Managing Oneself – Key Vocabulary

History & Context

• Article: "Managing Oneself" by Peter F. Drucker, originally in Harvard Business Review (January 2005)
  • Drucker (born 1909, died 2005), often called the founder of modern management, introduced concepts like Management by Objectives.
• Premise: In the knowledge economy, career success depends on self-management rather than external direction.
  • Classic examples of self-managers: Napoléon, da Vinci, Mozart (historical “outliers”).
  • Today, even those with "modest endowments" must learn similar disciplines.
• Practical drivers
  • Typical working life now spans about 50 years; staying mentally alert requires periodic change.

The Imperative to Know Your Strengths

• People usually misjudge what they are good at; many only know (inaccurately) what they are not good at.
• Rationale
  • In a world of choice (unlike the hereditary vocations of earlier centuries), we must locate roles where we can contribute.
  • Performance can only be built on strengths, not on weaknesses.

Feedback Analysis (Primary Tool)

• Steps
  • Whenever you make a key decision or take a key action, write down the expected result.
  • After 9–12 months, compare expectations with actual outcomes.
• Origins & Provenance
  • Invented in the 14^{th} century by an obscure German theologian; later adopted independently by John Calvin & Ignatius of Loyola.
  • Their orders (Calvinist Church, Jesuits) dominated Europe within 30 years—testament to the method’s power.
• Drucker’s personal discoveries
  • Unexpected intuitive rapport with technical people (engineers, accountants, market researchers).
  • Lesser resonance with generalists.
• Timeline for insight: Consistent practice reveals dominant strengths in 2–3 years.

Action Implications

• Concentrate energy where strengths deliver results.
• Improve strengths
  • Identify missing skills/knowledge; most gaps are “fillable” (e.g., anyone can learn trigonometry though mathematicians are born).
• Overcome “intellectual arrogance”
  • Specialists often disdain other fields (e.g., engineers dismiss HR; HR dismisses accounting). This is self-defeating.
• Remedy bad habits & manners
  • Example: Brilliant planner who never executes—must learn follow-through, delegation, adaptation.
  • Courtesy lubricates organizations (“please,” “thank you,” names, personal interest). Lack of manners = recurrent project failure once cooperation is needed.
• Do not waste effort on areas of no talent
  • \text{Energy}{\text{incompetence}\n→\text{mediocrity}} \gg \text{Energy}{\text{good}
    →\text{excellent}} (conceptual inequality).
  • Focus resources on elevating competent to star performers, not mediocre to average.

How Do I Perform?

• Performance style is largely fixed (nature & early nurture) long before work life.
• Key diagnostics:

Reader vs Listener

• Rarely both.
• Case studies
  • Dwight Eisenhower
  • As Supreme Commander: Received questions in writing → clear, polished answers.
  • As U.S. President: Took oral questions like predecessors Roosevelt & Truman (listeners) → rambling, incoherent responses; press contempt.
  • Lyndon Johnson
  • A listener who inherited JFK’s writer-centric staff → read memos he couldn’t process → presidency hindered.
• Lesson: Readers forced to listen (or vice versa) under-perform.

Learning Styles (≈ half-dozen varieties)

• Learn by writing (e.g., Winston Churchill; poor academic marks, excelled via writing).
• Learn by note-taking (e.g., Beethoven’s sketchbooks ensured memory retention).
• Learn by doing.
• Learn by talking
  • Example: CEO who weekly talked at staff for 2–3 hours, arguing multiple sides; he learned aloud.
• Self-knowledge is common; acting on it is rare yet essential.

Interpersonal Work Modes

• Work well with people or as loner?
• If with people, in what relationship?
  • Best as subordinate (e.g., General George Patton—superb subordinate, disastrous independent commander).
  • Best as team member or coach/mentor.
• Decision-maker vs Adviser
  • Number-two advisers often fail when promoted to number-one decision roles.
• Other situational questions
  • Thrive under stress or in predictable structure?
  • Prefer large or small organization?
• Guideline: Don’t try to change basic nature; refine how you perform and refuse assignments misaligned with your mode.

Values

• Distinct from ethics (which are universal). Drucker’s "mirror test": “What kind of person do I want to see in the mirror each morning?”
• Example: German ambassador resigned 1906 rather than host morally objectionable dinner for Edward VII.
• Compatibility Principle
  • HR executive who favored internal promotion joined firm that prioritized external hires (“fresh blood”). Value clash → frustration → resignation (financial loss accepted).
  • Pharmaceutical strategies: incremental improvement vs high-risk breakthroughs—driven by value systems, not economics.
  • Short-term vs long-term management focus equally value-based.
• Organizational & personal values must be close enough to coexist; otherwise, non-performance and frustration follow.
• Sometimes strengths conflict with values; values should prevail (Drucker left lucrative investment banking in 1930s to pursue people-centric work).

Where Do I Belong?

• Few (e.g., mathematicians, musicians, cooks) know very early. Most discover in late 20s.
• After clarifying Strengths, Performance Style, Values, decide where you do NOT belong.
  • Decline roles in mis-fitting environments (e.g., big orgs, decision-centric posts).
• When accepting opportunities, specify structure, relationships, timeframe, and expected results that suit “who I am.”
• Careers evolve from preparedness meeting opportunity—not elaborate planning.

What Should I Contribute?

• New question for knowledge workers: “What should my contribution be?”
  1. Assess what the situation requires.
  2. Given strengths/performance/values, where can I add most?
  3. What results are needed to “make a difference” (visible & preferably measurable)?
• Planning horizon: typically 18 months.
• Goals should be challenging yet attainable (“stretch”), meaningful, and difference-making.
• Hospital example: Administrator set standard—every ER patient seen by qualified nurse within 60 seconds → Model ER in 12 months; transformed entire hospital within 2 years.

Responsibility for Relationships

• Most work involves others; effectiveness requires relationship management.

Part 1 – Accept Individuality

• Coworkers possess unique strengths, work modes, and values.
• Adapt to bosses’ styles (reader vs listener, etc.) to avoid mis-labeling as incompetent.

Part 2 – Take Responsibility for Communication

• Personality conflicts often stem from ignorance about others’ tasks, methods, and expected results.
• Knowledge workers must educate others and request reciprocal disclosure:
  • Share: strengths, work style, values, intended contributions, expected outcomes.
  • Ask the same of colleagues, superiors, subordinates, team members.
• Universal reaction to such openness: “This is helpful—why didn’t you say so earlier?”
• Organizations run on trust, built through mutual understanding.

The Second Half of Your Life

• Manual-labor past: simply work until physical limit, then retire.
• Knowledge workers reach competence peak around 45, risk boredom for next 20–25 years.
• Solutions: build a second career before mid-life.

Three Paths

1. Start a new career
   • e.g., corporate controller → hospital controller; manager → attorney; executive → minister.
2. Parallel career
   • Keep main job (full/part-time) while holding significant nonprofit/community role (church admin, Girl Scouts president, library work, school board).
3. Social entrepreneurship
   • Successful primary-career individuals launch nonprofits or social ventures (e.g., Bob Buford: TV executive + nonprofit for Protestant churches).

Prerequisites & Timing

• Must begin long before needed—volunteering or side ventures should start before age 40.
• Benefits
  • Provides community, challenge, income, and psychological resilience during setbacks (career plateau, family tragedy).
  • Offers alternative sphere for achievement → protects self-worth in success-obsessed society.

Societal Implications

• Managing oneself turns every knowledge worker into a CEO of their own career.
• Traditional assumptions overturned:
  • Organizations no longer outlive workers; knowledge workers may outlive multiple employers.
  • Geographic & organizational mobility is the norm.
• Result: A “revolution in human affairs” where self-management is central to social structure.

Action Checklist (Quick Reference)

• Conduct feedback analysis for each key decision; review after 9–12 months.
• Catalogue strengths; list skills/knowledge gaps; schedule learning.
• Identify and correct counter-productive habits & manners.
• Diagnose: reader vs listener; preferred learning mode; social work preferences.
• Articulate core values; perform mirror test; verify value compatibility with employer.
• Define ideal environments; refuse mis-aligned roles.
• Set 18-month contribution goals—challenging, meaningful, measurable.
• Proactively communicate your strengths, work style, values, and goals to all stakeholders; invite reciprocal sharing.
• Launch second-career groundwork (volunteer, study, pilot project) before age 40.

Essential Takeaways

• Build on strengths; don’t waste resources on inherent weaknesses.
• Align performance mode with tasks; mismatch breeds failure.
• Values are non-negotiable; they override strengths when in conflict.
• Effective contribution demands clarity on situation needs, personal assets, and concrete results.
• Relationship management = understanding individuality + disciplined communication.
• Plan now for a fulfilling second half of life through second or parallel careers.
• Self-management is both personal imperative and societal game-changer in the knowledge era.