Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves—their strengths, their values, and how they best perform.
History’s great achievers—a Napoleon, a da Vinci, a Mozart—have always managed themselves. That, in large measure, is what makes them great achievers. But they are rare exceptions, so unusual both in their talents and their accomplishments as to be considered outside the boundaries of ordinary human existence. Now most of us, even those of us with modest endowments, will have to learn to manage ourselves. We will have to learn to develop ourselves. We will have to place ourselves where we can make the greatest contribution. And we will have to stay mentally alert and engaged during a 50-year working life, which means knowing how and when to change the work we do.
a) What Are My Strengths?
b) How Do I Perform?
c) Am I a reader or a listener?
d) How do I learn?
e) What Are My Values?
f) Where Do I Belong?
g) What Should I Contribute?
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. Knowing where one belongs can transform an ordinary person—hard-working and competent but otherwise mediocre—into an outstanding performer.
The challenges of managing oneself may seem obvious, if not elementary. And the answers may seem self–evident to the point of appearing naive. But managing oneself requires new and unprecedented things from the individual, and especially from the knowledge worker. In effect, managing oneself demands that each knowledge worker think and behave like a chief executive officer. Further, the shift from manual workers who do as they are told to knowledge workers who have to manage themselves profoundly challenges social structure. Every existing society, even the most individualistic one, takes two things for granted, if only subconsciously: that organisations outlive workers, and that most people stay put.
But today the opposite is true. Knowledge workers outlive organisations, and. they are mobile. The need to manage oneself is therefore creating a revolution in human affairs.
Peter F. Drucker is the Marie Rankin Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. This article is an excerpt from his forthcoming book Management Challenges for the 21st Century (HarperCollins, May 1999).
