Managing Oneself

                                by Peter R Drucker

Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know them selves their strengths, their values, and how they best perform


The only way to discover your strengths is through feedback analysis. Whenever you make a key decision or take a key action, write down what you expect will happen. Nine or 12 months later, compare the actual results with your expectations. I have been practicing this method for 15 to 20 years now, and every time I do it, 1 am surprised. The feedback analysis showed me, for instance-and to my great surprise-that I have an intuitive understanding of technical people, whether they are engineers or accountants or market researchers. It also showed me that I don't really resonate with generalists.

Managing Oneself - Selina Man Karlsson
 Managing Oneself  Selina Man Karlsson

Feedback analysis is by no means new. It was invented sometime in the fourteenth century by an otherwise totally obscure German theologian and picked up quite independently, some 150 years later, by John Calvin and Ignatius of Loyola, each of whom incorporated it into the practice of his followers. In fact, the steadfast focus on performance and results that this habit produces explains why the institutions these two men founded, the Calvinist church and the Jesuit order, came to dominate Europe within 30 years. 


Practiced consistently, this simple method will show you within a fairly short period of time, maybe two or three years, where your strengths lie - and this is the most important thing to know. The method will show you what you are doing or failing to do that deprives you of the full benefits of your strengths. It will show you where you are not particularly competent. And finally, it will show you where you have no strengths and cannot perform. 


What one does well even very well and successfully may not fit with one's value system.

the long term is likewise a question of values. Financial analysts believe that businesses can be run for both simultaneously. Successful business people know better. To be sure, every company has to produce short-term results. But in any conflict between short-term results and long-term growth, each company will determine Its own priority. This is not primarily a disagreement about economics. It is fundamentally a value conflict regarding the function of a business and the responsibility of management. 

Value conflicts are not limited to business organizations. One of the fastest growing pastoral churches in the United States measures success by the number of new parishioners. Its leadership believes that what matters is how many newcomers join the congregation. The Good Lord will then minister to their spiritual needs or at least to the needs of a sufficient percentage. Another pastoral, evangelical church believes that what matters is people's spiritual growth. The church eases out newcomers who join but do not enter into its spiritual life.

 Again, this is not a matter of numbers. At first glance, it appears that the second church grows more slowly. But it retains a far larger proportion of newcomers than the first one does. Its growth, in other words, is more solid. This is also not a theological problem, or only secondarily so. It is a problem about values. In a public debate, one pastor argued, "Unless you first come to church,you will never find the gate to the Kingdom of Heaven.

" "No," answered the other. "Until you first look for the gate to the Kingdom of Heaven, you don't belong in church." Organizations, like people, have values. To be effective in an organization, a person's values must be compatible with the organization's values. They do not need to be the same, but they must be close enough to coexist. Otherwise, the person will not only be frustrated but AI so will not produce results.

 A person's strengths and the way that person performs rarely conflict; the two are complementary. But there is sometimes a conflict between a person's values and his or her strengths. What one does well-even very well and successfully - may not fit with one's value system. In that case, the work may not appear to be worth devoting one's life to (or even a substantial portion thereof).
 If I may, allow me to interject a personal note. Many years ago, 1 too had to decide between my values and what I was doing successfully. I was doing very well as a young investment banker in London in the mid-i93 os, and the work clearly fit my strengths. Yet I did not see myself making a contribution as an asset manager. 

People, I realized, were what I valued, and I saw no point in being 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.