Customer Reviews
Managing yourself and preparation for your second career
Peter F. Drucker, born in 1918, is probably the 20st Century's greatest management thinker. He was Professor at New York University and currently teaches at the Graduate Management School of Claremont University, California. Drucker is the authors of numerous books and award-winning articles. This article was published in the March-April 1999 issue of the Harvard Business Review.
Today, knowledge workers outlive organisations and are mobile. The need to manage oneself is therefore creating a revolution in human affairs. Drucker gives advise on the management of ourselves. We need to ask ourselves the following questions: What are my strengths?; How do I perform?; What are my values? The authors provides advise on how to answer these questions> Once these questions are answered we need to find out where we belong and what we should contribute. According to Drucker, "we will have to place ourselves where we can make the greatest contribution." But because we need to work with others we also need to take responsibility for our relationships. This requires us to accept other people as much as individuals as ourselves and take responsibility for communication. The author also identifies that most knowledge workers are not "finished" after 40 years on the job, "they are merely bored". He identifies three ways to develop a second career: (1) start one; (2) develop a parallel career; or (3) be a social entrepreneur. And managing the second half of your life requires you to begin with it before you enter it.
Great article by the Master of Management on how we can manage ourselves. He recognizes the latest trend whereby knowledge workers are outliving organizations which result in them having/creating second careers. He provides advise on where to locate yourself based on your strengths, performance, and values. This article is an exerpt from his 1999-book 'Management Challenges for the 21st Century'. As usual Drucker uses his famous simple US-English writing style. Highly recommended, just like all his articles.
