B EST OF HBR 1999 Managing Oneself

1 BEST OF HBR 1999. Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves their Managing Oneself strengths, their values, and how they best perform. by peter F. drucker . Reprint R0501K. Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves their strengths, their values, and how they best perform. BEST OF HBR 1999. Managing Oneself by peter F. drucker We live in an age of unprecedented opportunity: tions, so unusual both in their talents and If you've got ambition and smarts, you can rise to their accomplishments as to be considered the top of your chosen profession, regardless of outside the boundaries of ordinary human ex- COPYRIGHT 2004 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION.

2 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. where you started out. istence. Now, most of us, even those of us with But with opportunity comes responsibility. modest endowments, will have to learn to Companies today aren't Managing their employ- manage ourselves. We will have to learn to de- ees' careers; knowledge workers must, effec- velop ourselves. We will have to place our- tively, be their own chief executive of cers. It's up selves where we can make the greatest contri- to you to carve out your place, to know when to bution. And we will have to stay mentally alert change course, and to keep yourself engaged and and engaged during a 50-year working life, productive during a work life that may span which means knowing how and when to some 50 years.

3 To do those things well, you'll change the work we do. need to cultivate a deep understanding of your- self not only what your strengths and weak- What Are My Strengths? nesses are but also how you learn, how you work Most people think they know what they are with others, what your values are, and where you good at. They are usually wrong. More often, can make the greatest contribution. Because only people know what they are not good at and when you operate from strengths can you even then more people are wrong than right. achieve true excellence. And yet, a person can perform only from strength.

4 One cannot build performance on History's great achievers a Napol on, a da weaknesses, let alone on something one can- Vinci, a Mozart have always managed them- not do at all. selves. That, in large measure, is what makes Throughout history, people had little them great achievers. But they are rare excep- need to know their strengths. A person was harvard business review Managing yourself january 2005 page 1. Managing Oneself B EST OF HBR 1999. born into a position and a line of work: The gance is causing disabling ignorance and over- peasant's son would also be a peasant; the ar- come it.

5 Far too many people especially peo- tisan's daughter, an artisan's wife; and so on. ple with great expertise in one area are But now people have choices. We need to contemptuous of knowledge in other areas or know our strengths in order to know where believe that being bright is a substitute for we belong. knowledge. First-rate engineers, for instance, The only way to discover your strengths is tend to take pride in not knowing anything through feedback analysis. Whenever you about people. Human beings, they believe, are make a key decision or take a key action, write much too disorderly for the good engineering down what you expect will happen.

6 Nine or 12 mind. Human resources professionals, by con- months later, compare the actual results with trast, often pride themselves on their igno- your expectations. I have been practicing this rance of elementary accounting or of quantita- method for 15 to 20 years now, and every time tive methods altogether. But taking pride in I do it, I am surprised. The feedback analysis such ignorance is self-defeating. Go to work on showed me, for instance and to my great sur- acquiring the skills and knowledge you need to prise that I have an intuitive understanding fully realize your strengths. of technical people, whether they are engi- It is equally essential to remedy your bad neers or accountants or market researchers.

7 It habits the things you do or fail to do that in- also showed me that I don't really resonate hibit your effectiveness and performance. Such with generalists. habits will quickly show up in the feedback. Feedback analysis is by no means new. It For example, a planner may nd that his beau- was invented sometime in the fourteenth cen- tiful plans fail because he does not follow tury by an otherwise totally obscure German through on them. Like so many brilliant peo- theologian and picked up quite independently, ple, he believes that ideas move mountains. some 150 years later, by John Calvin and Igna- But bulldozers move mountains; ideas show tius of Loyola, each of whom incorporated it where the bulldozers should go to work.

8 This into the practice of his followers. In fact, the planner will have to learn that the work does steadfast focus on performance and results not stop when the plan is completed. He must that this habit produces explains why the insti- nd people to carry out the plan and explain it tutions these two men founded, the Calvinist to them. He must adapt and change it as he church and the Jesuit order, came to dominate puts it into action. And nally, he must decide Europe within 30 years. when to stop pushing the plan. Practiced consistently, this simple method At the same time, feedback will also reveal will show you within a fairly short period of when the problem is a lack of manners.

9 Man- time, maybe two or three years, where your ners are the lubricating oil of an organization. strengths lie and this is the most important It is a law of nature that two moving bodies in thing to know. The method will show you contact with each other create friction. This is what you are doing or failing to do that de- as true for human beings as it is for inanimate prives you of the full bene ts of your objects. Manners simple things like saying strengths. It will show you where you are not please and thank you and knowing a per- particularly competent. And nally, it will son's name or asking after her family enable show you where you have no strengths and two people to work together whether they cannot perform.

10 Like each other or not. Bright people, espe- Several implications for action follow from cially bright young people, often do not un- feedback analysis. First and foremost, concen- derstand this. If analysis shows that some- trate on your strengths. Put yourself where one's brilliant work fails again and again as your strengths can produce results. soon as cooperation from others is required, it peter F. drucker is the Marie Rankin Second, work on improving your strengths. probably indicates a lack of courtesy that is, Clarke Professor of Social Science and Analysis will rapidly show where you need to a lack of manners.