A Newer Spin on a Drucker Favorite

In 2014 I wrote ‘A New Spin on a Drucker Favorite’.?My colleague, Tom Vander Ark , published it on Getting Smart and I received a lot of great feedback.?That was nine years ago.

I thought it may be time to refresh this post with a ‘Newer’ spin… this time, thinking of the ‘Second Half’.?No, not the second half of a March Madness Road to the Final Four game but rather applying these principles to the second half of one’s life and career.

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So, let’s start with a refresher on Managing Oneself…?

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Every year I re-read Peter Drucker’s Harvard Business Review article ‘Managing Oneself‘. I use it to make sure I am on track and mindful of my own performance and how I can become better.

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If you have never read Managing Oneself or it has been some time, a brief summary / refresher:

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Drucker uses five framing questions:

1. What are my strengths?

To determine these strengths, when you are making key decisions, it is important to write the approach you plan to take as well as what you believe will happen. Then, go to work. 12-18 months later, go back and review your notes on what you thought would happen as compared to what you did and what worked (and what did not), why it worked, and what key strengths you leveraged to achieve the objective. In essence, you are creating a personal feedback loop (maybe it was learning to program in CP/M and BASIC back in high school - but I am a big believer in feedback loops).

Personally, I have found that for this to be effective, you need to do this for multiple initiatives and be consistent, so patterns begin to emerge. Patterns of where you are the strongest and what works best for you.

Work to identify both the things that were effective and those that were not. Now, this is the big one – when you find areas that are not core strengths and things you need to work very hard at just to be mediocre, don’t invest a great deal of time to try to improve in these areas.?Instead, invest your time in the things you are good at or great at to become even better.

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This may seem paradoxical yet Drucker’s thesis is, and I have found this to be true, is that it is better to invest your time in the things you are good at to become great vs investing your time in things you are mediocre at to become just a bit better.

“It takes more energy to improve from incompetence to mediocrity that to improve from first-rate performance to excellent”

2. How do I work?

Once you have begun to identify strengths, it is important you work to identify how you learn and work best (you can also work on this in a parallel process). This can include determining whether you consume information by reading, listening, watching, or doing.

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It is also important to learn what environment you work best in and the engagement model of the people you work best with (i.e. do you perform best in groups or as an individual, do you work best in open spaces or more closed off ones, do you perform best in situations that are predictable or nebulous, etc).

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Since I have been reading this paper annually for the past 20 years, I have refined how I learn best, how I work best, striving to understanding the working and communication styles of others, and where and when I work best.?I am manically focused on creating this personalized environment.?It has proven to be immensely beneficial.

Don’t be afraid to share this with others – i.e. the way you work, learn, how you work, and learn.? They will thank you for it.

3. What are my values?

This one should be the easiest – but I realize for many it is sometimes not. The questions to ask yourself are: does your organization’s ethics align to your own values and are you working on work that is valuable to society? If not, run like hell until you find a place where you can answer yes to these questions (ok, that is me talking now, not Drucker).

4. Where do I belong?

This one takes some time to assess and decide on. You need to try enough different things (and this can mean moving around a bit) to allow yourself to apply your strengths, your work styles, and your values to insure the right fit. You need to be mindful of this one and not let dogma set in. Keep searching until you find what is right and you will be ‘transformed from an employee to a performer’.

5. What can I contribute?

When many people read this one for the first time, they think of making a grand contribution that will leave a legacy. Drucker does a great job of breaking this down to focus on making a contribution in the present moment - the current situation. He asks three key questions:

1.????What does the situation require?

2.????Given my strengths, my way of performing and my values, how can I make the greatest contribution to what needs to be done at this moment?

?3.????What results have to be achieved to make a difference?

Breaking this down is key, as these three questions can be applied over and over – at work, on a project, or in an individual situation. These are great questions to prioritize and focus your efforts.

As you study these questions and work to apply them, you realize that contribution is more the aggregation of marginal gains vs some grandiose activity or event. Doing the right things every single day add up over time.

Now that you are refreshed on Managing Oneself, 'The Newer spin…' applying Drucker’s principals to the second half of your career…

The second half of your career can be a time of great opportunity, growth and satisfaction. Five ways to think about it and apply Drucker’s principles are:

1. Reflect on your career so far - Before you can plan for the future, you need to understand where you've been. Take some time to reflect on your life and career, including your successes, failures, and the skills you've developed. Write it all down, read it, reflect on it. Are there things that made you more successful than others? What were the conditions of those successes? What strengths did you leverage? Capture this.
2. Define your goals. Once you have a clear understanding of your past successes and misses (I use 'misses' as I don't believe in failure - when I 'miss', I believe I just have not figured it out yet...), you can start to define your future goals. What do you want to achieve in the second half of your life / career? Do you want to expand your horizons into new areas, start your own business, transition to a different industry, volunteer? Be specific about your goals and make sure they align with your values, interests, and most importantly - your strengths. Now think about ‘how’ to achieve these goals. Setting a goal is only the first step. Next you must think about what conditions you need to create in order for you to set yourself up to achieve these goals.?
3. Invest in yourself. To achieve your goals, it is imperative that you invest in yourself. This could include reading more for learning, taking courses or certifications to learn new skills, attending conferences and networking events to build your professional network, or working with a coach to help you develop a plan. As important though, is making time for yourself to think. That’s right time just to think. I do this at least once a week - I carve out an hour, turn my phone off, don’t look at email and just think. I always use a notebook… sometimes I write a topic at the top of the page and think about it and then write down whatever comes up - and other times, it is completely free-form. This is one of the most effective ways to solve problems and achieve breakthrough thinking on big challenges and opportunities. This is an investment in yourself.
4. ?Embrace change. The second half of your life and career is likely to be different from the first. Embrace change and be open to new opportunities. This could mean taking on new challenges by expanding your current role, taking on a different role, working with a new team, or even relocating to a different city or country. I like to think of this as personal evolution. The first change is always the most difficult… that noted, once you have made the first one, the second change becomes easier and the third, even easier. Embrace change and think of everything that comes at you as a new adventure!
5. Seek out mentorship, coaches, or guides. A mentor/coach can be invaluable in helping you navigate the second half of your career. Mentors can take many different forms. The traditional approach is to find someone who has experience in your industry or has achieved the goals you hope to achieve. This is good. Another approach is to find a cadre of colleagues from across your industry and outside of your industry whom you can share challenges with and work to think through big ideas with. While this takes a great deal of trust and equal participation by all stakeholders, it can be an extremely powerful avenue for personal growth.

My sense is that 'traditional retirement' is a thing of the past. North Americans are working longer than they have in decades. Putting yourself in the right places doing the right things with the right people that align to your strengths, values, and ways of working will lead to a longer, happier, more rewarding life.

Drucker was, in many ways a sage. With that though, how one applies what they learn - in a way that it tailored to themselves is what brings out the best in oneself. As my grandfather used to say 'mark my words'.

?N.B. Sacha Chua graciously agreed to allow me to post her graphic summary of ‘Managing Oneself’ - in is an excellent visual representation of the paper. Thank you Sacha.