A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

148 ■ A CLASS WITH DRUCKER
<strong>Drucker</strong> Really Knew Those He Led
I was surprised as to the extent that <strong>Drucker</strong> knew and was able to master
the names of his students and how much he knew about each one. I
have seen Peter ask about a student’s son or daughter. But, by the very
way he inquired, you knew that he already knew quite a bit. He didn’t just
ask, “How is your daughter doing?” It was, “How is your daughter doing
in law school?” Or if he heard something from the parent more recently,
“How is your daughter doing in law school <strong>with</strong> that exam she was concerned
about?”
After I left Claremont, <strong>Drucker</strong> would sometimes ask me about something
that I had been working on or was concerned about the last time we
had spoken, something that I may have actually forgotten about myself.
Peter, however, did not forget. He strived to learn about his students at
every opportunity, and he remembered who he met and what they said to
him. I learned this from an experience at the beginning of my second year
as his student.
At the start of every academic year, Claremont’s business school hosted
a party for all the graduate students. My wife Nurit met Peter at one such
party at the beginning of my first year as a new doctoral student. He probably
met a hundred or more wives of his students at the party that evening.
Peter was his usual gracious self as he conversed <strong>with</strong> Nurit. He talked
<strong>with</strong> her for a couple of minutes, and that was it.
I should add that Nurit was very favorably impressed <strong>with</strong> him. This is
not always how she feels on meeting well-known people. Too many, she
says, are “full of themselves.” (She is quick to point out that I also sometimes
get into such a mode, and when I do, she let’s me know it.) However,
being “full of himself” was never Peter’s way. So when I asked her about
her impressions of him, she told me he was, “sincere, a good conversationalist,
and self-confident <strong>with</strong>out being arrogant.” Then she added (and
Nurit was already headed toward becoming a clinical psychologist): “He
knows who he is and what he has accomplished <strong>with</strong>out feeling the need
to prove anything to anyone. I liked him.”
A year later we attended the annual beginning-of-the-year party again.
In the interim, Nurit had not seen or talked <strong>with</strong> <strong>Drucker</strong> at all. We
became separated at the event and she ran into Peter <strong>with</strong>out my being
present. She greeted him and began to say, “You probably won’t remember
me but I’m . . . “ Before she could complete her sentence he interrupted.
“Of course, I know you. You’re Nurit Cohen, Bill Cohen’s wife.” This was