Managing Oneself

Managing Oneself Plot Summary

Introduction

In today's rapidly changing world, the ability to lead yourself has become as crucial as the ability to lead others. While history's greatest achievers have always managed themselves effectively, this skill was once reserved for the exceptional few. Now, it's a necessity for everyone. The demands of modern careers require us to understand our strengths, recognize how we perform best, and align our work with our deepest values. Self-leadership isn't about following prescribed paths or conforming to others' expectations. It's about taking responsibility for your own development and contribution. By mastering the art of self-leadership, you position yourself where you can make the greatest impact, stay mentally engaged throughout your career, and know when to pivot to new challenges. This journey of self-discovery and intentional growth is what transforms ordinary careers into extraordinary ones.

Chapter 1: Discover Your Strengths Through Feedback Analysis

Knowing your strengths is the foundation of effective self-leadership. Most people think they know what they're good at, but they're usually wrong. Even when people identify their weaknesses, they're often mistaken. Yet performance can only be built on strengths, not on weaknesses or things you cannot do at all. The only reliable way to discover your strengths is through feedback analysis. This method, though simple, has a profound history. It was first developed by a German theologian in the fourteenth century and later adopted by John Calvin and Ignatius of Loyola. The practice involves writing down your expectations whenever you make an important decision or take significant action. Then, 9-12 months later, compare the actual results with what you anticipated. This comparison consistently reveals surprising insights about your capabilities. Peter Drucker himself practiced this method for nearly two decades and was continually surprised by the results. Through feedback analysis, he discovered he had an intuitive understanding of technical professionals like engineers and accountants, while he didn't connect well with generalists. This self-knowledge proved invaluable throughout his career. Once feedback analysis reveals your strengths, you should take three specific actions. First, position yourself where your strengths can produce meaningful results. Second, work diligently to improve those strengths. Third, identify areas where intellectual arrogance causes knowledge gaps and address them. For instance, engineers might pride themselves on not understanding people, while human resources professionals might boast about their ignorance of accounting. Both attitudes are self-defeating. Equally important is addressing bad habits that limit your effectiveness. These will quickly emerge through feedback analysis. A brilliant planner might discover that their ideas fail because they don't follow through on implementation. They must learn that work doesn't end when the plan is complete but continues through execution and adaptation. The ultimate goal of strength discovery isn't to become well-rounded, but to become highly effective. Focus your energy on developing from competence to excellence rather than struggling to move from incompetence to mediocrity. The latter requires far more effort with much less return.

Chapter 2: Understand Your Performance Style

How you perform is just as important as what you can do. Surprisingly few people know how they get things done, yet this knowledge is crucial for knowledge workers. Like your strengths, your performance style is largely innate and can be modified only slightly, not fundamentally changed. One of the most basic distinctions in performance styles is between readers and listeners. Very few people are equally adept at both. Dwight Eisenhower provides a telling example of this distinction. As Supreme Commander in Europe during World War II, Eisenhower excelled in press conferences, displaying total command of questions and explaining policies eloquently. Yet as President, the same journalists who once admired him held him in contempt, complaining that he rambled and never addressed their questions directly. The explanation is simple but profound: Eisenhower was a reader, not a listener. As Supreme Commander, his aides ensured every press question was submitted in writing before conferences began. As President, following the example of his listener predecessors Roosevelt and Truman, he attempted to handle spontaneous questions and failed miserably. Similarly, Lyndon Johnson, a natural listener, kept Kennedy's staff of brilliant writers but never understood what they wrote. Another critical aspect of performance style is how you learn. Schools assume everyone learns the same way, but this is far from true. Winston Churchill performed poorly in school because he learned by writing, not by listening or reading as schools required. Beethoven kept extensive sketchbooks he never consulted while composing; the act of writing information down was his learning process. Some executives learn by talking through ideas with an audience, while others learn through taking notes or through physical action. Your relationship style is equally important to understand. Do you work best as a subordinate, like General Patton, who was America's finest troop commander but would have failed as an independent leader? Are you a decision-maker or an advisor? Many excellent advisors fail when promoted to decision-making positions because they can identify the right choice but struggle with the responsibility of making it. Other crucial questions include whether you perform well under stress or need structured environments, and whether you thrive in large organizations or small ones. The key insight is not to fight against your natural performance style. Instead, work hard to improve within your style and avoid positions that require you to perform in ways that don't match how you function best.

Chapter 3: Align Work With Your Core Values

Understanding your values is essential to managing yourself effectively. This goes beyond ethics, which provides universal rules for everyone. Values represent your personal beliefs about what matters most and what kind of contribution you want to make. Working in an organization whose values conflict with your own inevitably leads to frustration and poor performance. Consider the experience of a successful human resources executive whose company was acquired by a larger organization. In her new role, she was responsible for selecting people for important positions. She deeply believed companies should exhaust internal candidates before looking outside. However, her new employer valued bringing in "fresh blood" from outside first. After years of frustration trying to reconcile these opposing values, she eventually resigned at considerable financial cost. Value conflicts appear in every sector. Pharmaceutical companies must decide whether to focus on incremental improvements or risky breakthroughs. Businesses must balance short-term results against long-term growth. Even churches face value decisions about whether to prioritize numerical growth or spiritual depth. One pastor argued, "Unless you first come to church, you will never find the gate to the Kingdom of Heaven." Another countered, "Until you first look for the gate to the Kingdom of Heaven, you don't belong in church." Sometimes a person's values conflict with their strengths. Drucker shares his personal experience as a young investment banker in London during the 1930s. Despite excelling in the role, he realized asset management didn't align with his values. He valued making a difference in people's lives more than financial success. Despite having no money or job prospects during the Depression, he quit—a decision he never regretted. To identify your values, ask yourself what kind of person you want to see in the mirror each morning. Consider what kind of work environment allows you to express your authentic self. Reflect on whether you value tangible short-term results or long-term impact that might be less immediately visible. Think about whether you prefer helping individuals directly or creating systems that help many people indirectly. Values are not merely preferences; they represent your deepest convictions about what matters. When your work aligns with your values, you find meaning and purpose that sustains you through challenges. When they conflict, no amount of success will feel satisfying. This is why values should be the ultimate test in deciding where you belong.

Chapter 4: Find Where You Truly Belong

Knowing where you belong is perhaps the most crucial element of self-leadership. While some people discover their calling early—mathematicians, musicians, and physicians often know by their teens—most highly gifted individuals don't find their place until well into their twenties or beyond. By then, you should have answered the three fundamental questions: What are my strengths? How do I perform? What are my values? With these insights, you can make informed decisions about where you belong—or at least where you don't belong. If you've learned you don't perform well in large organizations, you should decline positions in such environments. If you've discovered you're not a natural decision-maker, you should avoid decision-making assignments. General Patton, despite his brilliance as a military commander, should have recognized he wasn't suited for independent command. The power of knowing where you belong transforms ordinary performers into outstanding ones. A striking example comes from a woman who spent 15 years in mid-level positions at a large bank. She was competent but not exceptional. Then she moved to a small rural bank where she became CEO. Within a year, her new bank became the best-performing small bank in its state. She hadn't suddenly acquired new knowledge or skills—she had simply found where she belonged. Understanding where you belong allows you to articulate how you work best. When offered a position or assignment, you can respond: "Yes, I will do that. But this is how I should be doing it. This is how it should be structured. These are the kind of results you should expect from me, and in this time frame, because this is who I am." This clarity benefits both you and your organization. Contrary to conventional wisdom, successful careers are rarely planned in advance. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they understand themselves. They recognize chances that align with their strengths, performance style, and values. They also know which opportunities to decline, regardless of how prestigious or lucrative they might appear. Finding where you belong isn't about following a predetermined path or conforming to others' expectations. It's about creating the conditions where your unique combination of strengths, performance style, and values can create maximum impact. When you're in the right place, work becomes energizing rather than draining, and your contribution becomes exponentially more valuable.

Chapter 5: Take Responsibility for Relationships

Few people achieve results entirely on their own. Most work with and through others, making relationship management an essential aspect of self-leadership. Taking responsibility for relationships involves two critical components that are often overlooked. First, recognize that everyone around you is an individual with unique strengths, performance styles, and values. This seems obvious but is rarely practiced. Consider the person who learned to write detailed reports for their first boss, who was a reader. When transferred to work for a listener boss, they continue producing the same reports, which go unread. Inevitably, the new boss considers them incompetent, when the real issue is a mismatch in communication styles. Bosses are not merely functions or titles on an organizational chart—they are individuals entitled to work in ways that make them most effective. The same applies to colleagues, subordinates, and external partners. Understanding how others work and adapting your approach accordingly is the secret to productive relationships. This doesn't mean compromising your integrity or values, but rather recognizing that different people process information and make decisions differently. The second aspect of relationship responsibility is communication. When consultants begin working with organizations, they invariably hear about personality conflicts. Most of these arise because people don't know what others are doing, how they work, or what results they expect. The reason? They simply haven't asked or told each other these essential things. A marketing vice president who rose through sales might know everything about selling but nothing about pricing, advertising, or packaging. The specialists handling these functions must educate her about their work—what they're trying to do, why, how, and what results to expect. If she doesn't understand their work, it's primarily their responsibility, not hers. Many knowledge workers hesitate to initiate these conversations, fearing they'll appear presumptuous or ignorant. Yet the response is invariably positive. When someone says, "This is what I'm good at, how I work, what I value, and the contribution I plan to make," colleagues typically respond, "This is extremely helpful. Why didn't you tell me earlier?" The same appreciation occurs when you ask others about their strengths, work styles, and values. In modern organizations built on trust rather than force, taking responsibility for relationships isn't optional—it's a duty. Whether you're an employee, consultant, supplier, or partner, you owe this responsibility to everyone whose work affects yours and everyone affected by your work. Effective relationships don't require friendship, but they do require mutual understanding and clear communication.

Chapter 6: Plan Your Second Half Contribution

When work primarily involved manual labor, people simply continued doing the same tasks until retirement. Today, with knowledge work dominating the economy, the second half of your career presents both challenges and opportunities. After 20 years in the same field, many executives reach their peak around age 45. They've mastered their work but are no longer learning or feeling challenged—yet they face another 20-25 years of working life. This reality explains why managing yourself increasingly leads to developing a second career. There are three primary approaches to creating a meaningful second half. The first is starting an entirely new career. This might involve moving to a different type of organization—like a corporate controller becoming a hospital administrator—or entering a completely different field, such as a business executive becoming a minister or a manager attending law school to become an attorney. The second approach is developing a parallel career. Many successful professionals maintain their primary work while creating a parallel role, often in a nonprofit organization. They might administer their church, lead a community organization, or serve on a school board. This parallel work typically requires about ten hours weekly but provides fresh challenges and a sense of contribution beyond their main career. The third path is social entrepreneurship. Bob Buford exemplifies this approach. After building a successful television company that he continued to run, he founded a nonprofit organization serving Protestant churches. Later, he created another venture teaching social entrepreneurs how to manage nonprofit organizations while maintaining their businesses. These social entrepreneurs typically continue their original work but devote decreasing time to it as they build their new ventures. The key insight about the second half of life is that preparation must begin long before you reach it. Research shows that people who don't begin volunteering before age 40 rarely start after 60. Similarly, successful social entrepreneurs typically begin their second enterprises while still thriving in their original careers. The lawyer who established model schools in his state started with volunteer legal work for schools at age 35, joined the school board at 40, and launched his educational venture at 50—all while maintaining his legal practice. Developing a second interest serves another crucial purpose: resilience during inevitable setbacks. Whether facing career disappointments like being passed over for promotion or personal tragedies like divorce, having a meaningful second interest provides an alternative source of identity and community. In a society where success has become paramount, having options becomes vital. The challenge of managing yourself may seem elementary, but it demands unprecedented things from knowledge workers. Essentially, it requires each person to think and behave like a CEO of their own career. By understanding your strengths, performance style, and values, you can position yourself for meaningful contribution throughout your entire working life.

Summary

The art of self-leadership transforms ordinary careers into extraordinary ones by aligning who you are with what you do. Throughout this exploration, we've seen how understanding your strengths through feedback analysis, recognizing your unique performance style, honoring your values, finding where you belong, managing relationships, and planning your second half contribution create the foundation for a meaningful career. As Peter Drucker wisely observed, "Knowledge workers outlive organizations, and they are mobile. The need to manage oneself is therefore creating a revolution in human affairs." Your journey toward mastering self-leadership begins with a single step: commit to the feedback analysis process this week. Write down your expectations for an important decision or action, then calendar a reminder to review the actual results in six months. This simple practice will reveal insights about your strengths that no amount of self-reflection can provide. Remember that managing yourself isn't just about personal success—it's about creating the conditions where you can make your greatest contribution to the world.

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Peter F. Drucker

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