Forbes Article on Peter Drucker, Manageing Oneself: Sept 2009

A vital milestone in becoming an effective leader is the ability to manage oneself. It is on this subject we come upon one of Drucker's classic pieces, "Managing Oneself."

http://academy.clevelandclinic.org/Portals/40/managingoneself.pdf

The piece, originally published in 1999, was republished in the January 2005 issue of Harvard Business Review. Drucker died in November that year, eight days short of his 96th birthday. (The essay was also part of a Drucker book, Management Challenges for the 21st Century.)

In his characteristically crisp style, Drucker poses a number questions as the starting point for reflection. Among them:

What Are My Strengths?

How Do I Perform?

What Are My Values?

Where Do I Belong?

What Should I Contribute?

His conclusion puts the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of each and every one of us: "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."