Today and in the future, it is and will be necessary for individuals to self-manage, competitiveness, technological developments and a long working life of 45 or 50 years forces us to continually develop ourselves.
In the book "Challenges for Management in the 21st Century", Peter Drucker raises the need to manage himself. This management implies the knowledge of himself, our strengths, weaknesses, what we do well, how we perform in a certain job, etc. This article presents, very briefly, what Drucker tells us.
Do I know my strengths?
Very rarely do we really ask ourselves what we are good at. We study such a thing but it turns out that what we really like is another, but we do not know, it is not our fault. If we want to improve our performance it is necessary to know our strengths, only based on them we can do it. Drucker raises Feedback Analysis as the best way to detect them, advises that whenever we have to make an important decision, write what we think is going to happen and then, nine months or a year later, compare what is happening at that moment with what we expected. According to him, practicing this exercise we will detect our strengths, what we are not competent at and what does not allow us to take advantage of our strengths.
Starting from the results of the analysis, we should focus on what makes us strong to produce results based on it. We will be able to work on improving those strong points, with which we will improve our performance, work on the correction of bad habits that do not allow us to be strong in certain aspects, detect in which special areas we have knowledge gaps, what others we could take better advantage of and not we have tried…
Furthermore, and very importantly, the expectations-reality comparison analysis allows us to know what not to do. It is better to focus on strong points than on very weak points where you will have to work hard and perhaps you will not find a satisfactory result, not all of us were born with the same characteristics.
Tip: Don't try to change yourself, work on enhancing your strengths and improving your performance
How do I perform?
In companies, there is generally a semi-annual or annual evaluation of employee performance, but very rarely do we ask ourselves how do I perform? Maybe this question is more important than what are my strengths? If we know how we perform, we can know how we can improve, even a little, and thus we can produce better results.
I am a reader or listener and how do I learn? These are the first two things we must understand about our performance. Knowing how we learn and if we are readers or listeners will allow us to improve our performance in these areas, we will be able to learn in the way we do best, some of us do it by writing, others by listening, others by talking. We can also know who to surround ourselves with to perform well, trying to complement our deficiencies.
Other questions we must answer are: Am I a good decision maker or do I perform better as a counselor? Do I work well in a group or do I feel better doing it alone? Some of us work better as leaders, but others as subordinates, we can also determine that with self-analysis.
In addition, to know how we perform, we must know if we can work under stress in the same way that we do without pressure, if we do better in small organizations or not, solve the dilemma of whether we are better at being a lion's tail or a mouse's head..
Some questions: * What are my strengths? * How do I perform? * Am I a leader or subordinate? * Do I make decisions or advise? * How do I learn?
The bottom line: Let's not try to change ourselves, it is highly unlikely that we will succeed. It is better to work on enhancing the way we perform and developing our strengths.
Peter Drucker, in his book "Management challenges for the 21st century" highlights the importance of self-knowledge, as a primary tool for all of us who move in today's economy, the knowledge economy
In the previous article, Self-management, we already talked about the first considerations that we must make to get to know each other and know what are the skills and abilities that allow us to achieve different levels of performance. In conclusion, we said that the most important thing was not to try to change ourselves, but rather, to try to improve our strengths once they were known.
What are my values?
Drucker does not pose this question, nor the answer, as a matter of ethics, but as a question inherent in each one of us, since with respect to ethics the rules are general. To answer this question, Drucker points out that we must practice a test, "the mirror test" and cites an example that leaves no doubt what that test means: it tells the story of the resignation of a German ambassador in London in 1906, charge diplomat who at that time was the most respected by world powers and who represented, for those who held it, the springboard to become minister of foreign affairs or federal chancellor of the German Republic. This character, presented his resignation after refusing to offer a dinner to King Edward VII,who was known as a womanizer and who wanted a "dinner" of other qualities, to which the ambassador replied "I refuse to see a pimp in the mirror in the morning when I shave."
"Managing yourself requires new and unprecedented things from the individual, requires every knowledge worker to think and behave like the president of a company."
Today, for everyone, the question would be, do I share the value system of the company I work for? Furthermore, do I know the value system of my company and give it the importance it deserves? For example, if my company's policies and strategies focus on the short term and I consider that the focus on the long term is much more important and gives better results, I propose it and they do not take me into account. Should I continue working? for this firm? Or should I look for a job where my values are aligned with those of the company?
Sometimes, low levels of performance are a consequence of the non-alignment of values between the company and the individuals that make it up, they are also due to conflicts between people's strengths and their values, Drucker mentions his personal experience: in the 1930s he was working as an investment banker in London and he was doing very well, despite that he did not see himself as an asset manager he realized that he really valued people and although He had no other job prospects or money, he felt that resigning was the right thing to do and he did it.
"Values, in other words, are and should be the last test"
Where do I belong?
This question, like the previous ones, can be somewhat ambiguous and almost always very difficult to answer. Furthermore, when we ask ourselves, we must already know our strengths, our way of doing things and what we really value.
In general, none of us have asked these questions, so it is very common that we do not know where we belong, but maybe we know where we do not belong. If we have realized that we are not good decision makers, we will be able to say no to a project where the fundamental decisions will be in our charge, which, although it sounds strange, will benefit us and if we have noticed that we are very good at relating to people An opportunity in customer service management would be a resounding yes.
"Understanding where you belong can transform an ordinary person into someone of outstanding performance"
What should I contribute?
Business history has always been framed within boss-employee relationships, which means that when a person is hired, they already have a series of tasks to perform, but they are almost never given the opportunity to propose their own contribution. Today, knowing our strengths, performance and values, we must ask ourselves what contribution I want to make? The answer goes through three basic aspects, what the situation requires, my contribution to the work I will have to do and the results to achieve to excel.
Consider the example of a newly appointed mall manager. The shopping center is very large but the sales of the establishments have declined in the last three years and vacant stores are beginning to be seen, which will generate even more loss of reputation. The new administrator decides to focus his efforts on the security of the shopping center that due to its large size had become somewhat insecure. The goal was set of not allowing any robbery, assault, or robbery any more and after a year, the sales had recovered, the security of the center was a model for the others and in a period of two years it achieved 100% of occupation of the premises.
Some questions: * What are my values? * What should I contribute? * Where do I belong? * Do I know the people who work with me and communicate well with them?
Do I know the people who work with me and communicate well with them?
To achieve high levels of performance, it is necessary that both bosses and subordinates know each other, that is, that they be responsible for knowing the strengths, the way of doing things and the values of each other, if not, the relationships of work will not give good results. The other factor that should be explored is communication, if people do not ask or comment on each other, what they do, how they do it, what results they expect, what their contribution is, then conflicts will arise. Others depend on our work and we depend on their work, mutual knowledge and communication go hand in hand and must be the responsibility of all who form an organization, at all levels.
Bibliography
DRUCKER, Peter F., "Management challenges for the 21st century", Harper Collins Editorial, New York, 1999
