Managing Oneself (Harvard Business Review Classics)

by Peter F. Drucker

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 12 months later, compare the actual results with your expectations.

At the same time, feedback will also reveal when the problem is a lack of manners.

Or you can choose to work in organizations where mannerism is not so encouraged

And yet, acting on this knowledge is the key to performance; or rather, not acting on this knowledge condemns one to nonperformance.

Successful careers are not planned.

As this example suggests, it is rarely possible—or even particularly fruitful—to look too far ahead. A plan can usually cover no more than 18 months and still be reasonably clear and specific. So the question in most cases should be, Where and how can I achieve results that will make a difference within the next year and a half