" The very highest leader is barely known Then comes the leader they know and love Then the leader they fear Then the leader they despise.
The leader who does not trust enough will not be trusted. When actions are performed without unnecessary speech
The people will say, ”we did it ourselves.”
Lao Tsu


 

Thought leadership
Peter Drucker

We want to start this summary with some thoughts by the great Peter Drucker whose writings on management and leadership has arguably had the greatest impact on our understanding of leadership and organisational behaviour. It is impossible to do justice to works which spans 38 books and hundreds of papers and presentations in a one page summary. Maybe Drucker’s own words which formed the basis of his foreword to one of the books that emanated from the Drucker Foundation ie The Leader of the Future [edited by Frances Hesselbien et al: 1996 Jossey-Bass ] will suffice.
In his foreword Drucker remarked that he has had a long and varied career in businesses and organisations ranging from a university teacher and administrator, consultant, board member, advisor to governments and as a volunteer. He has worked with large manufacturing and global giants to small companies and businesses. During these 50 years or so he has worked with, advised, supported, taught and observed hundreds of senior leaders. “ I have worked with some exceedingly bright executives and a few dummies, with people who talk a good deal about leadership and other who apparently never even think of themselves as leaders and who rarely, if ever, talk about leadership.”
So what insight has such experience provided? The lessons he pointed out are unambiguous.

  • the first is that there may be “born leaders” but they are too few to depend on them. Leadership must be learned and can be learned;

 

  • the second major lesson is that “leadership personality”; “leadership style” and “leadership traits “ do not exist. Drucker commented that amongst the most successful leaders that he has worked with were all sorts of people who had all sorts of habits and behaviours.

He observed that the effective leaders he worked with knew four simple things:

  • They all knew that the only definition of a leader is someone who has followers;
  • They all knew that effective leadership is not about popularity but about results;
  • They are highly visible; they lead by example or effective role modelling
  • They knew that leadership is about responsibility.

Apart from what they knew, Drucker also observed that effective leaders behaved in certain distinct ways.
They would always start out by asking “what needs to be done?”
Then they would ask “ what can and should I do to make a difference?”
They would constantly ask, “what are the organisation’s mission and goals.
They were also very tolerant of diversity and did not look for carbon copy of themselves
They were not afraid of strength in their colleagues; in fact they gloried in it
And finally they made sure that the person they saw in their mirror in the morning was the kind of person they wanted to be, respect and believe in.
If any of this resonates and you want to know more, a select few of Drucker’s books may be helpful as follows: