The Best of David Zinger: Remembering Peter Drucker
By David Zinger on Jul 14, 2008 in Employee Engagement
This blog/site began on November 11, 2005. This July and August I want to reprint some of my favorite posts. This is the post that began it all on Canada’s Remembrance Day. This site’s primary focus for the first year was strength based leadership. Strong leadership that also brings out the strengths of employees is a vital behavior fostering employee engagement.
Enjoy the article.
Posted November 11, 2005
Peter Drucker died today. I will miss his thinking and viewpoints. I have been in a conundrum on how to start this new blog on leadership. I knew my central focus was on strength-based leadership and the importance of caring and love in leadership. Since Peter Drucker is no longer alive to offer his insights and actions I would like to dedicate this site to him.
Peter wrote a very important article on “Managing Oneself.” in the Harvard Business Review March-April. 1999: 65-70. The essence of managing oneself was to know our strengths and to fully develop a strength-based leadership approach. Here is a short outline of the article from the Harvard Business Review site (you can also order a reprint of the article at this site):
Peter Drucker tells us in this seminal article first published in 1999, it means we have to learn to develop ourselves. We have to place ourselves where we can make the greatest contribution to our organizations and communities. And we have to stay mentally alert and engaged during a 50-year working life, which means knowing how and when to change the work we do.
It may seem obvious that people achieve results by doing what they are good at and by working in ways that fit their abilities. But, Drucker says, very few people actually know–let alone take advantage of–their fundamental strengths.
He challenges each of us to ask ourselves: What are my strengths? How do I perform? What are my values? Where do I belong? What should my contribution be? Don’t try to change yourself, Drucker cautions. Instead, concentrate on improving the skills you have and accepting assignments that are tailored to your individual way of working. If you do that, you can transform yourself from an ordinary worker into an outstanding performer.
Today’s successful careers are not planned out in advance. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they have asked themselves those questions and rigorously assessed their unique characteristics. This article challenges readers to take responsibility for managing their futures, both in and out of the office.
There are many sources to understand our strengths from Martin Seligman’s work on authentic happiness and the VIA signature strength inventory to the work of Gallup on their Strength Finder. This blog will help you to understand, foster, and develop a strength based approach to leadership.
Peter Drucker, as one of the major contributors to this approach to leadership, your legacy will not be forgotten.
Postscript: I don’t think Peter has been forgotten but I do think we need to do more to have his focus on strengths live on and be strengthened both in leadership and the workplace.
Michael Lee Stallard | Jul 14, 2008 | Reply
David,
Thank you for this post. Reading Peter Drucker’s “Managing Oneself” and his biography “Adventures of Bystander” had a profound effect on me. I wrote a tribute to him following his death. Here’s the link:
http://www.epluribuspartners.com/pages/articles/DruckerRemembered.pdf
Like you, Drucker loved people and community. He would have been delighted in the Employee Engagement Network that you’ve brought to life.
With best wishes,
Michael