The keys: Cultivate a deep understanding of yourself by identifying your most valuable strengths and most dangerous weaknesses Articulate how you learn and work with others and what your most deeply held values are and Describe the type of work environment where you can make the greatest contribution. In Managing Oneself, Peter Drucker explains how to do it. And it's up to you to keep yourself engaged and productive during a career that may span some 50 years. That means it's up to you to carve out your place in the world and know when to change course. Instead, you must be your own chief executive officer. Companies today aren't managing their knowledge workers careers. But with opportunity comes responsibility. 9.We live in an age of unprecedented opportunity: with ambition, drive, and talent, you can rise to the top of your chosen profession regardless of where you started out.

They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they have asked themselves those questions and have rigorously assessed their unique characteristics. Today's successful careers are not planned out in advance. If you do that, you can transform yourself from an ordinary worker into an outstanding performer. Instead, concentrate on improving the skills you have and accepting assignments that are tailored to your individual way of working. He challenges each of us to ask ourselves, 'What are my strengths? How do I perform? What are my values? Where do I belong? What should my contribution be?'ĭon't try to change yourself, Drucker cautions.

But, Drucker says, very few people actually know - let alone take advantage of - their fundamental strengths. It may seem obvious that people achieve results by doing what they are good at and by working in ways that fit their abilities. And we 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. We have to place ourselves where we can make the greatest contribution to our organizations and communities. What does that mean? As Peter Drucker tells us in this seminal article, first published in 1999, it means we have to learn to develop ourselves. Today we must all learn to manage ourselves. Throughout history, people had little need to manage their careers - they were born into their stations in life or, in the recent past, they relied on their companies to chart their career paths.

'Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves - their strengths, their values, and how they best perform.' -Peter F.

Peter drucker managing yourself