Peter Drucker and Management

4Drucker and Effective Leadership

DOI: 10.4324/9781003410485-5

Introduction

Leadership as a subject is well-worn territory. A cursory review of the literature on the subject yields a wealth of topics: toxic leadership, empathetic leadership, transformational leadership, compassionate leadership—the list goes on. Entire journals are devoted to the subject. Until late in his career, Drucker felt that leadership was an overused term that was poorly defined. What, in fact, is leadership? How do we identify leaders? Can anyone be a leader? Can leadership be learned? Are there specific traits associated with good leaders? Just as Drucker was professionalizing management as a practice and a profession in the mid-twentieth century, the leadership ...