A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

84 ■ A CLASS WITH DRUCKER
various life support and protective products, mostly for the military and for
aviation use, but also for civil aviation. I was hired as Director of Research
and Development.
As their new boss, I had called all of my project engineers together. I
told them that although I liked to consider myself infallible, I knew this
was not so. Therefore, in my enthusiasm, it was entirely possible that I
would come up <strong>with</strong> an occasional dumb or otherwise unworkable idea.
When this happened, I expected whoever saw this to tell me why the idea
was dumb or unworkable in the strongest possible terms right away, and
to make sure that I understood the point, even if I got angry <strong>with</strong> them. I
told them my anger would subside and they would not be punished for
doing this. If they allowed me to do something stupid <strong>with</strong>out telling me,
when they knew better, I told them that they were even dumber than me.
“However,” I said, “once I have heard you out, there may be other considerations.
If I can and we have time, I will explain these considerations
to you. In any case, it’s still my decision. If I decide to do what you consider
to be a dumb thing anyway, after you know I have understood your
argument, I want you to adopt that decision as if it were your own and
help me to make it happen the way that I want. Nevertheless, again, I
expect you to tell me your opinion and your arguments first.”
Everyone agreed that this is what they would do. The only problem
was, no one did it . . . at least not right away. It took several months before
I actually saw this happening. But finally it did, saving our organization a
number of missteps from some of my would-be, out-and-out blunders. I
never understood why it took so long for them to start doing this.
Listening to Peter’s lecture, now I did. As a boss in that company, I had the
authority to fire them on the spot. And this wasn’t bounced from my
organization to someone else’s <strong>with</strong>in the company as <strong>with</strong> the military’s
“getting fired.” This meant out of the company completely. So, they felt
less free to say what they actually thought, no matter what I told them to
do. In some ways, the ability to instantly discharge people from the company
was more authority than I had in the military!
<strong>Drucker</strong>’s Wisdom on an Executive Performance
As I mentioned previously, Peter’s lecture was on the manager’s need to
take risks in his decision-making. I believe his intention was to focus on
other aspects of employment, not just job security. However, his statement