C. William Pollard wrote an article titled Crafting a Culture of Character for Leader to Leader (Winter 2010, pp.38-42).
« During my leadership years at ServiceMaster and thereafter, Peter Drucker was a valued adviser, mentor, and friend… He would often remind us that long-range planning was more of a process than a result. The more people we involved in the process, the better we would prepare them for those changes that would inevitably occur in the future. »
« He first asked the board one of his own famous questions, “What is your business?” … In his judgment, our business was simply the training and development of people… We couldn’t deliver quality services without trained and motivated people who were also happy in their work. »
« These statements were all consistent with one of our company objectives: “to help people develop.” Peter was emphasizing that this had become a core competency and that we needed to recognize it as such. It was a foundational strength that should determine which new and growing markets we should enter. »
« “Bill,” he said, “you are suffering from the arrogance of success. It’s time for you to eat some humble pie.” … He pointed out that my job as leader was to go to Osaka, meet with our business partners, resolve our differences, and rebuild a relationship of trust… It was my job to do this as a leader, and it was something that I could not delegate. »
« Peter would often remind me that organizational structure and size can get in the way of the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation that are essential for the vitality and growth of the firm. He would keep pressing me to focus and feed the breadwinners of tomorrow and abandon yesterday’s heroes… It is hard for a successful firm to accept failure, but in Drucker’s words, “The corpse doesn’t smell any better the longer you keep it around.” »
« Many of our best innovations and ideas for improving existing services and adding new services and new market opportunities would come from the frontline managers who were close to the customer and who saw opportunities for change that would create a new dimension of performance. Peter helped me to think about how we could change, redefine, and flatten our organizational structure so that the people with the knowledge and information of what the customer needed or wanted were enabled to bring their ideas and innovations forward… No firm can afford to have innovative bystanders. »
« The potential for the new always requires testing and piloting. If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing poorly to begin with, so get started and learn from experience. »
« Peter’s classic definition of management is getting the right things done through others… Those people who are producing the profits, and the products and services of the firm, are also human. They have cares and concerns, emotions and feelings, beliefs and convictions. They have the potential to do good or evil, to love or hate, contribute or detract, motivate or discourage… Peter would frequently remind me that this dimension of management was about character development… We were, in his terms, human change agents as we addressed the question of what people were becoming in the work environment, not just what they were doing. »
RELATED READING:
The Heart of a Business Ethic by C. William Pollard, Warren Bennis, Brian Griffiths, Donald D. Holt, et al. (2005). “The scandals at Enron, Tyco and others have generated many books on business ethics, but none offer the expertise or breadth of thinking that this volume does… The on-going public debate over business ethics and corporate reform points to one common conclusion: Things cannot be corrected by simply adding more laws and new rules. The solution will come from high moral leadership.”
Articles of Interest 