(by Peter Drucker, from "HBR's 10 Must Reads: The Essentials")

We live in an age of unprecedented opportunity. If you've got ambition, drive, and smarts, you can rise to the top of your chosen profession--regardless of where you started out. But with opportunity comes responsibility. Companies today aren't managing their knowledge workers' careers. Rather we must each be our own chief executive officer.

Simply put, it's up to you to carve out your place in the work world and know when to change course. And it's up to you to keep yourself engaged and productive during a work life that may span some 50 years.

To do all of these things well, you'll need to cultivate a deep understanding of yourself. What are your most valuable strengths and most dangerous weaknesses? Equally important, how do you learn and work with others? What are your most deeply held values? And in what type of work environment can you make the greatest contribution?

The implication is clear: Only when you operate from a combination of your strengths and self-knowledge can you achieve true--and lasting--excellence.

Ask yourself these questions:

Responsibility for Relationships

Very few people work by themselves and achieve results by themselves. Managing yourself requires taking responsibility for relationships. This has two parts:

Organizations are no longer built on force but on trust; this does not nmean they like one another, it means they understand one another. Taking responsibility for relationships is therefore an absolute necessity.

The Second Half of Your Life

(Excerpt from The Essential Drucker: The Second Half of Your Life)


Tags: reading   books   management  

Last modified 02 October 2024