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John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Effective Leadership and Management

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John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Effective Leadership and Management

Capstone,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Efficiency whiz John Adair says handle papers once, clean your desk, keep memos short and use book abstracts (of course).

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

John Adair offers a very good little handbook of leadership and management counsel, with some additional advice on setting personal and life goals. He provides little original material and freely gives credit to others for the ideas he borrows. He is clear and straightforward in his presentation, wasting no words. It would be beneficial to keep this book in a desk drawer or on a convenient bookshelf and look into it every day or two, reading a single page or even a single paragraph. getAbstract recommends thinking of it as a useful reminder of things you probably already know, but may forget to practice. As Adair advises, one way to manage your time is to use book abstracts whenever possible. And, see, you already do.

Summary

Ideas for Organizing Your Work and Your Time

Keep a tight rein on meetings. Don't go to unnecessary meetings and don't spend more time in meetings than you must. Be clear about a meeting's purpose, what will happen if it doesn't take place and who must attend. To organize your work and your time:

  • Meet in other people's offices so you can leave. Then you control when the meeting ends.
  • When people drop by your office, stand up to talk. Don't invite them to sit down.
  • Check your watch; state how much time you have for the meeting or conversation.
  • Stick to the subject and don't go off on tangents.
  • Be pleasantly but firmly disciplined.
  • Classify and prioritize paperwork, and only handle any piece of paper once.
  • Skim unless you have to read.
  • Become a clean desk person. Only have one job underway at a time.
  • Write simply and clearly, and get to the point.
  • Plan your phone calls.
  • Time management is a matter of knowing what you want to accomplish and focusing on what you need and want to achieve.
  • Identify goals and make plans. Set priorities and stick to them.
  • Organize your work...

About the Author

John Adair is a leadership and management expert. He is the author of more than 30 books. He is a visiting professor at the University of Exeter.

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