, Bill Cohen, a student and colleague of Peter Drucker, extracts the leadership lessons that he learned from this great thought leader. Here are the lessons that Cohen uncovered:
1. Strategic planning is the first priority of the leader. Drucker believed that the leader's job was to create the desired future for the company or the organisation. The leader needed to be intimately involved with the strategic direction.
2. Ethics and integrity are critical for leader effectiveness. Character and ethical behaviour are of central importance for the leader. According to Drucker, followers might forgive leaders for mistakes, but will not forgive a lack of integrity.
3. Model the military. Peter Drucker had great respect for how the military developed leadership, with an emphasis on character and leaders as positive role models. The military's emphasis on commitment and "taking care of your people" are examples of what Drucker admired about military leadership.
4. Motivation: Treat employees like volunteers. Drucker greatly admired nonprofit organisations, and he extracted leadership lessons from them. If a leader treats employees as if they were volunteers - free to leave at any time - the leader pays greater attention to the non-monetary needs of workers, and moves from transactional motivation to transformational motivation.
5. Leaders should be marketers. This surprising lesson really means that leaders should be focused on the customer, and be concerned about how customers view the organisation and its products or services. The leader must set the tone for how the organisation is viewed, and be its best representative.
Although little of Peter Drucker's writings focused on leadership, there are many lessons for leaders in his work. Our thanks to William Cohen for highlighting them.
No comments:
Post a Comment