 Managing oneself by Peter F. Drucker from the Harvard Business Review. Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves, their strengths, their values, and how they best perform. Track 1 – Introduction. We live in an age of unprecedented opportunity. If you've got ambition and smarts, you can rise to the top of your chosen profession, regardless of where you started out. But with opportunity comes responsibility. Companies today aren't managing their employees' careers. Knowledge workers must effectively be their own CEO. It's up to you to carve out your place, to know when to change course, and to keep yourself engaged and productive during a work life that may span some 50 years. To do those things well, you'll need to cultivate a deep understanding of yourself, not only what your strengths and weaknesses are, but also how you learn, how you work with others, what your values are, and where you can make the greatest contribution. Because only when you operate from strengths can you achieve true excellence. History's greatest achievers, a Napoleon, a Da Vinci, a Mozart, have always managed themselves. That in large measure is what makes them great achievers. But they are rare exceptions, so unusual both in their talents and their accomplishments, as to be considered outside the boundaries of ordinary human existence. Now, most of us, even those of us with modest endowments, will have to learn to manage ourselves. We will have to learn to develop ourselves. We will have to place ourselves where we can make the greatest contribution. And we will have to stay mentally alert and engaged during a 50-year working life, which means knowing how and when to change the work we do. Track 2. What are my strengths? Most people think they know what they are good at, they are usually wrong. More often, people know what they are not good at, and even then, more people are wrong than right. And yet, a person can perform only from strength. One cannot build performance on weaknesses, let alone on something one cannot do at all. Throughout history, people had little need to know their strengths. A person was born into a position and a line of work. The peasant son would also be a peasant, the artisan's daughter and artisan's wife, and so on and so on. But now, people have choices. We need to know our strengths in order to know where we belong. The only way to discover your strengths is through feedback analysis. Whenever you make a key decision or take a key action, write down what you expect will happen. Nine or twelve months later, compare the actual results with your expectations. I have been practicing this method for 15 to 20 years now, and every time I do it, I am surprised. The feedback analysis showed me, for instance, and to my great surprise, that I have an intuitive understanding of technical people, whether they are engineers or accountants or market researchers. It also showed me that I don't really resonate with generalists. Feedback analysis is by no means new. It was invented sometime in the 14th century by an otherwise totally obscure German theologian and picked up quite independently some 150 years later by John Calvin and Ignatius of Loyola, each of whom incorporated it into the practice of his followers. In fact, the steadfast focus on performance and results that this habit produces explains why the institutions these two men founded, the Calvinist Church and the Jesuit Order, came to dominate Europe within 30 years. Practice consistently. This simple method will show you within a fairly short period of time, maybe two or three years, where your strengths lie, and this is the most important thing to know. The method will show you what you are doing or failing to do that deprives you of the full benefits of your strengths. It will show you where you are not particularly competent. And finally, it will show you where you have no strengths and cannot perform. Several implications for action follow from feedback analysis. First and foremost, concentrate on your strengths. Put yourself where your strengths can produce results. Second, work on improving your strengths. Sample complete. Ready to continue?