A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

A MODEL ORGANIZATION ■ 183
and these are difficult, but not impossible to recover from. As a brigadier
general, Colin Powell describes in his book My American Journey (Random
House, 1995) how he made some mistakes and received a poor rating.
Nevertheless, he went on to become a four-star general and the highestranking
officer in the U.S. military.
Finally, the facts of evaluation can be disputed by the individual rated.
He or she may have a particular evaluation removed from the records if
cause can be shown that the evaluation was seriously flawed or unfair.
Peter was a proponent of fair and continuous evaluation and feedback
of knowledge workers. The whole system of management by objectives
(MBO), which he developed, was based on formal feedback regarding
objectives jointly agreed upon and progress made toward achieving them.
While the military doesn’t use MBO, per se, the individual goals set and
the reviews are very similar.
GETTING PROMOTED
Not everyone is eligible for promotion to the next higher rank at every
year’s promotion. This, generally, has to do <strong>with</strong> time in grade at the rank
held and/or total years of service, and this may change, depending on the
needs of the service at that time. For example, during the years between
World Wars One and Two, Dwight Eisenhower held the rank of major for
sixteen years from 1920 to 1936. This was not because he was performing
poorly, but rather due to the fact that the U.S. Army had shrunk after its
rapid growth during the First World War, and Eisenhower didn’t have
enough years of total service to be considered for promotion to the next
higher grade of lieutenant colonel.
While required time in grade still varies by service, today a major (the
U.S. navy rank equivalent of lieutenant commander) is normally considered
for promotion to lieutenant colonel (the navy rank of commander) at
his or her 16th year of commissioned service, although a few individuals
may be selected for what is called a “below the zone” promotion a year or
two earlier. Since Eisenhower was commissioned in 1915, under the U.S.
Army’s current needs, he would have been eligible for early promotion to
lieutenant colonel as early as 1929 instead of 1936—seven years earlier.
The first step in getting promoted in the military services is meeting
a promotion board. However, meeting the promotion board is only the
first step. Even though all are trained and qualified for promotion, not
all can be promoted. The number holding each rank is limited by law. At