Peter Drucker Quote on Leadership

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” - Peter Drucker

I saw this quote  plastered across one of the walls at the Toronto Board of Trade yesterday.  I've always been amazed by the wisdom of Peter Drucker, and never come across a more admirable approach to leadership.

I first become acquainted with Peter Drucker listening to BusinessWeek - Climbing the Ladder, a podcast by Executive Editor John Byrne. At the end of his podcasts there is usually a short reading from one of Peter Drucker's books. 

If you are looking for best practices on business effectiveness such as setting the right priorities, making better decisions, and contributing more effectively to your your organization, consider reading a classic -  The Effective Executive: The Definite Guide to Getting the Right Things Done.

Comments

[Syven]

Drucker certainly is one of the front line thinkers whose thinking transcends each evolution of management and that is because he got down to the core of the human condition, and he understood management to be above all a practice.

Drucker was never a spectator, and if one is deeply immersed in ones craft the wisdom becomes very practical. That isn't the case today the irony of the MBA trained executive who are trained to be masters of management practice, find themselves so wedded to fads and cookie cutter solutions.

Where the modern day world needs Druckers advice most is in the arena of innovation and what entrepreneurial management is, so that the emphasis of information technology becomes to serve the central technology that is entrepreneurial in way and form, rather than entrepreneurial management playing second fiddle to methodologies that simply serve to rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic.

In the end it does not really matter how many Peter Drucker's, Henry Mintzberg's, Ram Charan's or Deming's one can consult, at the end of the day it all comes down to the quality of practice.

Doing things right is simply an attitude of unmitigated continuous improvement, yet if we are simply spectators to greatness, then what we do is create a soceity of the spectacle - one which Guy Debord absolutely feared.

If that practice does not translate into practical wisdom then can anyone blame Guy Debord for having shot himself through the heart - the difference with Drucker is that his practice isn't about giving up what it is you believe in and developing that wisdom with experience over time.

M.

Thanks Mou for providing these smart vignettes, I did enjoy my day out at your blog today and now I will find my way to the next virtual thinking port of call.