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 In one of the presentations podcasts (I think "Voice"), Mark references a Drucker quote that is something along the lines of "once you move from individual contributor to manager, your success depends on your ability to persuade others."

Which book/article is this from? Anyone know? Would like to use in my Bus. Comm. class.

 

Thanks in advance!

mattpalmer's picture

From what I've been able to gather, the most common form of the quote you're after is "As soon as you move one step up from the bottom, your effectiveness depends on your ability to reach others through the spoken and written word.".  That's a very commonly quoted form.  I'll be darned if I can find the book in which those exact words appear, though.  The quote appears, attributed to Drucker, in many books by *other* people: "Steve Jobs and the Apple Experience" by Carmine Gallo, "Business Secrets of Steve Jobs" by the same author, "Communication in Organizations" by Dave Tofanelli, and "Persuading Aristotle: The Timeless Art of Persuasion in Business" by Peter Thompson (amongst several other books).  Google Books can't find a Drucker book with it in it, though.  I'm thinking that it's a pervasive misquote -- unless it comes from a seminar or something else that Drucker did.

Through the magic of Amazon book search, I've found a similar quote in The Practice of Management (p.346, paperback edition), which goes:

The manager has a specific tool: information.  He does not "handle" people; he motivates, guides, organizes people to do their own work.  His tool -- his only tool -- to do all this is the spoken or written word or the language of numbers.  No matter whether the manager's job is enigneering, accounting, or selling, his effectiveness depends on his ability to listen and to read, on his ability to speak and to write.  He needs skill in getting his thinking across to other people as well as skill in finding out what other people are after.

I think it's fair to say that quote should satisfy your Bus Comm professor.