Managing Oneself

Loved the insights--typical Drucker wisdom--but this version is missing content that appeared in the original article. There are no footnotes or comments to explain or indicate the deletions, but I happened upon the original article and was surprised that it has examples and other material this version of Managing Oneself has omitted. Disappointing in that regard.

A lot of people seem to have some misconceptions about this book, so I figured I'd chime in with my thoughts:* Yes, this is more like a pamplet. But so what? It's only like $8. And partnered with a small Moleskine notebook it fits in your laptop bag or backpack without taking up too much space. Perfect for business trips or vacations.* The book gives you the ONE thing that is (imo) most important to succeed, so much more than tons of other crappy "self-help novels." It explains to you the importance of taking a step back, looking in the mirror, and developing your own metric driven approach to Managing Yourself.* If done correctly, this is the LAST "self-help" book you'll ever have to buy. Screw Tony Robbins or that scam artist Tay Lopez, or any other similar scam artists.Here's how I've *interpreted* this book and what I've done since I bought it a few years ago:I made a Google Calendar with a notification to pop up every 3-months for me to check the list of goals that I created on a Google Docs page. I also use a Moleskine journal for daily/weekly thoughts. But every 3 months I look at the goals, figure out how I've done since then, and what I can do to be more successful, and/or what did/didn't work, and how to either avoid the things that didn't work, or do more of the things that did work.Here are some of the results:* I went from making $48,000/year in 2014 to making $110,000/year (+ bonuses) in 2017. I was able to do this because I constantly looked into ways to learn more about my job/industry, and also switching jobs twice when opportunities arose. I know this isn't "millionaire" territory or anything like that, but it's still a pretty good leap for someone in my field :) And it didn't come easy, there were tons of sacrifices, late nights staying at the office, working on projects, etc. But I credit checking my goals and doing more to manage myself as a huge contributor. I also reread this book from time to time on long flights or at least once a year.* I started doing yoga and I no longer have back pain (caused by being too sedentary at the office)* I got into powerlifting and have been hitting PRs almost every week* I've earned 3 certifications related to my career since 2015. I plan on doing 1 every year (if I can find relevant ones).* I generally have more time to go hiking, longboarding, surfing, snowboarding, etc. I've really come to have a good system during the week, which allows me to have fun on the weekend.* I also have been reading a lot more, mostly fiction books and business-case related books.I hope this book and this advice helps you out. I highly recommend it, but it's not just a book you read and forget about. YOU need to set up systems where you can check your progress, and make "course-corrections" as needed in order to accomplish your goals. It is A LOT of work! But anyone who tells you they have an "easy" system is likely either lying to you and/or a scam artist.

In a succinct manner, Mr. Drucker helps one define one's business personality and how to identify one's strengths. He advises to play to the strengths and find others to help you with your weaknesses. This is a good book to read repeatedly, and I have given a number of copies away- its a simple, easy to read but profound book.

The site says that there are 72 pages in the book, but there are only 55 actual pages that need to be read. This is a small book and a quick read. This is just a summary book. I attached the picture of the paperback that I read. Here is the outline:Lesson 1 : What are my strengths?Feedback Analysis1. Concentrate on your strengths2. Improve them3. Find what things are inhibiting your strengthsLesson 2: How do I perform?1. Am I a good reader or a listener? - Books or Audio books2. How do you learn?Try to focus on your strengths instead of improving your weaknesses.Lesson 3: What are my values?It is difficult to find a workplace with the same values as ours. We need to find a workplace where both the company and individual values align with each other1. What are my strengths?2. How do I perform?3. What are my values?Lesson 4: Where do I Belong?We need to find answers to the questions (What are my strengths? How do I perform? and, What are my values) asked in lessons 1 thru 3 to figure out where do we actually belong. This is needed to convert from an ordinary worker to an extraordinary worker.Lesson 5: What should I Contribute?What tasks should I spend my time on?What should my contribution be?What results have to be achieved to make a difference?A plan/goals should be made for no more than 18 months and still be reasonable clear and specific. Results should be visible and measureable.Lesson 6: Responsibility for RelationshipsPeople are as much individuals as you yourself are. To be effective working with the other individuals, we need to know the strengths, the performance modes and the values of the coworkers.Lesson 7: The Second Half of your Life1. Start a career in a different organization.2. Parallel Career - Stay in your current job and start a parallel work either full or part time.3. Start another organization, may be a non-profit one.

Short and punchy overview taht works as an initial introduction to the subject of self-awareness and how to optimize one's potential.

Great book to go through in an afternoon with some great thoughts on how different people work and think! Enjoyed it!

This book has been an eye opener for me. The content is structured, and explains in a POV, what we have to consider when we don't know what to consider. Peter hits on the most important pain points one has to keep in mind: what are your strenghts, weaknesses, and most of all, your values!I would highly recommend this book to people who are struggling to find themselves and where they belong. Self-assessment, after all, has to be done correctly and learned through trial and error. It is hard work so prepare yourselfs!

The book contains a series of questions anyone would benefit by spending a few hours answering them. Read a book and then stop “working” for 3 hours and sit with a pen and paper to answer those questions.

The book is full of obvious information we all know by now. We are all different learners and have our strengths and weaknesses. The book focuses on being an employee, so if you are self employed, I don’t think this will help you much. It also seems old fashioned and dated in certain parts. It also takes about a 2nd life where we change companies, roles or take up a nonprofit, many people do not do this and just stay at the same job for better or for worse. It also randomly says how if you haven’t volunteered before 40, you won’t volunteer past 60 and this simply isn’t true, many old people volunteer past 60. Even though this was a short book, the shortest I’ve read, It was a struggle to get though it. The author seems to talk on and on about nothing of value or use. I learnt absolutely nothing from this book and don’t get the high reviews, none of the information here is anything new or insightful, you would have heard about this stuff in some capacity in your life before.

This book is only about 60 pages (large prints and small format) and it summarizes clearly concepts often found in self-development books.It encourages us to know our strengths, our modalities (how we perform best) and values. It urges us to take responsibility for our relationships, in terms of how we chose them and nurture them.In order to identify strengths and gain personal insights, it introduces the feedback analysis tool: "Whenever you make a key decision or take a key action, write down what you expect will happen. Nine or twelve months later, compare the actual results with your expectations."It helps us frame our personal contribution by answering the following question: "Where and how can I achieve results that will make a difference within the next year and a half ?" The answer must balance several things. First, the results should be hard to achieve but still within reach. Second, the results should be meaningful. Third, the results should be visible."Finally, the book ends with advice on how to deal with the second half of our life, during retirement.

Okay, I'll try to be brief. This book is excellent and I like it. Though it states many things that may seem obvious, its execution does so in a way that it makes you feel like you've learnt something new, or have been reminded of something important. There are also many good reminders in here about leadership and managing a team. If you like to be a leader, regardless of what field you are in your life, I think this is a must-read. I don't regret this investment and I think it's great to make notes on as I go along; see how it truly relates to my current methods and how I can improve to achieve better results/satisfaction.

The book is short and concise.It does not go into long winded stories but rather gives short examplesstraight to the point.It starts off with a simple yet powerful idea that we must build upon ourstrength. But in order to understand where our strength lies we must firstunderstand how we operate.Key questions to ask ourselves on how we operate are:-How do we learn?-What are our values?-What are the best environments we efficiently perform at?-and of course knowing where we think we might belong?To achieve this the author describes an exercise called the feedback loopwhere we predict how far we will go and assess how wellwe fit this prediction to expose our weaknesses and strength.Once we have discovered our strength we must double down on itand minimize the time to improve our weaknesses. It is better togo from good to excellent instead of incompetent to mediocre.Finally the author mentions that as we become excellent in our jobwe might not have any challenges and this can make life lessexciting, so we can try seeking for a different field to master oncewe are older.Absolutely loved the book.

Really good read. I might be biased as I know that Peter Ducker is a reference when it comes to Business matters but I really recommend this book. The book give you a few interesting questions to ask yourself to ensure you are functioning at your best. It is a short read so even if you have a busy life, those 30 minutes should be a good investment of your time .