Page 8 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

FOREWORD

Peter Drucker once told me, “The leader of the past knew
how to tell. The leader of the future will know how to ask.”
Today’s leaders and professionals continually interact with
knowledge workers. Peter taught us that knowledge work-
ers are any employees who know more about what they are
doing than we do. I guess that if we knew more about what
was going on in other professional’s work than they did, we
could just tell them what to do and how to do it. In today’s
complex world, no leader or employee knows more than the
knowledgeable professionals that surround us. We all have
to ask for other people’s ideas, listen, and learn.
Dave and Wendy have followed Peter Drucker’s lead and
organized this book around the asking of seven wonder-
ful questions. By asking these questions—to ourselves and
the members of our teams—listening to the responses and
learning, we can create a more abundant world of work for
both companies and the individuals who populate these
companies.
The answers to the seven questions in The Way of Work
will help you and your organization: develop a positive iden-
tity, gain real commitment, build positive relationships,
create a great environment, find deeper meaning, achieve
continuous learning, and experience true happiness. What
can be more important than that?
I want to end this Foreword with a challenge. Don’t just
read this book as a dispassionate observer; apply what you
learn in each chapter to yourself and to your organization.
Use these seven questions as a mirror to help you understand
yourself and your organization.
The world will not become a better place because we
learn—the world will only become a better place when we do.

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