Page 194 - The Drucker Lectures

Manage Yourself and Then Your Company [ 175

people at the top set the example. Your company may be very
small, quite unimportant. But within that small company you,
the executive, are exceedingly visible. Most management is by
example. And whenever you look at truly outstanding organiza-
tions there is one person, or maybe two or three people, who set
an example. And that also is tremendously convincing. Here is
a top executive who performs, and then other people know that
they can do it, too. This is especially important in a country like
yours, which has to do so many things at the same time because
you have to catch up with most of the history of this century.
The most crucial area of all, meanwhile, may well be per-
sonal behavior, the area of ethics. I am always asked what I mean
by that. The answer is a very, very old one; it goes back to the
ancient Greeks. I call it the mirror test. Every morning when
you look in the mirror, when you shave or when you put on your
lipstick, you ask the question: Is the person you see in the mir-
ror the person you want to see? Do you want to be the kind of
person you see? Maybe “ashamed” is too strong. Are you uneasy
because you cut corners, because you break your promises, be-
cause you bribe, because you do something for immediate short-
term benefits? Are you that kind of a person? Do you want to
see, in the mirror, what you actually see? That is the mirror test,
and it is vital simply because you may be able to fool people out-
side your organization, but you cannot fool people inside your
organization. As you behave, they will too. You will corrupt the
whole organization.
The next thing to remember is to spend enough time and
effort on the outside of your business. A great danger in an or-
ganization, and not only a big one, is that you disappear in it. It
absorbs you, so that you spend all your time, energy, and ability
on internal problems.
The results of any organization, and especially of a business,
are on the outside. This is not only where the customers are but