Conversations in Management: Peter F. Drucker

"Most people think they know what they are good at — they are usually wrong." -Peter F. Drucker

Peter Drucker, the Father of Modern Management, was born in Vienna, Austria in 1909. He earned a doctorate in Public and International Law from Frankfurt University in Germany before moving to London where he worked as both an economist and financial news writer. In 1937 he again moved, but this time to the United States where he almost immediately established his reputation as a management expert with the 1939 publication of The End of Economic Man. Drucker was the first to conceive of management as a discipline—and like all disciplines, something that could be taught. He recognized that the nature of business was not a customer buying a product, but a customer satisfying a need. From this recognition, Drucker formulated management theories that spanned competitive strategy, entrepreneurship, organizational design and cost accounting. Frequently decades ahead of his time, he introduced both the concept and term knowledge worker—a term most associate with the Information Age—back in the 1950’s. Through it all, Drucker was a champion for the individual. He was clear that people hate to be managed. Effective managers, therefore, attempt to maximize the productivity of a knowledge worker by focusing on performance and results in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

In that spirit, much of Drucker’s later work focused on self-management. He argued that today’s knowledge worker will most likely outlive their employing organizations. Coupled with the fact that the average worker’s career is likely to last 50 years, individuals will have to learn to develop themselves, change to meet new requirements and stay energized through a long and multi-faceted career. To do all this, folks first have to figure out their strengths.

Drucker believed that people were only dimly aware of what they did well because they rarely examined the long-range consequences of their decisions. To remedy this, he suggested doing a personal feedback analysis. Whenever you take a key action, write down what you expect to happen. After a few months, check back to see if you got the results you expected. In this way, Drucker claimed, you will begin to discern your competencies. Once you learn what you are good at, place yourself in situations where your strengths can produce outstanding performance and results. Then work on improving your strengths. Fill in knowledge gaps and expand your understanding. Look for blind spots in your knowledge—places where not knowing is compromising your ability to succeed. Equally important, overcome your bad habits. If you are a visionary, start paying attention to details. If you revel in the specific, train yourself to think globally. Finally, learn from your feedback analysis what not to do. Not everyone does everything equally well. Don’t waste your time trying to develop skills at which you’ll never be more than mediocre at best. Strength is never built on weakness. Leverage what you do right to get the results you want.

Drucker added a final caution to everyone who engages in the world of management: mind your manners. He called manners the lubricating oil of the workplace. They reduce friction and make cooperation possible. In the end, simple courtesies and pleasantries are often the difference between success and abject failure.

Build on your strengths, respect others and mind your manners—not bad advice.