Knowledge workers must take responsibility for managing themselves.
Knowledge workers are likely to outlive their employing organization. Their average working life is likely to be fifty years. But the average life expectancy of a successful business is only thirty years. Increasingly, therefore, knowledge workers will outlive any one employer, and will have to be prepared for more than one job. And this means most knowledge workers will have to MANAGE THEMSELVES. They have to place themselves where they can make the greatest contribution; they will have to learn to develop themselves. They will have to learn how and when to change what they do, how they do it, and when they do it.
The key to managing oneself is to know: Who am I? What are my strengths? How do I work to achieve results? What are my values? Where do I belong? Where do I not belong? Finally, a crucial step in successfully managing oneself is FEEDBACK ANALYSIS. Record what you expect the results to be of every key action or key decision you take, and then compare ACTUAL RESULTS nine months or a year later to your expectations.
ACTION POINT: Manage yourself by knowing your strengths, values, and where you do best. Then use feedback analysis by, first, recording what you expect the results of key actions or decisions to be, and then nine months or a year later, comparing the actual results to those expectations.
Management Challenges for the 21st Century
Managing Oneself (Corpedia Online Program)
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker