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MANAGING ONESELF
By Peter F. Drucker
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Introduction
Success in the knowledge economy comes
to those who know themselves-their
strengths, their values, and how they best
perform
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Overview
History great achievers have always
managed themselves.
That is what makes them great achievers
We will have to learn to manage ourselves
We will have to develop ourselves
We will have to place ourselves where we
can make the greatest contribution
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Overview- continuation
We will have to stay mentally alert and
engaged during a 50-year working life,
which means knowing how and when to
change the work we do.

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Agenda
What Are My Strengths?
How Do I Perform?
What Are My Values?
Where Do I Belong?
What Should I Contribute?
Responsibility For Relationships
The Second Half Of Your Life

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Vocabulary
Self-efficacy: believe in ones ability to do a task
Self-monitoring: observing ones own behavior
and adapting it to the situations.
Social Cognitive Theory: version of the Social
Learning Theory presented by Bandura
(Standford Psychologist), that postulate that
there are dynamic relationships among personal
factors, the social and physical environment, and
behavior (Bandura, 1986)
A person can be both an agent for and a
respondent to change.
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What Are My Strengths?
It is easier to know what we are not good
at- than to know what are we good at.
A person can perform only from strength
Discover your strengths through feedback
analysis.
Whenever you make a decision, write
down what you expect will happen. One
year later, compare the actual results with
your expectations

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Strategy
1. Concentrate in your strengths (put
yourself where your strengths can
produce result)
2. Work on improving your strengths
(improve your skills or adquire new
ones)
3. Discover where your intellectual
arrogance is causing disabling ignorance
and overcome it (remedy your bad
habits)

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How Do I Perform?
Different people work and perform
differently
Too many people work in ways that are
not their ways.
How one performs is unique: matter of
personality
Just as what a person is good at or not
good at is a given.
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How Do I perform? cont.
Am I a reader or a listener?

How do I learn?

Work hard to improve the way you
perform (do not try to change yourself)
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What Are My Values?
Use the mirror test
Value system of an organization and yours
Organizations, like people, have values
To be effective in an organization, a
persons values must be compatible with
the organizations values (not the same but
close enough to coexist)
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Where Do I Belong?
Or where I do not belong
A big or a small organization?
Yes, I will do that
If I am not a decision maker I should have
learned to say no to a decision maker
assignment.
When we answer to to the three previous
questions, I can and should decide where I
belong.
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What Should I Contribute?
What does the situation requires?
Given my strengths, my way of
performing, and my values, how can I
make the greatest contribution to what
needs to be done?
What results have to be achieved to make a
difference?
A plan can usually cover no more than 18
months and still be reasonable clear and
specific
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What Should I Contribute? Cont.
Where and and how can I achieve results
that will make a difference within the next
year and half?
The results should be hard to achieve, but also
they should be within reach
The results must be meaningful (they should
make a difference)
Results should be visible and, if at all
possible, measurable.
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Responsibility For
Relationships


First is to accept the fact that other people are as
much individuals as you yourself are.


Taking responsibility for communication

Today the great majority of people work with others
who have different tasks and responsibilities.




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The Second Half Of Your Life
Managing oneself increasingly leads one to
begin a second career:

Start one (move to another organization
Develop a parallel career
Social entrepreneurs (another activity, usually
a nonprofit)
People who manage the second half of
their lives may always be a minority
The majority may retire on the job

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Prerequisite:

Begin long before you enter the second half
of your life!
The Second Half Of Your Life
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Conclusions:
Managing oneself requires new and
unprecedented things from the individual,
and specially from the knowledge worker
Managing oneself requires that each
knowledge worker think and behave like a
chief executive officer
Knowledge workers outlive organizations,
and they are mobile.
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Where to Get More Information