Managing Oneself: An Evolution in Human Affairs

I continue to highlight excerpts from Harvard Business Review's book, On Managing Yourself. Peter Drucker's article, "Managing Oneself," gives a different perspective in how to stay engaged during the course of your working life.Because it is more commonplace today for people to outlive the organizations for which they work, and to be mobile, "The need to manage oneself is therefore creating a revolution in human affairs."

Successful careers are not planned. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values." It's more effective to build on strengths than weaknesses.Key questions to ask yourself:What are my strengths?How do I work? Understand how you learn and what environments you work best in.What are my values? These answers help define what has purpose and meaning for you, which fosters your commitment to the work and organization.

Where do I belong?What can I contribute?

The aspired to results should be meaningful, visible and measurable. "From this will come a course of action: what to do, where and how to start, and what goals and deadlines to set."Managing yourself requires you to take responsibility for relationships that will help make this work come to fruition. Organizations today are built on trust which requires that we also understand individuals with whom we work: their strengths, values, how they perform and their proposed contributions.

How do you know this?  You ask those who you work closely with so you can best discern how to complement each other. For some people this can be threatening. The key is to focus on how best to leverage others' strengths and support them in areas they are not as strong in.This week's reflection questions: Where do you need to take more responsibility for yourself - in owning and navigating your work and purpose? What could you do differently in communicating and partnering with others?