Peter Drucker Wants You to Be a Heroic Leader – Now

Abstract

Once upon a time heroic leaders were looked upon as individuals to admire and imitate. And why not? The Random House Dictionary still defines a hero as someone distinguished by courage and ability, and admired for brave deeds, and heroic as ‘‘extraordinarily bold, altruistic or determined.’’ It follows then that a heroic leader must be a pretty commendable and powerful individual. How then did we arrive today in a world where it is claimed that we are now in an era termed ‘‘post-heroic leadership’’ and that the remnants of heroic leadership are fast disappearing, and according to some, the sooner the better? Some authors argue that the post-heroic leader operates in an influencing relationship where there is little or no direct control. Consequently, incorporating the limitations imposed by leadership at a distance as a distinguishing characteristic, they claim post-heroic leadership as a form of virtual leadership encouraged and demanded by modern technology and distance emanating from such as the Internet, forgetting that distance leadership existed even when accomplished by smoke signals, semaphore flags, or morse code. Peter Drucker, ‘‘The Father of Modern Management’’ disagreed strongly with these distorted views. He stated repeatedly the basic truisms of leadership were ‘‘known by the ancients.’’ On one occasion, when invited to speak on modern concepts of leadership, he declined the opportunity and advised his would-be sponsors to consult a book written on leadership several millennia earlier. Through his writings he implied that much of what was written in opposition to what we call heroic leadership, is false, inaccurate and just plain wrong. Maybe exploring this from the beginning will help.