A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

76 ■ A CLASS WITH DRUCKER
new only in its title. This was exactly the kind of thing <strong>Drucker</strong> was talking
about. Expertise outside of one’s profession gave one more of a strategic
view of any situation.
Dr Jacob’s basic concept was that as a leader is promoted, he or she
must lead more and more in an indirect fashion. There are several reasons
for this. At higher levels, the strategic leader must interact <strong>with</strong> numerous
other specialties, in and outside of the organization, and many of
these specialties are totally unfamiliar. The tactical leader had direct supervisory
authority over all subordinates. However, at higher levels, the
strategic leader must interact <strong>with</strong> others of similar rank, often <strong>with</strong>out
any authority over them.
For example, a top leader might need to deal <strong>with</strong> government officials,
<strong>with</strong> the media, other complementary and competitive organizations, and
even <strong>with</strong> officials and executives in other countries. Moreover, many of
the leader’s subordinates at higher levels in an organization would have
technical knowledge and experience about which the leader would know
little and in which he had little experience.
At the tactical level, the leader advanced based on increasing competency
in a limited discipline. As the leader moved higher up in the organization,
he or she managed more and more outside of his comfort and
competency zone. His job was even more challenging because at higher
levels, the leader more and more led integrated groups of multi-disciplined
teams. Even basic communication could become a major problem because
of different terms, jargon, and meanings.
Communicating <strong>with</strong> Other Disciplines
You may remember the children’s game of “telephone,” where we got in a
circle and whispered a secret into the ear of a schoolmate to our right, who
passed the “secret” on to another schoolmate in the same way until the
“secret” got back to its originator from the last schoolmate on his left. The
secret that came back was never the one that we started out <strong>with</strong>.
I’ve done a similar exercise <strong>with</strong> many senior management groups,
from the Cheesecake Factory general managers to chiefs of police from
around the country going through a special course at the FBI Academy at
Quantico, Virginia. I asked each group to pick five of its most articulate
members and then asked all five to leave the room. Then I had the group
pick the one person they considered the most articulate to return. I read