Peter
Drucker is widely recognized as the man who create the science and
practice of management. While that is accurate, Drucker was so much
more than just a management guru. Among other things, in many ways, Drucker was also a psychologist. You will see what I mean in a second.
Now, John
Flaherty was a professor of management at Pace University. Some years
ago, Flaherty wrote a fantastic book titled Peter Drucker: Shaping the Managerial Mind. The book is quite excellent and I highly recommend reading it.
This
week, I decided to grab an excerpt, from Flaherty's fabulous book. The
excerpt is a section from the chapter on time management.
Specifically, as you will see, the discussion is about
procrastination. The following are Flaherty's words,
“It
was debatable, Drucker argued, whether we were living in the best of
times or the worst of times, but he was certain that it was the only
time we had. Looking at procrastination from this point of view, he
saw it as the greatest thief of time and the most obvious impediment
to achieving results.
"In
any discussion of time, Drucker said, it was crucial to address
procrastination, the normal human propensity to postpone to tomorrow
what should be done today, to talk about intentions rather than work
toward results, and to delay actions until ideal conditions prevail.
All these factors contributed to lost opportunities, exacerbated
emotions, produced psychological fears, and generated unnecessary
pressures. Equating procrastination with the fine art of staying
apace of yesterday, he observed that postponement resulted in
physical fatigue and psychological anguish that made the job seem
increasingly difficult the more it was put off.
"Drucker
realized that simply sermonizing on the ways procrastination
inhibited action was useless. His recipe for avoiding these pitfalls
of procrastination in the first place invoked an alliterative triad
of steps: definition, delegation, and deadline. The executive needed
to define the problem or the task, delegate accountability to a
specific person along with responsibility for the specific thing to
be accomplished, and establish a firm deadline for completion. The
definition ensured a sense of purpose, the delegation identified who
was going to do the actual work, and the deadline substituted action
for inertia.
"To
offset the perils of procrastination, Drucker's greatest single
antidote was “to start.” Then, by doing a little bit on a regular
and consistent basis, even the biggest project would diminish in
size. Moreover, in commencing a task some degree of accomplishment
was inevitable, and this achievement reduced the element of fear and
apprehension. Drucker was convinced that a sure sign of the
consummate professional was the capacity for “getting started.”
However, he also worried that a robotic concern with the principles
of time management could destroy the human side of executive
effectiveness. It could lead to the sacrifice of family
responsibilities, the neglect of friendships, the forfeiture of
hobbies, and the loss of the satisfaction of serving others through
voluntary activities. Drucker considered this too big a price for
pursuing a successful career.
"Moreover,
a virtue could disintegrate into a vice if the rigorous control of
time created a workaholic. Drucker concluded there were few more
pressing issues in effectiveness than the proper management of time,
but when taken to extremes it violated the moral tenet that everybody
needed a private life.”
