Drucker on Leadership

I read a recent story from Peter Drucker on key elements of leadership. One of the five components he said was absolutely necessary for success was a system of performance reviews, "Performance review must be honest, exacting, and integral part of the job."

This is a common theme in the Dale Carnegie reading, and class. Accountability is the key element that must be instilled upon employees. Unfortunately, this is not something I am very acquainted with. I can't remember a company I worked at that really had serious performance reviews. And I abhor red tape.

But now I really realize the importance of establishing these accountability measures, and so the company must create mechanisms for successful development, for the progress of all. So we will have clear job performance measures, monthly team meetings where we meet to discuss what the company is doing right and what we want to do better, and semi-annual check-ins on progress. Nothing in these check-ins should be a surprise.

Also, we're implementing our time sheet program in the next month (ah yes, the dreaded agency time-sheets). This is to measure billable hours. Usage rate should be in the 80-85 percent range.

I don't have to have those rates when I do my sheets, but that's because I work a lot of extra hours. But I also have an equity stake. It's different for partners. A straight employee with no equity stake will not work more than a 40-45 hour week unless there's extra incentive. And so you want to make them effective hours.

Ton of work on the plate today and tomorrow. So much for a long holiday weekend. It will be good when we're back up to speed. We wrap up round 1 of interviews tomorrow, and move to round 2. Per the Carnegie class, the interview process has gotten much deeper to ensure the right candidate is found.

Since Peter Drucker was such a well respected business leader, Monday's quotes are all from him:

"Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes."

“No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings.”

“Leadership is not magnetic personality/that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not making friends and influencing people /that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.”