Managing Oneself Summary
7 min read ⌚
Even the title as it is, holds a specific meaning that you might get it wrong. If you want to start your day on the right foot, you ought to question your inclinations and habits.
It’s a simple process that has to begin anew in order to understand better what your priorities are in life.
The magnitude of the problem should be met with its own force, and that’s what we are trying to explain through this summary.
Who Should Read “Managing Oneself”? And Why?
How you manage your life is strictly your business, but that mustn’t be an excuse not to look for better solutions.
With regard to professional improvement, and personal enlightenment a person needs to understand the real deal about managing oneself.
In “Managing Oneself” Peter Drucker explains the process you need to go through in order to come out on top. As such, we find it highly inspirational for everyone willing to dive deep into its patterns.
Nurturing a positive mindset should also be among the first things on the priority list!
About Peter F. Drucker
Peter F. Drucker (1909 – 2005) was an Austrian-born American educator, who revolutionized the learning process which embodies management, leadership, above all else.
His fundamental principles revolved around:
- The creation of a knowledgeable worker
- Decentralization and simplification
- Customer-oriented companies
- Do what you do best and outsource the rest
He is the author of The Effective Executive, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, The Daily Drucker…
“Managing Oneself PDF Summary”
History greatest have always been under close observation and gazed at with an eagle eye to prove their worthiness. When the time and the circumstances were right, they would call upon their mental toughness and held themselves as a beacon of hope in a dead-end world.
In the past, people had a minimal choice, and they were impelled to follow in the footsteps of their parents or community.
Nowadays, we have the means to discover our strengths and define our goals.
With that said, society fails in identifying a standard which could help us in the process. According to Peter Drucker, we need to lean on feedback analysis, above all else.
If practiced consistently, feedback analysis yields excellent fruits in the shortest time-frame possible. It’s even estimated that in the first three years, you’ll get a good understanding of what your strongest attributes are, and how to make headway in the process.
What should you expect from it?
- It will show you how to identify your strengths and concentrate on them
- Second, you’ll get the idea on how to improve yourself and enhance your skills
- Third, it will help you to understand what your weakest links are and how to overcome that ignorance
Indeed, not all “sports” are for the faint of heart, and rectifying a troublesome situation hinges on effectiveness and world-class display. The bad habits are just icing on the cake for those who can’t seem to move an inch from their original position.
In addition, Peter implies that lack of manners is also a problem that ensues within a dysfunctional organization. The turmoil or the friction between two conflicting forces is well defined and applies to both humans and objects.
A greasy substrate is what it takes to proceed.
Another mistake that people tend to do is comparing or putting their expectations and results under the same limelight. It’s not an efficient metric, and what’s worse it doesn’t add up to the solution. In doing so, you’ll remain stuck in the mediocre circle without any surge of adrenaline to propel you forward.
A skilled person should, by all means, resist the temptation to spend resources on areas of low competence. Instead, he/she must make strides towards excellence, and simply refrain from enrolling in a numbers game.
And yet, the system allocates resources in creating these mediocre figures, despite the lack of logic in doing so.
Your only concern should be in the realm of spearheading an internal campaign for becoming a star-performer.
How Should I Perform? And What’s my Status?
It is shocking to realize that there’s a very small percentage of people who know how they get their things done. If you think about, you’ll come to the conclusion that people behave and think differently and as a result, that will generate performance discrepancy.
From a managerial perspective, that is a disastrous scenario with regards to the nonlinear display of expertise. It is also in conflict with the person’s abilities to get something efficiently done.
You can rephrase it in a way that you deem appropriate, like – What are my strengths?
Some would claim that personality traits are merely a genetic reflection while others believe that the character is built and nurtured. As a matter of fact, society tends to program humans to act in a given manner since the early age, which manifests in the workplace years later.
Whether that’s a good thing or not, you be the judge.
Also, Peter Drucker addresses one particularly sensitive question: Are you a reader or a listener? – You can fall into one or both categories, but the truth is – the individuals who understand their position can be counted on one’s fingers.
The ignorance on this matter is over the roof, and the bar must be raised to accommodate for this lack of perspective.
Likewise, your performance will always be linked or in correlation with your learning-ability and methods. Case in point, Winston Churchill – whose school performance was below average as he struggled to compete with its peers.
Persons who prefer writing as a way of self-expression and continuous improvement are castigated for not following the system.
Some even, refer to school-learning as torture, due to their preference in absorbing knowledge differently.
Evidently, people like Churchill, who prefer writing over listening should be put on an equal footing. They prefer to make remarks and take notes to facilitate the studying process. Beethoven is yet another example of sketch-artist who did all these drawings, sketches to understand the big picture.
According to Peter Drucker, not all people act upon the knowledge they receive. The number of individuals who understand what’s their best method of learning is high, but when it comes to taking action, the numbers are comparatively low.
With this in mind, why do people refuse to act when an opportunity presents itself?
There are a handful of factors which can impede the process of implementation such as environment, mental status, intellect, etc.
Also, not all people are at their best when they are assigned to groups — some, best rise to the occasion when they are left alone to “drown” in their creativity.
Anyways, you should be flexible to understand that competence is not on the same wavelength as mentorship or even performance. There are Individuals who crack under pressure, but that doesn’t indicate that they are lousy learners and vice versa.
Ask yourself – Do I need a predictable environment or flexible one to live up to the expectations?
More often than not, you’ll lay eyes upon people who can’t seem to operate in large organizations. And those who feel the same when left on their own.
So, the synergy and analogy can differ from case to case, so you can’t outline an absolute truth in any form whatsoever.
The goal would be to keep calm and try to assess the situation.
How to keep up with the world?
If you are keen to get to the next step, you have to know where you belong. Only a small percentage of the population has a clear unshakable understanding on that matter.
If that seems like something that you can’t do, then perhaps you should identify the mindset which seems distant to you. In other words, you should outline where you don’t belong.
Like we mentioned earlier, some people don’t seem to fit in a rigid and complex organization, while others feel the same way when isolated. Decision-making should be based on many things, but above all else, it should safeguard your interests.
When you take all factors into consideration, you get to a point where you realize that lucrative and successful career paths are not planned but prepared. Individuals whose values are in line with their strengths can outperform their peers, colleagues or competition.
Getting out of the shadow of mediocrity is a tough business, but it is something that could turn you into an outstanding performer.
Key Lessons from “Managing Oneself”
1. Get the big picture
2. Keep learning all the time
3. Fill the cup with discipline
Get the big picture
Yeah yeah… We do get the big picture, it’s all about success, all about social acceptance, right? Well, not quite, since most people these days feel anxiety even though their social status is way above the average line.
The key to managing yourself is to find what reality is made of. Find out whether you conform to imposed regulations and principles, or do you prefer your own path!
From a realistic vantage point, not many understand the whole game.
Keep learning all the time
We hate to say it, but you are not the smartest person in the universe. Nor you should be, and that’s an incentive enough for you to keep enhancing your knowledge.
It’s not something you should stop practicing; it’s an inevitable part of all-around success.
Follow your special method of learning, and rely on it.
Fill the cup with discipline
In this book, the author doesn’t explicitly cover “discipline,” but examines it subtly. If you can take responsibility for your actions by identifying your strengths, you most definitely fall into this category.
Every aspect of decision-making is also contained into this logic.
So, keep your feet on the ground, and never stop questioning your methods and the world.
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“Managing Oneself Quotes”
Like so many brilliant people, he believes that ideas move mountains. But bulldozers move mountains; ideas show where the bulldozers should go to work. Click To Tweet Schools everywhere are organized on the assumption that there is only one right way to learn and that it is the same way for everybody. Click To Tweet It is a law of nature that two moving bodies in contact with each other create friction. This is as true for human beings as it is for inanimate objects. Click To Tweet 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. Click To Tweet This failure to ask reflects human stupidity less than it reflects human history. Click To Tweet
Our Critical Review
Well, who can criticize Peter Drucker based on merit? – It’s tough to pinpoint aspects which seem ridiculous to follow.
After all, Peter Drucker laid the foundations for a corporate revolution which put the customer’s needs at the center of all operations. That’s just one tiny portion of the entire mindset that he endeavored to bring into the business community.
With that said, we believe you liked this summary!
Emir is the Head of Marketing at 12min. In his spare time, he loves to meditate and play soccer.
