Why do you persist? - Leadership Questions #1
A sharp thought by Drucker on sunk cost fallacy in business
Question
If it were a decision today to start something you are already in, would you? If not, then why do you persist?
Answers
Examples from my career
When reviewing the company’s product portfolio, I was part of a leadership group that assessed the competition, market trends, and user needs for a stagnating product. By raising this question, we articulated precisely that we should rather reimagine or phase out the product over continuing to “keep doing what we’re doing”.
I reviewed my career through the lens of my newish personal goal of “I want to work on a product I’m proud of!”, which gave me the confidence to accept interviewing opportunities and eventually start a new role after working for the same company for 10 years.
On a smaller scale, recurring meetings should be regularly reviewed through this same lens. As the organizer you can decide to cancel, as an attendee you can decide to delegate or stop going after informing the organizer.
Examples from popular media
Examples from the community
Got thoughts or additions? Drop a comment or slide into my DMs - share openly or anonymously. Let's chat! ✌
Be mindful
Working through this question can trigger major changes in your organizational and personal life.
“What do you know, you just arrived!?” Raising this question too early in a new role can trigger "organ rejection” reactions in people.
“You didn’t even bother asking me first!?” Directly asking this question to someone without first seeking to understand can be perceived as pushy, abrasive, or arrogant.
Source
Drucker, Peter F., The Effective Executive, 1967, xii (Jim Collins’ Foreword)
What inspired this series
Reading Peter Drucker always motivates me to be a better leader, and his writing usually goes from summary to going deep on nuances to returning to a list of brief, compelling points. I remember reading about common challenges regarding “traditional” career ladders pushing great individual contributors (a term Drucker coined) into management roles as they reach a certain seniority. This frequently led to poor results caused by great technical experts without qualifications or aptitude to manage organizations.
At first, I couldn’t comprehend why this organizational challenge has persisted since then, Drucker wrote about it in the 1950s after all, describing how some organizations (like 3M) have solved this with dual career tracks around that time. Shouldn’t this organizational challenge be rare in today’s time? Either way, I kept reading and later got inspired by a key insight Drucker shared: the questions remain the same over the years, it’s just the answers that change.
What did he mean by that?
Let me share an example via Drucker’s take on “The job of top management”. Naturally, today’s senior leaders operate differently than 50 years ago. However, according to Drucker, the key question top management has to answer is “What is our business, and what should it be?”. The answer will change depending on the market trends, technological advances, and society’s makeup. The longevity of the question is, at least as I interpret Drucker, untouchable.
This is why I decided to start with a regular habit of sharing a thought-provoking question that leaders can ask themselves or their organization’s people. So, ask questions, take action, and lead your organization to a better future. That’s my goal for you and me. 🎯
