Managing yourself: The biggest leadership challenge

Knowing your strengths and work style is key to success

Business guru Peter Drucker, writing for the Harvard Business Review, says that anyone with ambition, drive and talent can make it into today’s business world – if they have sufficient self-knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses. “Companies today aren’t managing their knowledge workers’ careers,” he writes. “Rather we must each be our own chief executive officer.”

Career self-management today is a long-term enterprise that may last fifty years or more, Drucker says. It will almost certainly outlast your current job (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the average youngest Baby Boomers surveyed held more than 10 different jobs from the ages of 18 to 40 alone).

One way to learn the art of career self-management is through tests like the Birkman Workstyle Assessment and training like the Network’s Deep Dive into Career Self-Management October 22 in Minneapolis. A limited number of slots are open for this year’s Deep Dive program, which includes a Birkman Workstyle Analysis at no extra cost.

“The Deep Dive program supports the development of an effective career plan,” says workshop leader Sandra Bushby, director of Women’s Initiatives for KPMG and a long-time mentor and coach. “Participants learn about various career management strategies, complete self-assessments of their individual work style strengths, learn how to leverage those strengths within the workplace, and leave with a better understanding of how to maximize a mentoring relationship.”

Self-management maxims

Know your strengths. Most people, Drucker writes, think they know what they are good at. “Most people are wrong.” Drucker recommends constant feedback analysis that compares what you think will happen before an action to what actually occurs after. “Practiced consistently this simple practice will show you within a fairly short period of time, maybe two or three years, where your strengths lie.”

Know how you learn. Some people are listeners, some are readers. Almost never, says Drucker, can a reader (like John Kennedy) become a listener  (like Lyndon Johnson). Know your learning style and stick to what you know.

Tend your relationships. Good relationships -- with superiors, subordinates, colleagues and vendor --  are your most precious possession. Today’s organizations are not built on authority but on trust, Drucker notes. “Taking responsibility for relationships is therefore an absolute necessity.” Don’t let valued relationships die from neglect, poor communication or resentments. Be transparent, be generous and be kind.

Know where you belong. By your mid-twenties you should know some basic things about where you belong – and where you don’t. If you don’t mesh well with a large corporation, don’t work for one. If you’re not a leader, don’t go into management. “Successful careers are not planned,” Drucker writes. “They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths.”

Cultivate yourself. Be more productive by creating good habits and rejecting bad ones. “Good habits corral your energies into a momentum-building rhythm for you; bad habits sap your energies and drain you,” writes life coach Rosa Say. Keep healthy and take care of yourself. "Exercise your mind, body and spirit so you can be someone people count on, and so you can live expansively and with abundance.”

Live your values. “If your life and work aren't aligned with your values, you may be getting results, but you're unlikely to be thriving,” according to Sherry Lowry and Diane Menendez, authors of The Seamless Life. To find your core values – the things bring meaning to your life and make your heart sing – they recommend that you think back to your childhood and list the qualities that were true of you then. Or make a list of the things in recent years “when you were being and doing at your absolute best.” What values were you acting on? Have you stayed true to those values or have you strayed?

For more information on managing yourself and your career, read the “The Post-Capitalist Executive: An Interview with Peter F. Drucker” (Harvard Business Review, Product No. 93302).

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