Book Notes:

Managing Oneself is a 55-page book with simple guidelines and questions for introspective thought. It’s a quick read that could be summarized by the following questions:

1. What are my strengths?

2. Am I a listener or reader? Which allows me to perform best?

3. How do I learn? Do I need to write it out, do it, or talk it out?

4. Am I a loner or do I work well with people (and in what relationship capacity…manager, subordinate, leader…etc.)?

5. What are my values?

6. Where do I belong?

7. What should I contribute?

Drucker doesn’t tell give step-by-step instructions on how one can answer these questions. Instead, he uses examples and his opinions to prime further thought. It’s a book that could lead to the reader writing a longer version just thinking and applying the questions. 

Some are instructive like using feedback analysis to identify your strengths. Every time you make a key action or decision, write it down and the expected outcome. Check back in 12 months to compare results and expectations. Drucker points out our interpretation of our own strength areas is probably wrong and feedback from others is also fraught with error. 

The sequence of questions is designed so the readers 1) identify what their strengths are 2) put themselves in positions to use said strength areas 3) improve on strengths 4) find areas where ignorance or arrogance is limiting development (this doesn’t mean fixing weaknesses) and 5) finding purpose given their strengths and proclivities. 

“It takes far more energy and work to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than intakes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence. And yet most people—especially most teachers and most organizations—concentrate on making incompetent performers into mediocre ones. Energy, resources, and time should go instead to making a competent person into a star performer.”

When I read this book three years ago, I had written down I was a “listener” who learned best by talking out loud. Years later—after facing many errors—with more data on the self, I’ve learned I’m a “reader” who learns best by writing and doing. 

While the person I wanted to be might’ve been a quick-on-the-feet debater and fast decision-maker, I am a slow thinker that likes to brood over thing for a long time before making decisions. I like to read, sit, write, read, sit and write some more before I talk about it. Despite loving to talk, I often found myself realizing how idiotic I must’ve sounded. 

“Do not try to change yourself—you are unlikely to succeed. But work hard to improve the way you perform.” 

Then it’s about values. Look for alignment in values. That’s not a question of ethics. Ethics is one where you just use a mirror test: Do you like the person you see in the mirror? 

Values are not about what is right or wrong but what aligns with what you consider to be important. It’s a matter of priority.

“To be effective in an organization, a person’s values must be compatible with the organization’s values.” 

Another display of value could be in growth. Do you prefer fast growth over short-term or long-term growth that has better retention? It’s a matter of aligning your values with the organization.

“Whether a business should be run for short-term results or with a focus on the long-term is likewise a question fo values. Financial analysts believe that businesses can be run for both simultaneously. Successful business people know better.” 

A sign you got your strengths and how you perform right should be that they complement one another in what you do. But that may not align with values. Drucker realized this as an investment banker in the 1930s. The profession was a fit for his strengths and how he performed best. Yet, the misalignment of values meant continuing the journey.

“People, I realized, were what I valued, and I saw no point inning the richest man in the cemetery. I had no money and no other job prospects. Despite the continuing Depression, I quit—and it was the right thing to do. Values, in other words, are and should be the ultimate test.” 

Life is a journey and feeling like you’re lost is part of it. It takes making many mistakes and figuring out where you don’t belong and what you shouldn’t do before realizing what should do, where to do it, etc.

 “…most people, especially highly gifted people, do not really know where they belong until they are well past their mid-twenties.”

“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.” 

Learn to figure out where you belong. Reject everything else that would position you up for mediocrity. Then decide what you want your contribution to be. Ask yourself where and how you can make the contribution and difference you want within the next 18 months with specific detail. 

Learning to manage oneself will merely become a requirement for life. It’s a necessity. 

“Knowledge workers outlive organization, and they are mobile. The need to manage oneself is therefore creating a revolution in human affairs.”