Please allow me to say a few words about me and my connection with my hero: Peter Drucker.
I was born in Chile, and I followed the traditional Hispanic immigrant’s path, including going to school at night while doing manual labor in construction.
After receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, I left Chile with a plan of obtaining an advanced degree in the United States, and staying here to pursue opportunities that I would not have in Chile. I now have a Master’s degree in Management from the University of Redlands. Additionally, I am a graduate from The Claremont Graduate University where I took three classes with Peter: Management in Society, Effective Decision, and Entrepreneur & Innovation.
I had the good fortune to be his designated driver for a period of time in 1995. After class, on Saturdays, I would drive Peter to his modest house and would continue the classroom discussion in my car.
I am a Doctoral learner at University of Phoenix in the Management and Organizational Leadership program.
When I attended “Management of People at Work” — a class with Peter Drucker — at Claremont Graduate University, Peter asked one day, “Who can give me ride home after class?” Without thinking, both my hands were up in the air. I could not believe my luck. Peter Drucker was my hero! Peter looked at me and said, “Ok, Roberto, you are going to be my designated driver.”
From that day on, and for the next three classes I took with Peter (“Effective Decision” “Entrepreneur and Innovation” and “Management in Society”), my duty each Saturday was to drive Peter Drucker home.
Peter (as he asked his students to address him) questioned the official title of the class, “Management of People at Work.” In his words, “We do not manage people; we lead them.” One student echoing his words asked “To lead and to motivate them?” As an introduction to his answer, Peter said “To lead them, yes; to motivate them is different.”
Leadership
Opening his discussion on leadership, Peter introduced us to a fourth century B.C. Greek student of Socrates named Xenophon. It was Peter’s unique style to take his students on a journey back thousands of years to the ancient Greek philosophers, to the Pyramids, or to the Roman Empire to make a historical point, and then bring us back to the present.
Peter reminded us that to be defined a leader, a person must have followers; without followers there is no leader. Followers do not need to like the leader, or to agree with him: It is not a popularity contest. It is a matter of trust and integrity; only performance matters. Peter insisted, almost dogmatically, “Integrity is the sign of true leadership.” He once ended a discussion on leadership with a question that I would like to pose to readers: In a submarine the captain eats alone, a bishop also eats alone: Why?
Motivation
In another lecture, Peter said, “Motivation is not that easy.” He opened the discussion with a simple question which was nevertheless, very difficult to answer correctly. “Why do people do things?” Peter cautioned the students, “Don’t speculate about motivation; look for behavior,” and “Do not give answers that you don’t know.”
With his profound German-accented voice he reiterated, “Do not believe you have an answer only because you are intelligent…do not give answers; just try to understand. There is nothing more dangerous than people trying to be intelligent.”
According to Peter, there had been no major innovation in motivation since George Elton Mayo’s (1880-1949) pioneering research in human behavior at the Hawthorne Works of the Western Electric Company outside Chicago. Elton Mayo highlighted how management can make workers perform differently because they feel differently. Later Abraham H. Maslow’s book The Eupsychian Management (1962) showed “that different people have to be managed differently.” Peter, with enthusiasm, praised Mayo and Maslow for their contribution to the discussion on motivation.
From my notes in class, I wrote:
Place the worker in the right job; not an easy task, but achievable.
Provide the worker with information for outstanding performance.
Engage and challenge their abilities defining performance standard.
Treat your workers not simply as employees, but also as volunteers.
Take the lesson from the nonprofit sector and encourage managerial vision.
Block or shield the employees from the “demotivators” that hinder performance.
Create the conditions in the work place so that the employees motivate themselves.
As Peter Drucker’s designated driver, I drove through the streets with bumpers to make the ride slower, enjoying some inspiring extra minutes with Peter in my car.
By Roberto Torres, Doctoral Candidate, University of Phoenix, Management and Organizational Leadership