Eric asks the questions that make us wrestle together with the ‘big picture’ issues.
No one is coming – we have to manage ourselves
I wrote a Performance Principles eletter last month on the importance of taking 100% responsibility for ourselves and our careers. Here is a link to the article and brief payoff of the material: We Have to Manage Ourselves, January 2010 http://bit.ly/PP-ManageOurselves
Peter Drucker wrote a classic article for the Harvard Business Review called Managing Oneself. In this Performance Principles, I relate how Dwight Eisenhower failed to manage himself effectively and went from being known as a brilliant person in press conferences to being a klutz.
The Payoff – we have to know ourselves and manage ourselves in order to be effective. As Nathaniel Branden, who has written about 20 books on self esteem, has said – no one is coming to help us. We have to take responsibility for managing ourselves if we expect to be successful.
People who get ahead take 100% responsibility for their own lives and careers. This does not mean that you can win by yourself. No man (or woman) is an island. However, each one of us has to grow up and realize that life is difficult. Business is filled with problems. The people who get ahead think ahead, manage themselves well, play to their own strengths and (critically) manage their own weaknesses.
