Is Discipline Optional?

If you have never read The Effective Executive, I recommend you put it on your priority list, right now. Peter Drucker wrote The Effective Executive in 1967, and it is just as relevant today as it was then. Perhaps even more.

In the book, Drucker explains the five facets of executive effectiveness. For the purposes of this blog post, I will call your attention to only one of those five dimensions. What I want to talk about is the importance of individual strengths.

Chapter Four, in The Effective Executive, is titled “Making Strengths Productive.” In the chapter, Drucker talks about the importance of identifying, and building on, your personal strengths. Peter says effective executives are not omnipotent. In fact, an individual's strength is usually bundled with an equally great weakness.

There are any number of things effective people are not good at. But, this need not be a problem. All a person needs to do is identify, and make productive, his or her unique strengths. Drucker warns people to not waste time trying to fix their weaknesses. A much more effective strategy is to utilize your strengths so that you may produce and contribute.

We have now arrived at a part that threw me for a loop. You see, some years ago Donald Clifton started studying strengths as well. In fact, it was Clifton's work that led the Gallup Organization to their current focus on strengths.

Through Gallup we all can take a strengths test to help us identify where our talents lie. Gallup has identified 34 areas of potential strength. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, this is where things start to derail. The folks at Gallup would agree with Drucker that it is wise to build on your strengths and ignore your weaknesses. In fact, this is a common theme in modern psychology.

Herein lies the problem. One of Gallup's 34 talent “themes” is Discipline. This got me to thinking, is discipline optional? I mean, if you take the strengths finder test, and discover that you have little natural discipline, can you simply ignore the importance of discipline?

I believe the answer to that question is, it depends. In order to live a happy life, I believe you can operate with little discipline. However, if you wish to be successful in business, I believe discipline is not optional.

Business is largely about productivity. And, as I wrote last week, productivity is largely about discipline and self-control. Without discipline it is virtually impossible to be very productive.

If it were not for competition, productivity would be unnecessary. Of course, as we all know, business is a competitive sport. Undisciplined companies get their butts kicked by those who are disciplined.

Some years ago, Jim Collins made quite the splash with his book Good to Great. When Collins and his team analyzed what factors caused good companies to evolve into great companies, one of the things they found was a “culture of discipline.” That is to say, disciplined people, with disciplined thinking, taking disciplined action. Like a lot of people, I did not find the idea surprising.

So, to answer my own question, no, I do not think discipline is optional. At least not when it comes to effectiveness and entrepreneurship. I imagine, in life generally, one could get along fine without discipline. However, in the realm of business, I do not believe such a luxury exists.

I guess the next question would be, “If discipline is so important, how do we develop it?” I think that is a good question. And, fortunately, a lot of research is being done on methods to improve discipline. It is this research, that I will touch on, at a later date. For now, I wish you a wonderful, disciplined week and a happy Memorial Day.