Peter Drucker on the Leader-manager’s Role in the Organization

(April 2011)

Peter Drucker, who has been called “the father of modern management” and “the world’s greatest management thinker” has provided his views on the “effective leader”.  He did so in an article entitled, “Not Enough Generals Were Killed”.  The generals to whom he referred were WWI generals who lived behind the lines in sumptuous chateaux while their troops were bogged down and suffering in prolonged, bloody and useless trench warfare.  While Drucker never says so, his choice of title implies that, if the generals had been closer to the front lines where some could have been killed they might have realized by observing the daily operations that their strategy was not working. 

Thus, Leader-managers must stay close to the operations of the organization.

Of course, while remaining close to the front lines of operations, Leaders do not become mired in management of those operations.  Drucker says that:

Effective leaders delegate a good many things; they have to or they drown in trivia.  But they do not delegate the one thing that only they can do with excellence, the one thing that will make a difference, the one thing that will set standards, the one thing they want to be remembered for.  They do it.

Again, Drucker does not say specifically what that “one thing” is.  But, certainly, Leaders cannot delegate their ultimate authority and responsibility for Leadership.  With authority and responsibility across and throughout the organization it is the one thing that only they can do with excellence, and the one thing that will set standards.  And, clearly Leadership is the one thing that Leaders want to be remembered for.  Thus, “effective leaders” Lead.

As Drucker describes his “effective leader” it becomes clear that there are several areas in which he believes that effective leaders should focus their leadership efforts. He says, that “All the effective leaders I have encountered knew four simple things.” and “…the effective leaders I have met, worked with and observed also have behaved in much the same way.” 

He says that effective leaders knew that “…without followers, there can be no leaders”.  “Leaders…set examples” and they behaved by regularly submitting themselves to the “mirror test”.  Further, he says that effective leaders are “extremely tolerant” of people and do not look for “carbon copies of themselves” and they “are not afraid of the strengths of their associates” but rather “glory in it”.  Finally, Drucker says that effective leaders knew that “Popularity is not leadership, results are” and that “Leadership…is responsibility”.

Thus, Leader-managers Lead by example, with integrity, by motivating people by giving them opportunity to develop and use their talents and by taking responsibility. 

With regard to management: He says effective leaders ask four questions:  “What needs to be done?”; “What can and should I do to make a difference?”; “What are the organization’s missions and goals? What constitutes performance and brings results in this organization?” 

Thus, a Leader-manager monitors the mission and goals of the organization, focusing on performance and results and deciding what can and should be done to improve.

From the foregoing, Drucker implicitly recommends that an effective Leader should remain close to the operations of the organization where the Leader is able to observe the results of the organization’s management efforts and assume the Leader’s ultimate authority and responsibility to Lead the organization by setting the ethical example and encouraging and utilizing the individual talents of the managers and the people to assure performance and results.

From Peter Ducker  “Not Enough Generals Were Killed” in Leader to Leader: Enduring Insights from the Drucker Foundations Award Winning Journal;Frances Hesselbein, with Paul M. Cohen,  eds.  

In Drucker’s mind, focusing on performance and results is clearly a management role.  This is confirmed when, in another article, he writes about the “effective executive”.  He says “An effective executive does not need to be a leader in the sense that the term is now most commonly used.”  When describing an “effective executive” he says “They asked, ‘What needs to be done?’”  and “They asked, ‘What is right for the enterprise?’”  That these performance and results questions are asked by executives who do not need to be Leaders, clearly indicates that they are related to management.

From Peter Ducker, “What Makes an Effective Executive” in Harvard Business Review June 2004.

Additional Statements by Peter Drucker on Leadership

Drucker Himself on Leadership

What then is leadership if it is not character or a set of leadership traits?  The first thing to say about leadership is that it is work….

The foundation of effective leadership is thinking through the organizations mission, defining it, and establishing it clearly and visibly.  The leader sets goals, sets the priorities and sets and maintains the standards….

What distinguishes the leader from the misleader are his goals.

Extracted from “Leadership at Work” Chapter 19  in The Essential Drucker.  Also published in the Harvard Business Review in 1989.    

Drucker Interpreted on Leadership

William A. Cohen was Peter Drucker’s first executive PhD graduate.  His latest book is A Class with Drucker.  He has written that:

More than 50 years ago, Drucker wrote in his first book devoted to management, “Leadership is of the utmost importance. Indeed, there is no substitute for it.”  While Ducker did not leave us with a unified model of leadership, through his writings and presentations, as well as my own notes and personal conversations, we can derive the essence of what Ducker wanted to teach us.  Ducker’s model for effective leadership has five components.

1. Build on the foundation of strategic planning. Ducker wrote: “You can’t predict the future but you can create it.”  His method of creation was strategic planning.  Though strategic planning is difficult and risky, it is the first priority of the leader.  Strategic planning is about making decisions now to create a desired future….

2. Establish the condition of business ethics and personal integrity.  If strategic planning is the foundation of leadership, ethics and personal integrity are necessary conditions for leadership effectiveness.  In his early writings, Ducker stated that leadership is exercised through character, and though followers migh forgive a leader much, they would not forgive him a lack of integrity.

3. Model military leadership.  Some may be surprised at this element although Ducker left many clues in his writings….Drucker wrote: “The Army trains and develops more leaders than do all other institutions and with a lower casualty rate.”

4. Motivate the correct way. …Ducker’s view of motivation included these elements.  Workers are led, not managed. The workplace is participatory, but not “free-wheeling”. Workers are not motivated by money alone.  Each worker is motivated differently according to the individual and the situation. All workers are treated as volunteers and with respect.

5. Apply the marketing concept to leadership.  …he called workers “partners” who can’t be ordered---they have to be persuaded.  Hence leadership is “a marketing job”.

Unfortunately Peter did not write “Drucker on Leadership”, but he left clues, and through these clues, we can make maximum use of his genius to lead with integrity, effectiveness and honor.  Ducker gave us his profound definition of leadership.  “Leadership is lifting of a man’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a man’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a man’s personality beyond its normal limitations.”

Extracted from William A. Cohen, “Effective Leadership: Let’s Revisit Drucker’s Model” in Leadership Excellence  August 2008.