Peter Drucker’s Favorite Book On Leadership

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The Practical Drucker: Applying the Wisdom of the World’s Greatest Management Thinker by William A. Cohen is Drucker’s favorite leadership book, which capitalideasonline posted. First an excerpt from Capital Ideas Online then a little on the book and then …

Peter Drucker’s Favorite Book On Leadership: The Practical Drucker

I came across a book on Peter Drucker’s wisdom, “The Practical Drucker” by William A. Cohen. It’s a must-read. One chapter on Drucker’s favorite leadership book was very insightful.

“A couple years back, Doris Drucker (Peter Drucker’s wife) was interviewed on video for a monthly video magazine then published by the Drucker School and was asked what management books Peter read. She divulged an important secret. Though he read business magazines and newspapers extensively, he only skimmed most management books. However, he did read many books on history, as he sought the lessons they offered that could be adapted to business management.

There was one leadership book, however, that Drucker not only read but also considered his favorite. He noted, “The first systematic book on leadership – the Kyropaidaia by Xenophon, himself no mean leader of men – is still the best book on the subject.” Despite all the books that have been published on leadership by well-known academic researchers and successful CEOs, he never altered that opinion. Xenophon’s book, written around 400 B.C., was still the best, according to Drucker. “The scores of books, papers and speeches on leadership in business enterprise that come out every year have little to say on the subject that was not already old when the Prophets spoke and Aeschylus wrote.” Xenophon’s advice was and is still applicable for today’s executive.

Who Was Xenophon?

Who was this man whose writings on leadership the “Father of Modern Management” thought were the absolute best ever on the subject? Xenophon was a junior officer, part of a 10,000 – man Greek army hired by the Persian pretender to the throne, Cyrus the Younger, to defeat his brother (King Artaxerxes II of Persia) in the fourth century B.C. At the time, the Greeks were considered the best infantrymen in the world. Cyrus thought that with these trained mercenary troops, he could defeat his brother’s vastly superior force and seize the throne.

 

full article here capitalideasonline

The Practical Drucker: Applying the Wisdom of the World’s Greatest Management Thinker by William A. Cohen

The Practical Drucker – Description

Few thinkers have had a greater impact on business than Peter Drucker, the inventor of modern management, whose legacy continues to influence leaders around the globe. His keen observations about organizations took the form of deceptively simple truths and astute predictions. Concepts such as decentralization, outsourcing, the rise of the knowledge worker, the role of employees as assets, and a focus on the customer – it was Drucker who first expressed them, sometimes decades before they be came accepted wisdom. Although renowned as a thinker and idea generator, the “what” in his teachings was far more prevalent than the “how.” Now, “The Practical Drucker” mines his vast body of work to pinpoint 40 applicable truths for solving real-world problems. Readers will find surprising insights and clear guidance on how to: engage employees and achieve outstanding performance; remedy destructive office politics; approach innovation; ensure follow-through on good ideas by establishing controls; handle a crisis; become better decision makers by questioning assumptions; determine which leadership style to use in which situation; do more with less; steer clear of the biggest traps that leaders fall into; avoid the five deadly marketing sins; and much more. In succinct, satisfying chapters, the book distills the practical wisdom from Drucker’s myriad books, essays, articles and his decades of teaching and consulting into a set of fresh, vital lessons that will resonate today and for years to come.

Few thinkers have had a greater impact on business than Peter Drucker, the inventor of modern management, whose legacy continues to influence leaders around the globe. His keen observations about organizations took the form of deceptively simple truths and astute predictions. Concepts such as decentralization, outsourcing, the rise of the knowledge worker, the role of employees as assets, and a focus on the customer—it was Drucker who first expressed them, sometimes decades before they be came accepted wisdom.

Although renowned as a thinker and idea generator, the “what” in his teachings was far more prevalent than the “how.” Now, “The Practical Drucker” mines his vast body of work to pinpoint 40 applicable truths for solving real-world problems. Readers will find surprising insights and clear guidance on how to:

  • Engage employees and achieve outstanding performance
  • Remedy destructive office politics
  • Approach innovation
  • Ensure follow-through on good ideas by establishing controls
  • Handle a crisis
  • Become better decision makers by questioning assumptions
  • Determine which leadership style to use in which situation
  • Do more with less
  • Steer clear of the biggest traps that leaders fall into
  • Avoid the five deadly marketing sins
  • And much more

In succinct, satisfying chapters, the book distills the practical wisdom from Drucker’s myriad books, essays, articles and his decades of teaching and consulting into a set of fresh, vital lessons that will resonate today and for years to come.

The Practical Drucker – Reviews

“If you’ve ever admired Drucker’s ideas but were at a loss on how to apply them in your immediate working environment, this is the book for you” –T+D magazine

“…consistently clear and offers highly interesting approaches in explaining some of the less obvious that Drucker put forward.” –Inland Empire Business Journal

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