A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

188 ■ A CLASS WITH DRUCKER
War I, the losses among higher ranking officers was rare compared
<strong>with</strong> the losses they caused by their incompetence. Too few
generals were killed.”
<strong>Drucker</strong> concluded by commenting that there were other useful
principles of leadership, and that a manager must first decide to be a
leader. While all of the principles I had uncovered from battle leadership
would help, <strong>Drucker</strong> said that the prime principle was what I called
“duty before self.”
“A leader, any leader,” he continued, “must act for the benefit of others
and not for oneself.”
<strong>Drucker</strong> Lesson Summary
<strong>Drucker</strong> believed that corporations should look closely at and analyze
the practices of the U.S. military. He did not believe that “business is
war.” He was very much against any such notion. However, he felt that
there were many ideas gained by experience under risk and uncertainty
during several thousands of years of recorded history which pre-dated
organized business. Many of these ideas could be usefully adapted to
non-military organizations.