Managing Oneself

Managing Oneself

Happened to read Peter R Drucker’s famous article named as the subject title. I strongly recommend you to read it.
This article is one of the ‘Best of HBR’ as well.


Following from the above article.
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....What should I contribute? They were told what to contribute, and their tasks were dictated either by the work itself as it was for the peasant or artisan - or by a master or a mistress - as it was for domestic servants. And until very recently, it was taken for granted that most people were subordinates who did as they were told. Even in the 1950s and 1960s, the new knowledge workers (the so-called organization men) looked to their company's personnel department to plan their careers.

....Then in the late 1960s, no one wanted to be told what to do any longer. Young men and women began to ask. What do / want to do? And what they heard was that the way to contribute was to "do your own thing."

....Bosses are neither a title on the organization chart nor a "function”. They are individuals and are entitled to do their work in the way they do it best; it is incumbent on the people who work with them to observe them, to find out how they work, and to adapt themselves to what makes their bosses most effective.

This, in fact, is the secret of "managing" the boss.

....In effect, managing oneself demands that each knowledge worker think and behave like a chief executive officer. Knowledge workers outlive organizations, and they are mobile. The need to manage oneself is therefore creating a revolution in human affairs.

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