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Heads Up! These are MY NOTES on an article by Peter Drucker. The link to the original doc is in the metadata and under the heading “Original Article.”

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• Table of Contents

Key Points

What are your strengths?

• Use “Feedback Analysis”: Whenever you make a decision, write down what you expect to happen 9-12 months later. Then revisit what you wrote and see what you learn about yourself.

How do you perform?

• Are you a reader or a listener? Do you need things in writing beforehand (reader; Eisenhower, Kennedy) or are you better on your feet taking things in the moment (listener; Lyndon Johnson)?
• How do you learn? Do you learn by writing? Do you need to take copious notes? By hearing yourself talk (that’s not perjorative)?
  • Once you know how you learn, do you act on that knowledge?
• Do you work well with people or are you a loner?
  • If you work well with people, in what relationship? Are you best as a subordinate, commander, team member, coach, mentor?
• Do I produce results as a decision-maker or adviser?
  • Sidebar: a good “number two” struggles to make decisions and will fail in the top spot if promoted.
• Do I perform well under stress, or do I need a highly structured and predictable environment?
• Do I work best in a big organization or a small one?

What are your values?

• “To work in an organization whose value system is unacceptable or incompatible with one’s own condemns a person both to frustration and to nonperformance.”
• HR Example: Do you value looking inside for talent before going outside for a search or do you value bringing in fresh blood? Or a combination of both?
• Pharma Example: Do you value “helping physicians do better what they already do” vs. “making scientific discoveries?”
• Business Management Example: Do you value short term results or a focus on the long-term?
• Church Example: Do you value new parishioners or the depth of each member’s spiritual growth?

Where do I belong?

• “But most people, especially highly gifted people, do not really know where they belong until they are well past their mid-twenties.”
• By knowing the answers to:
  1. What are your strengths?
  2. How do you perform? and
  3. What are your values?
• You will be equipped to make informed decisions on where you belong (big org? Small? Decision-making role?)
• “Successful careers are not planned. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values.”