisation.  There will, finally, be problems in every business and so finding the right person for the position is what produces great results, but problems are there to be taken care of, but problem solving does produce great results, it merely prevents damage.  If you want great results then you have to take advantage of opportunities.