CHAPTER  |  SEVEN

The Most Important Leadership Decision

Peter Drucker, the “Father of Modern Management,” taught us that the first and most important leadership decision to be made is the decision to become a leader. Like much of Drucker's advice, this pronouncement sounds self-evident, overly simplified, and even a trifle absurd. The truth is that it is profoundly true and important. For someone who has never been a leader previously, acceptance of the responsibilities of a leader is frequently not an easy decision to make.

Many who have never had the responsibility and authority of leadership fear both. They fear something going wrong, they fear being blamed for actions that they do not think will be fully under their control, they fear that followers will not follow, and they fear making the wrong decision. Many would-be leaders are afraid of the embarrassment and penalties of failure. Some individuals who have the capability of becoming great leaders never accept the challenge. They go through life with a fear that limits the success they could achieve and the contributions they might make by helping others.

Whether you are an executive, and it is your job to develop knowledge workers and to help nonleaders make this decision, or you are a professional trying to make your own decision about whether to become a leader, please read on. Drucker's wisdom can help you and have a major impact on your life.

No One Is Born to Leadership

Everybody starts equally as would-be leaders and faces these fears of the responsibility, authority, and the unknown of leadership, and this is true regardless of age. Mary Kay Ash built the billion-dollar Mary Kay Cosmetics Corporation by beginning with only $5,000. When she was just three years old, her father was invalided with tuberculosis and couldn't take care of himself. Her mother went to work to support the family. Mary Kay accepted the duties of cleaning, cooking, and caring for her father. She accepted the responsibility; she had the authority for domestic decisions and ran the household during the day.

Mary Kay made the Drucker decision to be a leader when she was still a child and before she even knew what leadership was. The lessons she learned early on helped her to reach her full potential later. As is frequently the case, what appears to be an unfair challenge, suddenly being given the responsibility for caring for a father, mother, sister, brother, grandparent, or other relative, forces people to learn leadership, like it or not. Even the tragedy of being forced to care for a drunken parent as a teenager has frequently resulted in someone's appearing to be a “natural leader” somewhat later in life.

Corporal York Is Forced to Be a Leader

Alvin C. York was raised in the backwoods of Tennessee, where he became an expert rifleman. Until he met his future wife and became religious, he was a heavy drinker and troublemaker. No one noticed anything particularly unusual about him when he was drafted into the Army for service during World War I. That is, until he filed to avoid military service as a conscientious objector. His company commander convinced him that his country needed him and he should remain in the army. York withdrew his request to avoid service and went overseas to France with his unit. The needs of his fellow soldiers forced him into a leadership role. His success as an unofficial leader was recognized and he was promoted to the rank of corporal.

On October 18, 1918, York was sent on a patrol in the Argonne Forest with sixteen other men under the command of a sergeant. The patrol managed to surprise a German headquarters and took several prisoners. As the patrol moved on, they stumbled on a hidden nest of enemy machine guns that opened fire with deadly effectiveness. Only York and seven privates survived the first volley of enemy fire. They now faced an entire machine-gun battalion consisting of several hundred enemy soldiers. York had almost no leadership training. He was a young corporal with seven other soldiers in a very perilous situation.

Those with York talked about surrender, but they agreed to follow a plan he suggested. They would remain concealed and would fire only when they would not be revealing their position. York would use the skills he had learned in the Tennessee woods and his expertise as a marksman to keep the enemy battalion at bay until night came and they could escape. So skillfully did York attack the enemy, and so accurate was his rifle fire, that his foes suffered numerous casualties as York maneuvered around the area, rarely even seen by his adversaries. At one point, an entire enemy squad of a dozen infantrymen attacked his position. He shot every single one. The enemy commander became convinced that he was under attack by a far superior force that he could not see. He was suffering many casualties and could do nothing to defend himself. Finally, he raised the white flag and surrendered. Before the end of the day, York and his seven-man patrol had captured 132 prisoners, including three officers.

The Supreme Allied Commander, French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, had been at war for four years. He was aware of the daily actions of millions of men in battle. He saw hundreds of situations where courageous leaders performed heroic deeds under fire. Yet, Foch called York's feat the greatest individual action of the war. General John J. Pershing, the overall American commander, immediately promoted York to sergeant and recommended him for the Congressional Medal of Honor—America's highest decoration for valor. Sergeant York received his medal shortly thereafter.

After the war, York returned to Tennessee. He married his girlfriend and became a farmer. He turned down all offers to use his name for profit, saying, “This uniform isn't for sale.” However, he did allow a movie of his life to be made, and he used the proceeds to establish schools for poor mountain children. Sergeant York won two Oscars, one for Gary Cooper as Best Actor and one for Best Editing, and it was nominated in nine other categories, including Best Picture. During World War II, York, as a colonel, commanded a regiment of the Tennessee National Guard.

Some Don't Know They're Ready for Leadership

Sudden leadership responsibilities don't only occur in battle. Jonathan Avery was a forty-five-year-old human resources manager who worked for an aerospace company. Jonathan knew his stuff. Many times he had been asked whether he was interested in management responsibilities. However, like so many others, he had never in his life been in a position of leadership and he was doing well as a human resources specialist, so he declined. However, one day things got desperate when a much younger team leader became seriously ill and had to go on an extended leave of absence. With promises from his boss of help if needed, he agreed to being acting department manager.

The fact that he was such a good human resources specialist enabled Jonathan to provide better than average help and guidance to his team. With the help of his boss, he mastered the challenge and by the time the permanent manager returned, Jonathan was immediately promoted to a position with permanent leadership responsibilities. “If I hadn't been forced by the situation, and persuaded by my manager, I would never have even tried such a thing,” he told me. As so many others who have been thrust into leadership have found out, being a leader is definitely doable once you get into it and do your best.

A Boy's Story

Some years ago, a thirteen-year-old boy had joined the Boy Scouts. He had always been an introvert and very shy. Moreover, an early childhood disease had left him thin and weak. He had never been a leader. His scout troop announced a contest to see who could master the most scouting skills during a six-month period. The boy applied himself and won the contest.

Then the boy's father was transferred to Texas. In this new town, the one troop where it seemed most likely he would fit in hadn't been doing very well. However, the troop had a new Scoutmaster and he had plans to rebuild the troop. This Scout troop had two patrols with about a dozen members in each, but one had recently lost its patrol leader. The Scoutmaster told this boy that he wanted him to be patrol leader because of the scouting skills he had mastered. The boy had all the normal fears about leadership described earlier, so he declined. Only when the Scoutmaster promised to help him if he ran into problems did he accept and make the decision that Drucker said is the most important.

The boy worked hard and found that he liked being a leader. Moreover, in every competition between the two patrols, his patrol was judged best. In a statewide competition, with many patrols, his patrol again won awards. A year later, the Scoutmaster appointed him senior patrol leader, responsible for both patrols. I know about this boy intimately, because it was me. While I refined my leadership skills later—in high school, at West Point, in the Air Force, and in civilian organizations that I led—without that Scoutmaster's help in persuading me to make “Drucker's decision on leadership,” as I reported in Chapter 5, my life would have taken an entirely different course.

If you have a subordinate who hasn't yet made this most important of leadership decisions, you can help him or her to do so by:

• Assigning small, short-term leadership tasks in order to build self-confidence
• Providing assistance and mentorship as the new leader develops, typically by making mistakes
• Giving encouragement and inspiration

If you are yourself someone who has not yet made Drucker's leadership decision, I recommend you take the plunge. Just making the decision that you will be a leader will help you to become one.