Here is my note for “Managing Oneself” by Peter F. Drucker.
People want to be living in their dream jobs that lead to life fulfillment. To help you to land your dream job, we can reframe it as a SMART goal and the question in most cases should be: Given my strengths, my way of performing, and my values, where and how can I make the greatest contribution and achieve results that will make a difference within the next year and a half? Let’s deconstruct the question further:
What are my strengths?
A person can perform only from strength.
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.
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.
How do I perform?
Just as people achieve results by doing what they are good at, they also achieve results by working in ways that they best perform. A few common personality traits usually determine how a person performs.
- Am I a reader or a listener (i.e. effective in oral or written communication)?
- How do I learn? Do I learn by listening, reading, writing, talking, or doing?
- Do I work well with people, or am I a loner? And if you do work well with people, you then must ask, In what relationship?
- Do I produce results as a decision maker or as an adviser?
- Do I perform well under stress, or do I need a highly structured and predictable environment? Do I work best in a big organization or a small one?
What are my values?
Values determine your own priority.
[Mirror test:] Ethics requires that you ask yourself, What kind of person do I want to see in the mirror in the morning? What is ethical behavior in one kind of organization or situation is ethical behavior in another. But ethics is only part of a value system—especially of an organization’s value system.
To work in an organization whose value system is unacceptable or incompatible with one’s own condemns a person both to frustration and to nonperformance.
After knowing the answer of these three questions, the next key step is to act on this knowledge. Don’t try to change yourself. Instead, it’s far more effective to concentrate on your strengths and work on acquiring the knowledge, skills and habits you need to fully realize your strengths.
Equally important, it enables you to know who you are and seize opportunities.
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.
There are two other things we can discuss with regard to this topic.
Responsibility for relationships
Most people work with others and are effective with other people. That is true whether they are members of an organization or independently employed. Managing yourself requires taking responsibility for relationships.
Organizations are no longer built on force but on trust. The existence of trust between people does not necessarily mean that they like one another. It means that they understand one another.
The first secret of effectiveness is to understand the people you work with and depend on so that you can make use of their strengths, their ways of working, and their values.
The second part of relationship responsibility is taking responsibility for communication [to let other people know what you are good at, how you work, what are your values, and your proposed contribution].
The second half of your life
People who manage the second half of their lives may always be a minority. The majority may “retire on the job” and count the years until their actual retirement. But it is this minority, the men and women who see a long working-life expectancy as an opportunity both for themselves and for society, who will become leaders and models.
You can prepare for and develop a second career by moving from one kind of organization to another, developing a parallel career (usually in a nonprofit organization, that takes another ten hours of work a week), or becoming a social entrepreneur.
No one can expect to live very long without experiencing a serious setback in his or her life or work. In a society in which success has become so terribly important, having options will become increasingly vital.
Wherever there is success, there has to be failure.
以下是個人閱讀彼得．杜拉克所撰寫之〈自我管理〉的筆記。
我們總是追尋自己的理想工作並期望自我實現。你可以透過 SMART 原則重新建構此目標，以協助你進一步邁向成功。在大部分情況下，最重要的問題便是：依據我的長處、行事風格和價值觀，今後一年半內，我可以在哪些領域、透過什麼方式做出最大貢獻並發揮影響力。我們可以進一步將此問題解析為下列要素：
我的長處是什麼？
唯有盡己所長才能脫穎而出。
「回饋分析」是發掘自身優勢的唯一方法。你必須在每次做出重大決策或行動時寫下預期發生的結果，並在 9-12 個月後比較預測和實際結果。
只要持之以恆，短短 2-3 年內，你就可以透過這個簡單的方法，觀察這段時間的為和不為以瞭解自己的長處。
我的行事風格是什麼？
長處和行事風格是讓你實現成就的關鍵，而後者的決定性因素便是你的人格特質。
- 我是閱讀者 (擅長口語溝通) 還是聆聽者 (擅長書面溝通)？
- 我是怎麼學習的？我是透過聆聽、閱讀、書寫、談話還是實作進行學習？
- 我擅於合作還是單打獨鬥？若為前者，我又適合以什麼關係與人合作？
- 我適合擔任決策者還是顧問？
- 我在承受壓力時表現較佳，還是適合在架構分明且可預測的環境中工作？我在大企業還是小公司中才能一展長才？
我的價值觀是什麼？
價值觀決定你的優先要務。
[鏡子檢驗：] 道德要求你自問：我希望早上在鏡子裡看到怎樣的自己？道德放諸四海皆準，但這只是 (組織) 價值體系的一部分。
身處於價值體系與個人價值觀不相容的組織，勢必讓人感到挫折而難有表現。
根據這些自我認知採取行動是邁向卓越的關鍵。你應該透過積極獲取和培養相關知識、技能和習慣，專注於充分發揮並強化自身優勢，絕對不要嘗試改變自己的本性。
此外，這些認知也可讓您知所歸屬並有效掌握轉瞬即逝的機會。
成功的職涯靠的不是規畫。只要瞭解自身優勢、行事風格和價值觀，你自然能把握機會並開創一番事業。
針對這個主題，我們還可以對另外兩個議題進行討論。
為人際關係負起責任
無論是身為組織成員或獨立工作者，多數人都必須與他人共事才能有效達成目的。因此為人際關係負起責任也是自我管理的課題之一。
現代組織的基礎不再是力量，而是信任。人與人之間的信任不一定代表彼此互相欣賞，而是代表互相瞭解。
高效工作的首要祕訣便是瞭解共事和相互依存的對象，並將其長處、行事風格和價值觀運用於工作之中。
人際關係的第二個部分便是負起溝通責任 [透過充分溝通，讓他人瞭解你]。
規畫人生下半場
相較於多數人終究處於算日子等退休的「在職退休」狀態，只有少數人懂得規畫自己的人生下半場，將漫長的工作生涯視為對自身和社會有利的契機，而正是這些人才能引領時代潮流並成為大眾楷模。
轉任至不同性質或產業的組織；花費約每週 10 小時的時間，透過非營利組織拓展第二事業；或是成為社會企業家等，都是開拓事業第二春的方式。
挫折是必然的，沒有挫折的人生就不是人生。有所選擇的力量在現今重視成功的社會中格外重要。