Peter Drucker
On Leadership
(from Forbes.com) 11.19.04
The Drucker-Warren relationship may surprise many readers, but
it goes back two decades, to when the young minister came to Drucker for advice. Under Drucker's
tutelage,
Warren and I met at Drucker's
surprisingly spartan home in
Successful leaders
don't start out asking, "What do I want to do?" They ask, "What
needs to be done?" Then they ask, "Of those things that would make a
difference, which are right for me?" They don't tackle things they aren't
good at. They make sure other necessities get done, but not by them. Successful
leaders make sure that they succeed! They are not afraid of strength in others.
Andrew Carnegie wanted to put on his gravestone, "Here lies
a man who knew how to put into his service more able men than he was
himself."
Effective leaders
check their performance. They write down, "What do I hope to achieve if I
take on this assignment?" They put away their goals for six months and
then come back and check their performance against goals. This way, they find
out what they do well and what they do poorly. They also find out whether they
picked the truly important things to do. I've seen a great many people who are
exceedingly good at execution, but exceedingly poor at picking the important
things. They are magnificent at getting the unimportant things done. They have
an impressive record of achievement on trivial matters.
Leaders
communicate in the sense that people around them know what they are trying to
do. They are purpose driven--yes, mission driven. They know how to establish a
mission. And another thing, they know how to say no. The pressure on leaders to
do 984 different things is unbearable, so the effective ones learn how to say
no and stick with it. They don't suffocate themselves as a result. Too many
leaders try to do a little bit of 25 things and get nothing done. They are very
popular because they always say yes. But they get nothing done.
A critical
question for leaders is, "When do you stop pouring resources into things
that have achieved their purpose?" The most dangerous traps for a leader
are those near-successes where everybody says that if you just give it another
big push it will go over the top. One tries it once. One tries it twice. One
tries it a third time. But, by then it should be obvious this will be very hard
to do. So, I always advise my friend Rick Warren, "Don't tell me what
you're doing, Rick. Tell me what you stopped doing."
The modern
multinational corporation was invented in 1859. Siemens invented it because the
English Siemens company had grown faster than the German parent. Before the
Second World War,
Let me give you
one example. This happens to be a consulting firm headquartered in
Don't travel so
much. Organize your travel. It is important that you see people and that you
are seen by people maybe once or twice a year. Otherwise, don't travel. Make
them come to see you. Use technology--it is cheaper than traveling. I don't
know anybody who can work while traveling. Do you? The second thing to say is
make sure that your subsidiaries and foreign offices take up the responsibility
to keep you informed. So, ask them twice a year, "What activities do you
need to report to me?" Also ask them, "What about my activity and my
plans do you need to know from me?" The second question is just as
important.
When you are the
chief executive, you're the prisoner of your organization. The moment you're in
the office, everybody comes to you and wants something, and it is useless to
lock the door. They'll break in. So, you have to get outside the office. But
still, that isn't traveling. That's being at home or having a secret office
elsewhere. When you're alone, in your secret office, ask the question,
"What needs to be done?" Develop your priorities and don't have more
than two. I don't know anybody who can do three things at the same time and do
them well. Do one task at a time or two tasks at a time. That's it. OK, two
works better for most. Most people need the change of pace. But, when you are
finished with two jobs or reach the point where it's futile, make the list
again. Don't go back to priority three. At that point, it's obsolete.
Make sure the
people with whom you work understand your priorities. Where organizations fall
down is when they have to guess at what the boss is working at, and they
invariably guess wrong. So the CEO needs to say, "This is what I am
focusing on." Then the CEO needs to ask of his associates, "What are you
focusing on?" Ask your associates, "You put this on top of your
priority list--why?" The reason may be the right one, but it may also be
that this associate of yours is a salesman who persuades you that his
priorities are correct when they are not. So, make sure that you understand your
associates' priorities and make sure that after you have that conversation, you
sit down and drop them a two-page note--"This is what I think we
discussed. This is what I think we decided. This is what I think you committed
yourself to within what time frame." Finally, ask them, "What do you
expect from me as you seek to achieve your goals?"
Again, let's start
out discussing what not to do. Don't try to be somebody else. By now you
have your style. This is how you get things done. Don't take on things you
don't believe in and that you yourself are not good at. Learn to say no.
Effective leaders match the objective needs of their company with the
subjective competencies. As a result, they get an enormous amount of things
done fast.
One of the ablest
men I've worked with, and this is a long time back, was
Dr. Heinrich Bruning. He had an incredible ability to
see the heart of a problem. But he was very weak on financial matters. He
should have delegated but he wasted endless hours on budgets and performed
poorly. This was a terrible failing during a Depression and it led to Hitler.
Never try to be an expert if you are not. Build on your strengths and find
strong people to do the other necessary tasks.
You know, I was
the first one to talk about leadership 50 years ago, but there is too much
talk, too much emphasis on it today and not enough on effectiveness. The only
thing you can say about a leader is that a leader is somebody who has
followers. The most charismatic leaders of the last century were called Hitler,
Stalin, Mao and Mussolini. They were mis-leaders!
Charismatic leadership by itself certainly is greatly overstated. Look, one of
the most effective American presidents of the last 100 years was Harry Truman.
He didn't have an ounce of charisma. Truman was as bland as a dead mackerel.
Everybody who worked for him worshiped him because he was absolutely
trustworthy. If Truman said no, it was no, and if he said yes, it was yes. And
he didn't say no to one person and yes to the next one on the same issue. The
other effective president of the last 100 years was Ronald Reagan. His great
strength was not charisma, as is commonly thought, but that he knew exactly
what he could do and what he could not do.
Within
organizations there are people who, typically in their 40s, hit a midlife
crisis when they realize that they won't make it to the top or discover that
they are not yet first-rate. This happens to engineers and accountants and
technicians. The worst midlife crisis is that of physicians, as you know. They
all have a severe midlife crisis. Basically, their work becomes awfully boring.
Just imagine seeing nothing for 30 years but people with a skin rash. They have
a midlife crisis, and that's when they take to the bottle. How do you save
these people? Give them a parallel challenge. Without that, they'll soon take
to drinking or to sleeping around. In a coeducational college, they sleep
around and drink. The two things are not incompatible, alas! Encourage
people facing a midlife crisis to apply their skills in the non-profit sector.
We have talked a lot about executive development. We have been
mostly talking about developing people's strength and giving them experiences.
Character is not developed that way. That is developed inside and not outside.
I think churches and synagogues and the 12-step recovery programs are the main
development agents of character today.