Drucker in his article Managing Oneself placed importance on the idea of strength awareness as it is essential to being able to be successful in any given field (2005). By being able to place oneself in successful positions and keenly aware of one’s strengths, one is able to adapt to and create situations in order to be successful (Drucker, 2005). This also has the added benefit of avoiding pitfalls and embarrassing moments that can happen when trying to work off of one’s weakness (Drucker, 2005). In essence being able to capture how one performs is their key to success (Drucker, 2005). What is ironic of this situation is that most people do not know their strengths or weaknesses, but believe they do (Drucker, 2005). This may be the reasons that people find difficulties at their workplaces or completing their education as they are fighting against themselves instead of for themselves. To be able to succeed in performance one must be able to answer the question of how do I perform? In order to answer that one must be able to answer a series of questions that follow.
The first key to knowing one’s strengths is knowing if they are a reader or a listener (Drucker, 2005). Essentially does this person communicate better verbally or in writing, but asking oneself, am I a reader or a listener? As Drucker (2005) points out though the use of presidential examples knowing if one is a listener or a reader is key to being able to hone in on one’s strengths. Many presidents that followed in their successors’ strengths (opposite of their own) found it to be ultimately their failure as they lost the favor of the public by trying to adapt (Drucker, 2005).
Another key question to ask oneself is how do I learn? There are many different ways to learn such as through reading, writing, listen, talking, and doing just to name a few and most people are able to answer the question relatively quickly when asked.
Although answering the question, how do I learn may be a simple question as Drucker points out most people are able to answer the question almost immediately after asked (2005). It is actually more complex as knowing how one learns is only half of the battle. When Drucker (2005) follows the question do you act on the knowledge, the question is not often followed with the same confirming results. Although people are able to identify how they learn fairly easily they do not act upon this knowledge which can lead to nonperformance (Drucker, 2005).
How one works is also an important question to ask when it comes to knowing ones strengths and managing one’s self (Drucker, 2005). For instance asking, do I work well with people, or am I a loner? And if you I work well with people, in what relationship?
As Drucker (2005) also points out, knowing where you work best is also a key to being successful. For instance, knowing if one works better with consistency or under pressure and change. Also knowing if one works better in a large organization or a small one.
What does this mean for leadership style practices? Well, first there is an important concept to understand. What is the style approach? “The style approach focuses on the behavior of the leader” (Penn State World Campus, 2019). The two types of behaviors there are in the style approach are task behaviors and relationship behaviors (Penn State World Campus, 2019). Being able to self identify a leader’s own style can be incorporated with Drucker’s research on knowing oneself. This is because in order to be an effective leader one must understand how they operate and how they are able to interact with their followers.
The overall meaning of Drucker’s article is clear: learn to manage yourself to perform your best (2005). Instead of basing oneself in a deficit correction way of thinking, one should align themselves in an environment best suited toward their strengths. By being aware of one’s weaknesses and one’s strengths one will be able to avoid position when they will become reliant on their weaknesses which will lead to nonperformance. Drucker (2005) virtually points out that trying to correct one’s weaknesses is futile in nature as it will not lead to the performance desired. In combination of knowing one’s values, method of work, strengths, and how to use one’s strengths a successful career can be built (Drucker, 2005). One can become keenly aware of their strengths by asking themselves how they perform and synthesizing the information they discover (Drucker, 2005). Not every position will work for every person and being in a position that forces one to rely on their strengths allows for the most development (Drucker, 2005). This can be combined with understanding a person’s leadership style. For instance, knowing if one tends to lean towards more inituating structures that are more task-related styles or consideration behaviors which is more relationship styles and combining this with knowing if one does better-communicating verbally or in writing can make a difference with how they are understood or perceived by their followers.
Drucker, P. F. (2005). Managing oneself. Harvard Business Review.
acr5216 says
I really like looking at oneself first and when I think about what approach to leadership this self-awareness would lend itself to, I find it to be a mix between the skills approach and the style approach to leadership. Both are approaches that are centered around the leader and both of which, I think it’s critical to know yourself as an individual to know yourself as a leader. In your discussion, you mention more of the style approach to leadership which focuses on leader behaviors (Northouse, 2106) but I argue that the skills approach incorporates much more of knowing oneself.
With the skills approach you want to think about what the leader can accomplish (Northouse, 2016). Things that you discuss in your post like how do I learn or am I a reader or a listener are both good examples of conceptual skills (Northouse, 2016) and leads one to think about what is their capability and how are they most effective at accomplishing the things they need to accomplish.
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
maf5864 says
Hello Georgette Jutta Kuzmenko;
Your blog post was interesting, and it makes a person think about his or her performance as a leader. Williams (2019) stated that performance and problem resolving work together in leadership development. Problem solving is how a leader matures and the actions completed by the leader is the performance. Feng, Zhang, Liu, Zhang and Han (2018) ethical leaders motivate employees in a positive direction towards accomplishing goals, work performance, and flexible behavior patterns towards ideas. Listening skills are important to the leader and the employee. A leader can make the employee feel important in a company by listening to his or her concerns. Schmidt and Pohler (2018) explained employee performance are based on the employee’s perception of the company. A leader’s history can impact his or her appearance. Northouse (2019) acknowledged performance is based on a leader’s success in career involvement and environmental impacts.
I will answer the questions in your Blog about my leadership skills. I learn faster with hands on experience. I have a hard time reading and listening to learn something new. I ask questions and my thoughts are moving faster than the reading material or speaker. I prefer to work alone, but I can work with people. Most of my past jobs were leader roles and that requires working alone and training others. I know that I can influence others based on my actions and words. I have completed many work projects from other departments after meeting someone. My leadership style has changed over the years. My leadership style will continue to evolve as I will continue to learn and mature.
References
Feng, J., Zhang, Y., Liu, X., Zhang, L., & Han, X. (2018). Just the right amount of ethics inspires creativity: A cross-level investigation of ethical leadership, intrinsic motivation, and employee creativity. Journal of Business Ethics, 153(3), 645-658. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1007/s10551-016-3297-1
Northouse, P. (2019). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. Retrieved from:
https://reader.yuzu.com/#/books/9781506362298/cfi/6/26!/4/2/4/2@0:0
Schmidt, J. A., & Pohler, D. M. (2018). Making stronger causal inferences: Accounting for selection bias in associations between high performance work systems, leadership, and employee and customer satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(9), 1001-1018. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/10.1037/apl0000315
Williams, J. (2019). PSYCH 485: Contingency and Path Theories: Lessons 6 [Power Point Slides]. Pennsylvania State University: World Campus. Retrieved from:
https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1972967/modules/items/25704899