At this time of year I find it helpful to revisit some of Peter Drucker’s most important advice to college graduates and others who are about to embark on careers, or are early in their careers. The essence of this advice is also applicable to people later in life, including those looking to change careers, return for more schooling, or start encore careers.
In this post, I’ll draw from areas I’ve written about in previous years, such as Drucker’s May 31, 1964 commencement address at the University of Scranton, in my home town of Scranton, Pennsylvania; his classic May 1952 Fortune article “How to Be an Employee,” which he said represented an ideal, but undelivered commencement address; and existential questions he posed to young people at different parts of the late 1960s, a turbulent time in history to say the least.
The 1964 commencement address
It is intriguing to reflect that the 1964 graduating class was of the generation immediately pre-Baby Boomers, and the Baby Boom stretch of years ended at the end of that year (1946-1964).
Works in progress : A particular point Drucker raised in 1964 remains unfulfilled: Hopes for a society “free from prejudice” and other injustices depended on the work and efforts of that and future generations.
Responsibility for contributions to humankind: Then as now, it has to be possible to perform work that has meaning on an individual level, and that will contribute towards a better society, now and in the future: “I hope you will remember that in turn it is your responsibility to put your knowledge and your education to work where they produce the most – for you, for your families, for your society, for your country and for mankind.”
Investment by parents and society in education: The 1964 graduates were “the first generation of the “knowledge revolution” who will have to prove whether we have invested our faith, our resources and our hopes wisely or foolishly.”
New meanings for education: As debates continue in 2021 about the best way to educate people throughout their lives, and the role of formal schooling is often challenged, let’s reflect on these words: “But what education and knowledge mean to society, that has changed drastically, and within the lifetime of the older generation still living.”
The 1952 Fortune article
Nearly 70 years after writing his article, Drucker’s words still have resonance because generations of people since have not always grasped the bedrock concept of being an employee. Building on certain skills could lead to roles in upper management (in which you would still be an employee), and could provide the foundation for later, entrepreneurial ventures.
Effectiveness in writing and speaking: Drucker praised schools for teaching something of value to future employees, how to communicate. Or as Drucker put it, “…they teach the one thing that it is perhaps most valuable for the future employee to know. But very few students bother to learn it. This one basic skill is the ability to organize and express ideas in writing and speaking.”
In today’s world of persuasion and ‘influencers,’ Drucker’s words are prescient: “…your success as an employee – and I am talking of much more here than getting promoted – will depend on your ability to communicate with people and to present your own thoughts and ideas to them so they will both understand what you are driving at and be persuaded.”
Appreciating generalists: The widely-praised 2019 book by David Epstein, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, drew welcome attention to people who don’t necessarily need to become specialists to advance and find fulfillment. In 1952, Drucker wrote: “But there is an increasing demand for people who are able to take in a great area at one glance, people who perhaps do not know too much about any one field—though one should always have one area of real competence. There is, in other words, a demand for people who are capable of seeing the forest rather than the trees, of making over-all judgments.”
There is life beyond the workplace: Whether you use the term work-life balance or something similar, Drucker was ahead of his time: “I have only one more thing to say: to be an employee it is not enough that the job be right and that you be right for the job. It is also necessary that you have a meaningful life outside the job.”
1960s existential questions
Fifty-five years ago, in May 1966, Drucker’s Harper’s Magazine essay “The Romantic Generation,” written about college and graduate students, asked how, in a “society of big organizations,” an individual could “maintain his integrity and privacy.” The person of 2021, young or old, still must navigate how to maintain these values, partly for reasons unforeseen in that era. This essay was reprinted as “This Romantic Generation,” five years later in Drucker’s collection Men, Ideas & Politics, which was reissued by Harvard Business Review Press last year as part of ‘The Drucker Library,’ under the title Peter F. Drucker on Business and Society.
The essay proposes such basic, yet hard to answer questions, as: “Who Am I?;” “What am I?;” and “What should I be?” Three years later, in his 1969 book The Age of Discontinuity, he wrote the somewhat similar passage “The society of organizations forces the individual to ask of himself: “Who am I?” “What do I want to be?” “What do I want to put into life and what do I want to get out of it?”
The circumstances of the student or graduate of 2021 is much different from those of 1969 or 1966, but Drucker’s questions are timeless, and applicable whether or not you are contemplating working in a big organization.
Drucker’s words in context
At the time of the commencement address in Scranton, Drucker lived in Montclair, New Jersey, and was a bit past the middle of what turned out to be a 20-year teaching stint at New York University (1951-1971). He also had a new book, the business-oriented Managing for Results. The crucial nature of knowledge is an important theme of the book, especially in Chapter 7, “Knowledge is the Business,” and Chapter 8, “This is Our Business.” In Chapter 14, “Building Economic Performance into a Business,” he sounds a theme that would be reiterated throughout the remaining 41 years of his life, “It is important in knowledge work—and again especially in research – to abandon what is no longer productive and to concentrate the scarce resources where the results are.”