It takes far less energy to move from first-rate performance to excellence than it does to move from incompetence to mediocrity.
You can learn to identify your strengths by using feedback analysis. This is a simple process in which you write down every one of your key decisions and key actions along with the results that you expect them to achieve. Nine to twelve months later, check the actual results against expectations. After two to three years of use, you will know your strengths by tracking those decisions and actions where actual results fell in line with or exceeded expectations. Once you have identified your strengths through feedback analysis, you can use this knowledge to improve performance and results. You can make this happen in five ways.
- First, concentrate on your strengths.
- Second, work on improving strengths. You may need to learn new knowledge or to update old.
- Third, recognize disabling habits. The worst, and most common, one is arrogance. Oftentimes poor performance results from an unwillingness to pursue knowledge outside one’s own narrow specialty.
- Fourth, remedy bad habits and bad manners. All too often, a bad habit such as procrastination or bad manners makes cooperation and teamwork all but impossible.
- And fifth, figure out what you should not do.
ACTION POINT: Use feedback analysis to identify your strengths. Then go to work on improving your strengths. Identify and eliminate bad habits that hinder the full development of your strengths. Figure out what you should do and do it. Finally, decide what you should not do.
Management Challenges for the 21st Century
Managing Oneself (Corpedia Online Program)
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker