Peter Drucker died in November at the age of 95. A leadership and management guru for many, Drucker said that successful leaders focus on questions about what needs to be done.
The issues facing management don’t change from year to year. The answers do. The biggest skill needed to address these issues is not really a skill—it is a basic attitude, a willingness to start not with the question “What do I want to do?” but with the question “What needs to be done?” It was the willingness to ask this question that made the fairly mediocre Harry Truman a great president and the superbly gifted Richard Nixon a failure.
–From “How To Ask the Right Questions”
Becoming aware of one’s own strengths allows you to focus on the areas in which you will be most effective, and to work with others who — like you — will prioritize the other aspects needed because those engage their strengths.
How Capable Leaders Blow It
One of the ablest men I’ve worked with, and this is a long time back, was Germany’s last pre-World War II democratic chancellor, 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.
The Danger Of Charisma
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.
– From “Peter Drucker On Leadership”
An understanding of one’s own strengths and weaknesses, a questioning touchstone in what needs to be done, dependable personal integrity and trustworthiness, and an active acknowledgment of others who have strengths in different areas are all required for a thriving leadership.
These qualities are the building blocks, the very foundations, upon which to develop other leadership attributes and competencies such as strategy and execution, flexibility, openness to change, long-range planning, insightful decision-making, innovation, ethics, financial acumen, negotiation, efficiency, talent retention, motivating others, cross-departmental knowledge, and so on.
Effective leaders will be aware of and apply their strengths, as well as utilize the strengths of others in different areas. You’ve then gone beyond asking “what needs to be done?” into an efficient and respectful streamlining of how it gets done.
