Book: "Managing Oneself"; Peter Drucker

Why this book?

This is the January book from My Year of Reading 2020 list.

I suspect this book is actually the original HBR article in book form so this is a short read to start the year off.

In that post I was specific on the reasons for reading this book, stating the following:

1. Recently recommended by Whitney Johnson.
2. Thought it was time I finally read a Peter Drucker book.
3. Managing myself is a priority as I know I could do so much better on a number of fronts & I have high standards and I am my own worst critic.

My reading of the book

I read each chapter making notes as I read.

At the end of each chapter, I set myself some application questions (that are usable by others) and

answered those questions.

I posted my notes with my questions and my answers at the end of each chapter in the Workplace by Facebook community of learners that I facilitate.

I then posted the full set of notes as this blog post.

My overall assessment and response to the book

Peter Drucker certainly packed a lot of content into very few words. A great first read of his content.

I enjoyed setting myself some searching questions and then answering them as I went through the book.

A thought provoking and challenging read with lots of things to put into practice per my responses.

Introduction

[ image via https://www.caitylis.co.uk/ ]

Book Club Questions

Q1: Why are you reading this book? Why now?
A1: As per the “Why this book?” section above, this book was recommended by Whitney Johnson during her recent talk at the 2019 Global Peter Drucker Forum. I have never read a Peter Drucker book and thought it was time to read one! Managing myself more proactively is increasingly a passion of mine. I thought that reading this specific book would be a good start to my year.

Q2: What is your view of how people make it to the top of their chosen profession? Whose careers inspire you and why? Give some examples that come to mind and explain why they came to mind. A2: Interesting question. I have never formally and specifically studied other people’s careers. I do wonder from the stands sometimes how certain people have got to where they are based on my own perception of those people.

I am a fan of biographies and I have started to read more. Walter Isaacson’s Leonardo Da Vinci is an amazing example. I am also a fan of obituaries. In the past I blogged some on a regular basis. I have got out of the habit and need to get back into it per Austin Kleon’s “On reading obituaries”. It is inspiring hearing people’s life stories in retrospect. Other biography related input I process includes BBC’s “Desert Island Discs” (a person in the public eye picks their 8 favourite pieces of music and while being interviewed explains their selection). Again, it is fascinating hearing people’s life stories.

I am aware that luck plays a part in careers as well as being in the right place at the right time. I find it amazing how individuals can change the world through ideas and organisations that scale.

Q3: Say something about how you have managed your career to date and where you are currently at with your career. What help do you need?
A3: I have been woeful at doing this. My career has not been proactively managed by me and major changes have occurred via redundancy (this has happened 4 times in my 36 year career). For my career summary see this doc. I need some accountability to act on this after spending a significant amount of time working through “Designing Your Life” and “Reinvention Roadmap”. In 2020, I am doing some 1:1 peer support work using Harvard’s “Immunity to Change” and will probably do a life/career planning-related goal in a Working Out Loud circle in Q1. All three of these resources are incredibly helpful but i need to take this to the next level and actually act on all that introspection. The issues for me in this area include what I should do career-wise as I now have such a wide variety of interests and skills, confidence and inner critic/voice issues, fear of personal change when finances are at stake and general inertia with personal change when it comes to career. In terms of help, I suspect I have been blinkered by working in IT for all but 7 months of my 36 year career to date and therefore I need input from others in what they see in me demonstrated by my actions, my “writings”, how I operate, my passions and speak into my life and ideally cheer me on and paint some pictures of opportunities that they see for me. I can see this being a challenge for me if people do this for me as it will force me to confront my own view and make decisions and take risks and actually do something about this!

Q4: Drucker says that to manage your career well you need to cultivate a deep understanding of yourself and lists the following areas. Without being specific, unless you want to be, say something about your current level of understanding of yourself in each area.

1. strengths
2. weaknesses
3. how you learn
4. how you work with others
5. your values
6. where you can make the greatest contribution

A4: My Strengths: The most recent experience of listing these was in Q4 2018 when I worked through Liz Ryan’s Reinvention Roadmap. What was most eye-opening was the range of skills and experience I have from outside of my paid employment that I am not using in that work, I am seeking to address that via some life/career planning work.

My Weaknesses: My issue here primarily is my inner voice/critic. Again, I am seeking to address that voice/critic in examples where it is not valid. I do not remember whether this was a specific exercise in the Liz Ryan work. As part of some 1:1 peer support work and a WOL circle, I intend reviewing what my weaknesses aka development areas are and listing them out. I am a fan of Marcus Buckingham’s strengths work and I do try to focus on weaknesses that are significantly impacting my performance. I need to do more work on developing my strengths further rather that focusing on weaknesses all the time

How I Learn: I consume books, audio podcasts, video podcasts etc. It is rare these days for me to do any face-to-face learning and development. I love MOOCs – not done one for a while. I have discovered that I love learning with others in MOOCs and Working Out Loud circles and in 1:1s. I increasingly self-reflect for myself and others by speaking to my mobile phone video camera. I am trying harder to apply my learning by putting it into practice. E.g. this includes setting questions for myself and others as I read books chapter-by-chapter. On my wish list is doing some co-creation work to produce an output that would be of value to the co-creators. One such attempt was my last circle goal to co-create a leading virtual teams playbook. Twitter Chats, for me, are an amazing way of me discovering what I know, don’t know, need to know, should know and want to know as I respond to questions in the chat. I almost treat these like an exam in terms of what is my best answer to the questions being asked. I should also say that I love being able to learn what I want, when I want, how I want, where I want with whom I want with no requirement to get approval from anyone else. Nearly all my learning over the past 7 years since doing my 1st MOOC in 2013 has been outside of my paid employment.

How I work with others: As a project manager, business consultant and service manager in my paid employment I work with a wide range of people in my own and other organisations both in real life and virtually. I facilitate/lead and/or am a member of a wide range of communities/teams in all roles of my life. I am aware of “The Manual of Me” but is something that I have never documented. This is probably something that I should complete to specifically consider how I best operate on my own and in teams.

My values: Completing the work view and life view exercises in Designing Your Life (Evans and Burnett) was a good experience back in 2017 and was the first time that I had written these down (see blog post). I must have covered similar ground when going through the Liz Ryan group.

Where you can make the greatest contribution: This is probably my biggest current challenge and would be part of my consideration of career etc futures. There are so many things that I can do and want to do that it is hard pinning specifics down which would include and exclude things. I am also aware that I may be good at some things but they do not bring me joy and I would much rather do other things. In the recent past, I have been good at admin-type, project mgt-type tasks but these are simply enablers for others to work more efficiently and effectively. Other parts of the project mgt roles give me more joy re scoping, business benefit, business processes, data, how we improve things, how change is enabled, building communities, getting work done on collaboration platforms etc.

Q5: Drucker states “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.”
Q5.1: Say something about your current age and state of mental alert and engagement and how you see the latter changing over the next 5 years.
A5.1: Now 57. Does not feel like I am coming to the end of my working life. So much enthusiasm for learning and applying that learning. So much fascination and curiosity for anything reactively and proactively. Probably as or more switched on these days than at any other time of my life. I see that getting “worse”!
Q5.2: How good have you been at knowing how and when to change the work you do in your career to date?
A5.2: A recurring thread through my career has been that is has been largely reactive including 4 redundancies. I know that I need to do a much better job of being proactive and actually put into practice the things I have learned and processed via “Designing Your Life” and “Reinvention Roadmap”. I have a number of internal things to sort out to actually do this and that is my focus in 2020 starting now.

My notes from the book

today increasingly unprecedented opportunities to reach the top of your field regardless of where your starting position

with opportunity comes responsibility

companies are not managing the careers of their staff

knowledge workers must effectively be their own CEOs:-

1. carve out your place
2. know when to change course
3. keep yourself engaged & productive during 50+ years

to do this well, need to cultivate deep understanding of yourself:-

1. strengths
2. weaknesses
3. how you learn
4. how you work with others
5. your values
6. where you can make the greatest contribution

only when you operate from strengths can you achieve true excellence

history’s greatest achievers – eg Napoleon, da Vinci, Mozart – have always managed themselves

to a great extent, this is what makes them great – but … they are rare exceptions

now we all need to:-

1. manage ourselves
2. develop ourselves
3. place ourselves where we can make the greatest contribution
4. stay mentally alert / engaged for a 50-year working life

means knowing how / when to change the work we do

What are my Strengths?

Book Club Questions

Q1: What work have you done to identify your strengths? If you are happy to, share what your strengths are.
A1: The main “formal” work I have done on strengths is to do the Strengths Finder test from Marcus Buckingham’s book “Now, Discover Your Strengths: How To Develop Your Talents And Those Of The People You Manage” back in 2006. At the time and probably still now, my view was that these are largely accurate. My top 5 were Learner, Focus, Responsibility, Intellection, Discipline. The definitions of these 5 are in my blog post. A quick review of these now have led me to the following comments:-

1. Learner
1. Interesting that I did this in 2006 so prior to all my MOOCs and WOL Circles!
2. This line takes on special significance in the light of some of my personal and career issues – “The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you.”
3. It is all exciting! I don't think though that I just learn for the process.
4. I am probably more this now than ever before.
2. Focus
1. This was my One Word for 2018 !
2. What I get now from this definition is that I have a clear focus for the things that I do that are under my control like reading books and doing WOL circles but significantly less focus on “longer-term” things such as next work/employment role.
3. In one sense, easily fixed by simply (sic) applying that focus to these longer-term things.
3. Responsibility
1. This is still me. Still a completer/finisher.
2. Re MOOCs, now done 20+ and have always completed each one that I started. Makes me a rare person indeed!
3. “Your willingness to volunteer may sometimes lead you to take on more than you should.” I do have to be careful about this. I am OK at saying “no” but I love giving and could spend my whole life doing that.
4. This is telling me I need to get the longer-term objectives on my “must do no matter what” list.
5. On the positive side, I am getting better at seizing opportunities when they come my way per Mel Robbins’ 5-Second Rule. Historically, I have not been too spontaneous and way more planned.
4. Intellection
1. This is still totally me. Learning for me is like exercise for the brain.
2. I can be laser-focused on a need but also love rabbit trail-ing and love serendipity when it happens. This is effectively learning for capability.
3. This line cuts deep now – “This introspection may lead you to a slight sense of discontent as you compare what you are actually doing with all the thoughts and ideas that your mind conceives.” This for me is me imagining what I could be doing more significantly than I am doing now. So many things but the challenge is deciding what specifically and exactly.
5. Discipline
1. My One Word for 2017!
2. Still me. Still a planner. Still like breaking things down. Still like having a goal and planning and executing how to get there.
3. Probably more easily distracted these days than before. Often due to so many things that I want to do but at other times being incapable of being disciplined to get on with this next task.
4. I am working on developing new and better existing habits via James Clear’s “Atomic Habits”.

I spent 3 months working through Liz Ryan’s “Reinvention Roadmap” in Q4 2018 – so many exercises to get you thinking. On the subject of strengths, see this exercise and my responses:-

Exercise: My path in learning and life so far

1. What are the talents you most enjoy using, at work or anywhere?
1. leading small groups to study a subject
2. picking films and leading discussions on them
3. producing events on a theme with publicly-available multi-media components
4. structuring things where there is no structure
5. planning things from vague ideas
6. identifying tangible/intangible products that need to be delivered
7. facilitating requirements and design workshops
8. facilitating groups of people online
9. learning new things proactively and reactively
10. developing digital skills in myself and others
11. collaborating with customers, suppliers and internal staff
12. sharing resources
13. asking questions
14. listening carefully
15. building things that can be used by me and others
16. facilitating online meetings
17. being involved in things at the start to help things start on a sound foundation
18. understanding problems that need solutions
19. note taking and actions recording from meetings

2. What talents would you love to use in your work but haven’t had a chance to use so far?
1. building collaboration platforms such as implementing enterprise social networks
2. video calls
3. creating experiences
4. implementing WOL circles and book clubs
5. building relationships for sales and biz dev purposes

3. What are you good at doing that most people are not good at?
1. most of my project management capability
2. sharing resources
3. trying not to reinvent wheels if I can help it
4. seeing big picture and the minute detail
5. knowledge of multiple business sectors and sizes of organisations
6. learning online

Q2: “A person can only perform out of their strengths”. Discuss.
A2: What came to mind here was being told how to do something, being shown how to do something, doing that something under supervision, doing that something on your own with no supervision and then passing on that something in the same way as the cycle continues.

We sometimes need to do things where we have weakness just to get the job done.

Clearly, we will be more effective and efficient  when we do things in the areas of our strengths.

Q3: This section made reference to the old days when people simply did what their parents did. What did your parents or guardians do for work and compare that with yourself.
A3: Mum held a number of senior roles in schools education. For a period of time she was Chief Inspector of all the schools on Merseyside in the UK. She worked her way through many senior leadership roles in schools across the UK including Nottingham, Hounslow and Aberdeen. Dad was a university academic in Analytical Chemistry, had a huge number of articles published in academic journals and supervised many students through to their PhD’s including many who did not have English as their first language. He spoke at conferences around the world and often stayed at the homes of his overseas students when doing so.

So I am very like my parents in terms of desk-type jobs where thinking and application of learning is key. I am increasingly becoming more like my Dad in terms of conversing with people and curiosity of life. Lots of books!

Q4: What do you think of the idea of writing decisions down with your view of the expected results and reviewing that in 9-12 months time?
A4: I don’t recall hearing of this technique before. Probably a good reflection technique to log decisions made and then review later to see how they turned out and any lessons learned. Interestingly and topically, decision logs in project management  have been on my mind to keep track of when and who made specific decisions in the life of a project. These for me have usually been included in project meeting outputs. I located this web page high up in a Google search. I suspect this would be a challenge to record the decisions in the first place and to remember to review the log later.

Q5: Say something about where your personal development currently and in the recent past has concentrated on. Has it been on further developing your strengths or in addressing weaknesses aka development areas?
A5: Interestingly, most has been addressing development areas aka weaknesses to make me more efficient and effective. Top of my mind right now are self-care issues around inner voice/critic, fear/risk, aversion to personal change in terms of income generation. You can get a feel of my current development and interest areas via the range of books in my 2020 book list and previous lists. The range is vast. I do not currently have a stated list of development areas to develop my strengths. But thinking out loud I am keen to understand and put into practice more skills in leading virtual teams and in collaboration.

Q6: How has this section challenged your thinking, if at all?
A6: Definitely think most of my learning concentrates on my development areas and not further developing strengths. The section has challenged me to think more about the “why” for my learning including whether the subject area is an area of strength already or an area of weakness that I want to address. It may be that my learning is mainly in new areas that are of interest to me currently e.g. at the time that I pick a WOL circle goal or decide on my book list for the year. This is also making me think about my current challenge of picking a goal and the criteria I will apply to that selection.

Q7: Give any examples of subjects you take pride in (or say on a regular basis) not knowing anything about? How does this section challenge you?
A7: I do have blind spots. I do often say “I am not a technical person” (from an IT point of view), “I am not a practical person”, “I don’t do science”. I am aware from other input that these can be reinforcing statements but may be now the issue really is that these are not areas of strength (!) and that I should just move on.

Q8: Say something about your habits and where they inhibit or assist your effectiveness and performance.
A8: I would say that I learn and apply more than most people purely from the amount of time that I spend on these activities – the vast majority of which are self-selected. I am aware that I could be more productive in my learning and in my work especially when it comes to distractions and deep work. I am learning to improve habits in these areas.

Q9: How are your manners and common courtesy in relation to other people?
A9: No issue. Always polite to everyone. I always say please and thank you. Learning to be more conscious of gratitude that I express to others for things they do for or with me – to the extent where people say “I am only doing my job”! or “don’t mention it” etc.

Q10: What actions will you take away from this section of the book in terms of your current strengths and current weaknesses?
A10: What is uppermost in my mind now is consolidating a list of my strengths in relation to my own life and career planning. Also identifying weaknesses and issues and then confirming whether these are simply that and cannot or should not be addressed or do need addressing if they are crippling what I am doing or want to do or should be doing. These will be things I will consider in the selection of my Q1 2020 WOL circle goal.

While looking for a graphic for the header of this section in Workplace, I stumbled over this article by Liz Ryan: “Five Good Answers To The Question 'What's Your Greatest Strength?”

My notes from the book

most think they know – they are usually wrong

more often people know what they are not good at – even then usually wrong

but a person can only perform out of their strengths

cannot build performance on weakness or on something you cannot do at all

in the old days, you simply did what your family did

now there are choices

the only way to discover your strengths is through feedback analysis

e.g. when taking major decision, write down your expected result and review in 9-12 months

can be revealing

feedback analysis invented by John Calvin & Ignatius of Loyola who incorporated it into practice of their followers in 14th century

over 2-3 years will reveal your strengths

your strengths are the most important thing to know

implications:-

1. concentrate on your strengths – put them to use to get results
2. work on improving your strengths
1. improve skills
2. get new ones
3. show and plug gaps in your knowledge
3. understand where your intellectual arrogance is causing disabling ignorance & overcome it
1. do not be contemptuous of people with knowledge etc in different areas to you
2. do not take pride in not knowing certain subjects
3. acquire the skills to fully utilise your strengths
4. remedy your bad habits – the things that you do or fail to do that inhibit your effectiveness & performance
1. e.g. lots of ideas but never implemented
5. address any lack of manners revealed by feedback
1. e.g. please and thank you
6. compare your expectations with results
1. some things you will never be good at
2. waste as little time & effort as possible on improving areas of low competence
3. easier to improve first-rate performance to excellence

How do I perform?

Book Club Questions

Q1: To what extent have you ever thought about how you best perform?

A1: Not that much in a concentrated way. I tend to incrementally try to sort issues out that are causing me inefficiencies eg finding e-files. Read James Clear's "Atomic Habits" that had much to say about my habits and pointing me to ways to be able to start/resume work more readily and other things. I need to apply more of what I know I should be doing to be more effective and efficient. 

Q2: What surprised you about this section, if anything?

A2: That I have not concentrated on this analysis before and acted more on it. I have improved over the years. Some of the ideas in this section are new to me.

Q3: To what extent do you work in ways that are not your preference?

A3: It is rare that I can force my way of working, for leading teams or for managing projects. I usually have to use our clients' ways of working with input from me. I can work the way I want for the work that is exclusively me doing the work or tasks. I am usually a planner so having unplanned meetings repeatedly is often frustrating in terms of people not being prepared or aware of what they need for such meetings.

Q4: "For knowledge workers how do I perform may be a more important question than what are my strengths". Discuss.

A4: I am of the view that our process of working can be key and can be applied to any situation to get great results. Presumably some of our strengths are a core part of those processes.

Q5: Do you agree with Drucker's view that how a person performs is a given and can only be slightly modified and not completely changed? Why? Why not?

A5: I would like to think that this is more malleable than that with people being able to change significantly via training, practice and coaching but the person needs to want to change.

Q6: If you are happy to, assess yourself against each of Drucker's questions:-

1. reader or listener?

Simon: probably reader more but increasingly happy listening and responding on-the-fly. I often write things down so I do not forget things!

2. how do I learn?

Simon: mainly via reading, learning to learn with others via WOL circles, Twitter Chats, 1:1s, increasingly using videos and audio podcasts

3. do I work well with people or am I loner?

Simon: probably more of a loner, learning to be better at working with people re my questioning style (I am on a relentless quest for the truth), good at helping teams with process to get to results

4. do I produce results as a decision maker or advisor?

Simon: usually advisor as a project manager with decision making usually done as a project team based on information input from the team - happy making decisions where I am an authority on the subject.

5. do I perform well under stress or do I need a highly structured & predictable environment?

Definitely the latter but also capable of running emergency type situations based on standard decision making processes

6. do I work best in a large or small organisation?

Lots of years of experience in both. No major preference. Small may be better if I was viewed as influential and respected member of the teams delivering services.

Q7: Do you share Drucker's view of not trying to change yourself rather work hard to improve the way you perform? Why? Why not?

A7: See my answer to 5. I find Drucker's views on these two areas surprising.

Q8: Are there any other characteristics of how people perform that you would add to Drucker's list? For each one, if you are happy to, indicate your own response to each one.

A8:

1. virtual or IRL: either, but increasingly all the teams I work in and lead are virtual to a great extent
2. projects or operational day job: mainly projects. i like the process of a project delivering new capability for an organisation to use. Well able to perform at a high level in operational roles
3. public, private or third sectors: experience of all these; preference for private re market forces

Q9: What is your response to Drucker's view that we should avoid work that we cannot perform well?

A9: Again an odd view. I would hope that we all do some work in a learning role so that we get better at performing that work over time and is part of our ongoing personal development.

Q10: Take a look at "The Manual of Me" and if this is of interest do yours and, if you would like to, share it.

A10: (I need to come back to this as the web site was not allowing me to progress)

My notes from the book

few know how they get things done

most do not know that people work & perform in different ways

too many people do not work in their way & almost guarantees non-performance

for knowledge workers this may be more important question than what are my strengths

like strengths, how one performs is unique & personality

how a person performs is a given & can be slightly modified but unlikely to be completely changed

results achieved by working in ways that people best perform

determinants on how a person performs:-

1. reader or listener?
2. people are rarely both
3. rare for people to know which they are
4. Eisenhower was a reader & press conferences with written qs prior
5. Lyndon Johnson was a listener
6. few can change to the other

How do I learn?

1. writers do not, as  a rule, learn by listening or reading but by writing
2. schools do it one way and that is not be writing
3. ways to learn:-
4. writing
5. taking copious notes
6. doing
7. hearing themselves talk
8. talking

easiest piece of self-knowledge to acquire

1. most know answer to "how do you learn"
2. few can answer "you act on this knowledge?"
3. but acting on this knowledge is key to performance

do I work well with people or am I loner?

if you do work well with people, in what relationships?

1. alone
2. team members
3. coaches
4. mentors

do I produce results as a decision maker or advisor?

1. some not good at handling pressure of making a decision
2. others need advisors to force them to think & are then able to make and act on decisions with speed, self-confidence & courage
3. top spot requires decision makers

do I perform well under stress or do I need a highly structured & predictable environment?

do I work best in a large or small organisation?

do not try to change yourself as unlikely to succeed

work hard to improve the way you perform

try not to take on work you cannot perform well or at all

What are my values?

Book Club Questions

Q1: Drucker says you have to be able to define your values to be able to manage yourself. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

A1:  I suspect for me that historically I have not defined my values explicitly but that they have been the foundation of everything I have ever done. In that sense my values have enabled me to manage myself as I have sought to always act in specific ways. I assume reading this section that you are better able to manage yourself if your values are defined and explicit so you are better able to catch yourself being inconsistent with those values.

Q2: Have you ever defined your values? What process did you go through? If you are happy to, share them.

A2: In recent years i have been much more introspective in response to specific learning activities I have undertaken off my own bat. I recall Julia Middleton's core and flex (video: https://youtu.be/trPOurwfB4w) where the core is who you are as a person and if people cut across that you have a violent reaction in your mind or reality. 

The following is my core and flex done 3 years ago while I did my workview and lifeview while applying "Designing Your Life":

1. List out your "core"
1. commitment
2. loyalty
3. truth telling
4. do what I say I will do ditto from others
5. keep promises
6. integrity
7. justice
8. punctuality
9. showing up
10. passion
11. enthusiasm
12. completer/finisher
13. learning new things that are needed now or build future capability
14. my Christian faith
2. List out your "flex"
1. how people's faith is expressed
2. how people want to report progress back to me but I do need that progress!
3. how others do what they do to meet my requirement unless I mandate it for good reason
4. do not expect immediate responses from non-work comms, that is the whole point of Slack, email, tweets, FB posts

I must have done more on this more recently as part of my working through Liz Ryan's Reinvention Roadmap e.g. the mojo tank stuff. I am a values-driven person.

Q3: How have your values changed over the years of your life to date?

A3: I suspect in lots of cases they have grown stronger. Increasingly passionate about what I enjoy doing. More aware and experienced in collaboration and learning with others. Increasingly looking to be a more positive force in organisations and personally in getting the right things done right.

Q4: Give any examples of where your personal values have been challenged?

A4: Solo learning vs now learning in groups. The power of working/learning with people who are strangers of who are different from me in any of many dimensions. Being more spontaneous, being less planned. Saying "yes" to things that I would have run a mile from even a few years back. Fearless now in contacting or commenting to everyone and anyone. Not needing to get my own view across if someone wants to talk especially in response to my questions when I am in "understand the other person" mode. More directly interested in helping others. Now gone the other way and having to reduce the amount of time I spend giving to other people - especially a challenge when doing WOL circles where contributions are one of the key exercises throughout.

Q5: If you were advising someone new to defining their values, what process would you recommend? Would that be specific to the individual or would your process be generic for all people?

A5: I recommend doing the workview and lifeview exercises in "Designing Your Life" (Burnett and Evans) and the "mojo tank" exercises in "Reinvention Roadmap".

I was surprised at the strength of my reaction to seeing someone this week using a Values list of words chart to assist them in deciding on their values. I believe this needs to be far more about your own values emerging from introspection without specific word aids. I suspect my reaction was in part due to my experience of picking my One Word for the year over the past 4 years and especially this year when I "got" the word "mojo".

Q6: How well have organisations that you have worked for articulated and lived out their values?

A6: Not well! They need to be memorable. They need to be up front and central. They need to be explainable by everyone in the organisation. We need examples of behaviour that is consistent and inconsistent with the values to help people understand what the values mean in practice. In some cases a value can mean a million things.

Q7: Are you a fan of organisations living out a set of clearly articulated values? Why? Why not?

A7: Yes. They guide behaviour and help deliver consistent service to the market. These also relate to the culture of an organisation so we all understand how we should be operating.

My notes from the book

you need to be able to answer this to manage yourself

mirror test - what sort of person do you want to see in the mirror?

ethics only 1 part of values

ethical behaviour same across all orgs

if you work somewhere with values inconsistent with yours then frustration & non-performance

they need to be compatible

lots of dimensions e.g. recruit internally or externally, short term vs long term, incremental innovation vs breakthrough innovation

value conflicts apply across all orgs & sectors even churches (numbers vs depth, belong vs believe first)

orgs like people have values

can be conflict between a person's values and strengths - so not worth devoting your life's work to

values are and should be the ultimate test

Where do I belong?

Book Club Questions

Q1: What did you know when about where you belong?

A1: In my very first lecture at Stirling University I knew the Business Studies and Management Science course was the one for me and since then I have been a student/learner of organisations and leaders.

Q2: What is your response to Drucker's assertion that we should have these answers by our mid-20s?

A2: I do think that this is a personal thing and that we are all different. Some do have a single career but others increasingly have portfolio careers with a many and varied collection of roles that they have done and are doing. The world of careers and work continues to change dramatically.

Q3: Say something about where you do not belong.

A3:  Anywhere which is inconsistent with my ethics and values. Lots of this came out and was documented by me in my Workview and Lifeview exercises when applying "Designing Your Life" and Liz Ryan's "Reinvention Roadmap". There are certain products and services that I would not want to work for organisations who market those products including gambling, tobacco etc. There are also business sectors that are of less interest to me than others such as financial services. I do not belong in organisations that do not or have no plans to use technology extensively to support their core business processes.

Q4: Give examples of where you have said "Yes" or "No" in your career to date.

A4: My career has been marked by 4 periods of redundancy where the "Yes" and "No" has not been my decision. I cannot remember turning down any job offer! Clearly, I have said "Yes" to each of the job roles I have performed over the years. All of my roles have been IT-related and primarily in the relationship between business people and technical IT people delivering projects and managing

services to business users.

Q5: How has your career developed over the years e.g. reactive, proactive, left to others, managed by your self etc?

A5: It is an understatement to say that I am reactive in my career to date and am at a point where I need and want to radically shift to being proactive. I so needed Liz Ryan's provocation in this area.

My notes from the book

a small number of people know early in life where they belong e.g. mathematicians, cooks, musicians

when 4 or 5, doctors in teens or earlier

most people esp highly-gifted people do not know until past mid-20s

by that time, should have answers to strengths, values, how I perform & then can / should decide where they belong

or rather where they do not belong

means saying no to roles in places where you do not belong

and therefore better placed to say yes to the right places

know answers to all the qs in this article to here

successful careers not planned but develop when people are prepared for opportunities knowing these answers

knowing where one belongs can transform an ordinary person into an outstanding performer

What should I contribute?

Book Club Questions

Q1: To what extent are you told what to do in your daily paid employment?

A1: Usually given a very high level scope of project that I then plan with the client. So some "what" but virtually no "how". I simply need to manage projects and services to meet agreed client requirements.

Q2: What do you understand by the word "contribution"?

A2: In summary, what would the organisation or team or community etc miss if I was not present. So this includes the things I do, the person I am, my experience and skills from all roles in my life inside and outside of work.

Q3: What is your current contribution where you work (or choose a previous job role if you are not currently working?

A3: Managing projects with clients, managing services for live applications, account management, work proposals, making things happen, connecting people to make things happen more effectively and efficiently. Some call me a "rock" re my dependability and keeping my promises, someone who can be relied on totally.

Q4: How do you feel when you sense that you are not contributing (for whatever reason) and could contribute much more than you are doing now?

A4: I get sad and fearful and frustrated. I try to turn that round by looking for ways to contribute, by pushing myself forward, by taking opportunities as they arise, by continuing to be "me" delivering all the services I need to to make things happen.

Q5: How would you like to contribute either where you work now or elsewhere? 

A5: More significantly. Influencing strategy. Involvement from the start of things. Applying my data and process expertise for internal process capability and performance. Starting to deliver services in a wide variety areas that I have learned outside of the workplace into the workplace, many of which are not core to what I do now.

Q6: What is your action plan for your A5?

A6: Defining my ideal role. Investigating job crafting. Identifying new roles. Targeting people and organisations that need my capabilities. Pursuing new opportunities.

My notes from the book

in years gone by, people were told what to contribute and never had to ask this - their tasks were dictated either due to nature of work or told what to do by a master/mistress

until recently workers were subordinates

50s/60s people looked to personnel departments to plan their careers

starting in 60s, people asking what do I want to do

many were told to do their own thing

but few who did that found it led to contribution, self-fulfillment, success

people need to start asking what should my contribution be

3 elements:-

1. what does the situation require?
2. given my strengths, my way of performing & my values, how can I make the greatest contribution to what needs to be done?
3. what results have to be achieved to make a difference?

do not look too far ahead - 18 months

where and how can I achieve results that will make a difference within the next year and a half?

need to balance several things

1. results should be hard to achieve - stretch, within reach
2. results should be meaningful
3. results should be visible and ideally measurable

leads to a course of action:-

1. what to do
2. where & how to start
3. what goals and deadlines to set

Responsibility for Relationships

Book Club Questions

Q1: To help others understand your later responses, say something about your working life re solo freelancer or employed etc.

A1: All my career has been in paid employment. I am increasingly doing things outside of my working life that others do as part of their paid employment.

Q2: How much of your work is exclusively done on your own without the input etc from other people?

A2: Virtually none. Any work I do on my own is around reporting progress to clients/internal staff which itself needs input from others. The only work I do on my own would be related to self-management, time record reporting and a lot of my own personal development.

Q3: This section starts to look at those we work with. To what extent do you typically seek to understand how those you work with work per the sections above?

A3: Nothing formally like this. Not explicitly discussed. Usually I do this when there are "issues" to address or I sense that we could be doing the work more efficiently and effectively. As a project manager when initiating new projects I set out the project approach to the work, what products we are producing etc all with the input of members of the project team from all organisations involved.

Q4: How does this section challenge you to work differently with your line manager, colleagues and other members of teams that you lead or are a part of?

A4: I was reminded of the stakeholder analysis work that I do when leading projects to understand the various team members and other/wider stakeholders and their attitude towards the project - do they want it, do they hate it and then start to work out strategies to get the whole team working as a team. The challenge from this section is for me to do this more explicitly. I am aware that some people for example view project management negatively in terms of overhead and at best see it as a necessary evil.

Q5: To what extent do you agree that lack of comms is the root cause of lots of team conflicts?

A5: I agree to a large extent. Simply knowing and understanding what everyone on the team and related teams are doing can help get more work done and potentially save wasted time as there is cross-team knowledge brought to bear on the work. The advent of collaboration platforms make this easier to do and less time consuming if everyone posts in the relevant groups / channels / teams what they are doing and any challenges and keeping progress update type meetings/calls to a minimum. A fave content item on this is this Slack blog post (the principles apply to all platforms): https://slackhq.com/meetings-that-work-and-dont-in-slack

Q6: What is your experience of asking others what they are doing? What response have you had?

A6: Usually there is no issue for me as I often have to ask this to get projects delivered. I have never worked anywhere where there is a continuously updated plan of work across multiple projects in one place. Some have come close but arguably this is needed to better plan and deliver work/projects. How you ask these questions is key in terms of why you need the info and it helps if you can help the person you are asking in some way to get their work done. It has been rare to get a very hostile reaction such as "that is none of your business".

Q7: What is your experience of telling others what you're doing? What response have you had?

A7: I could do better at this with a personal list of all my activities. All the projects I am leading would be covered. People are sometimes surprised when I can list out immediately all my ongoing work, current status, challenges, issues being addressed and risks being mitigated.

Q8: Say something about you, trust and the teams you lead or are a part of.

A8: I am an open person about my work and workload. People know this about me. People know that I am simply trying to get projects delivered, applications supported. In some cases, they value the full scope of our ongoing activities being in one place. They know that I can be trusted to represent their views on progress etc internally and with clients.

My notes from the book

very few people work on own & achieve results solely on their own

applies to solo freelancers too

managing yourself means taking responsibility for relationships:-

1. accept that everyone is an individual just like you
1.      they all have their own responses to the sections above
2.      you need to understand theirs like you understand your own
3.      beware simply being like your manager
4.      this is the secret of managing the boss
5.      applies to your boss and co-workers
6.      all entitled to work in their own preferred way
2. taking responsibility for communications
1. lack of comms at root of lots of team conflicts
2. often due to not asking what others are doing rather than not being told
3. in old days, everyone knew what everyone was doing
4. we all now work with lots of other people so teamwork important
5. we cannot always do each other's jobs as specific skills needed
6. sharing responses to the above sections help
7. esp important for knowledge workers to say this about themselves and ask others
8. trust is key and means understanding each other

The Second Half of Your Life

Book Club Questions

Q1: Describe your current stage of life to help others interpret and understand your later answers.

A1: I am in probably the fourth quarter of my working life. That is scary saying that.

Q2: Describe your career to date in a way that reflects your reading of this section.

A2: Totally reactive to situations including 4 instances of redundancy. Never turned a job offer down. Minimal proactivity on my part.

Q3: Where are you at in your current thinking of any 2nd or next career?

A3: On a lengthy quest to identify what my next career should be. This first started in Q2 2017 when I read and applied "Designing Your Life". I have continued to spend some time since that time "playing at" reviewing my career. My main current focus is to look for roles that give me the same level of joy as my "work" outside of my paid employment.

Q4: What is your personal view of retirement?

A4: It does not feel like I am coming to the end of anything. I am more curious and fascinated about life than I have ever been before.

Q5: Reflect on Drucker's view that you need to plan for the 2nd half of your life long before you enter it.

A5: This excludes me because I am well into the 2nd half of my life and I have only recently started addressing what I should be doing next.

Q6: What role (e.g. CEO) would you use for how you have "managed" your career thus far?

A6: Definitely not CEO but I understand why that role name is used. Lots of resonances with Liz Ryan who uses that exact parallel. To be brutal with myself it is like I have been sleepwalking and working "downstairs" as a servant being passive.

Q7: How have careers changed since you started your first paid employment or consultancy-type role?

A7: I agree that many organisations will no longer exist for the long term. Whilst the workforce remains mobile for career moves. the vast majority of people I would say are not actively managing their careers. When I started my full-time employment, the expectation was that I would stay for that organisation for a long time.

My notes from the book

in the old days everybody did the same thing for all of their lives

today most people not finished after 40 years of work just bored

lots of talk of midlife crisis but  is mainly boredom

at 45 most execs at peak of career, 20 years of doing the same thing

BUT not learning, contributing or deriving challenge & satisfaction from their job

could continue for another 20-25 years of work

managing oneself increasingly leads to beginning a 2nd career

3 ways to develop 2nd career:-

1. actually start one
1. move from 1 kind of org to another
2. move to different lines of work
2. develop a parallel career
1. while reducing hours in main job or as consultant
2. work for non-profit orgs
3. social entrepreneurs
1. v successful in 1st career but missing the challenge
2. spend less time on that, start non-profit

people who manage the 2nd half of their lives may always be a minority

majority may retire on the job & count the years till actual retirement

this minority will become leaders & models seeing long working life expectancy as opportunity for them & society

pre-req is that you must begin long before you enter it

also due to experiencing setbacks in life or work that trigger your 2nd career

people lose one community and need another

having options will become increasingly vital (success viewed by society as vital)

not everyone can be successful - people need to be seen to have an area where they can contribute.

make a difference and be somebody

managing oneself requires new & unprecedented things from a person - need to think like a CEO

people are used to being told what to do

the situation is changing - no longer will orgs outlive workers & most people stay put - today the opposite is true

the need to manage oneself is creating a revolution in human affairs