Week 12 of 52. Welcome to Drucker Mondays, a 52-week journey through the new book, A Year with Peter Drucker: 52 Weeks of Coaching for Leadership Effectiveness, by Joseph A. Maciariello. Each Monday, we'll feature a Drucker fan and his or her favorite snippet from the week's topic. (Subscribe on this page.) Earl Taylor is our guest writer today.
Week 12--Management: "The Governing Organ of All Institutions of Modern Society"
THE BIG IDEA FROM THE BOOK: Drucker’s views on corporate responsibility were: “Leaders in every single institution and in every single sector . . . have two responsibilities. They are responsible and accountable for the performance of their institutions, and that requires them and their institutions to be concentrated, focused, limited. They are responsible also, however, for the community as a whole.”
EARL TAYLOR’S FAVORITE DRUCKER INSIGHTS from Week 12, pages 95-103:
• “If each institution in our pluralistic society of organizations looks out merely for its narrow interests, and for doing no harm, who will take care of the issues that ‘fall into the cracks?’ In other words, who will take care of the common good?”
• “The new pluralism requires what might be called civic responsibility: giving to the community in the pursuit of one’s own interest or of one’s own task.”
• Great “non-profit” management is no longer a bad word, instead it is seen today as necessary in order to fulfill the mission and purpose of the institution.
EARL TAYLOR’S COLOR COMMENTARY:
As a director of a non-profit, our only “business” is to change lives—period. It is the management of the organization that allows sustainability. This truth must drive every decision I make every day.
• The success and longevity of any organization correlates directly to how outward-looking leadership is towards the community and the common good of all.
• Ronald Reagan was a very wise governor. His common-sense approach to great governance is severely lacking in today’s politics. (Editor’s note: In his first term, Reagan recruited 200 “successful executives” in California to volunteer four to six months to help him assess state issues.)
THIS WEEK’S QUOTES & COMMENTARY BY EARL TAYLOR:
Earl Taylor is the Director of Design and Vision at Hidden Acres Christian Center, Dayton, Iowa. He is a designer and builder of buildings, a hunter of wild game, and the author of Be All You Could Be.
TO-DO TODAY:
• You must manage the day-to-day business at hand effectively, but work to create “community” in the vacuum around your organization, by intentional engagement within the community-at-large that you exist in and live around.
• Don’t be an island, become the instigator of influence.
NEXT MONDAY:
On March 30, 2015, Elliott Snuggs will continue this four-week segment on “Management in a Pluralistic Society of Organizations” with Week 13’s topic, “The First Job in Any Organization Is to Make Top Management Effective.”
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