Managing Oneself Quotes

“Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves - their strengths, their values, and how they best perform.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“Like so many brilliant people, he believes that ideas move mountains. But bulldozers move mountains; ideas show where the bulldozers should go to work.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“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.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“You should not change yourself, but create yourself, that mean build around your strengths and removing bad habits”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“Managing yourself requires taking responsibility for relationships.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“It takes far more energy and work to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“Of all the important pieces of self-knowledge, understanding how you learn is the easiest to acquire.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“Schools everywhere are organized on the assumption that there is only one right way to learn and that it is the same way for everybody.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“bulldozers move mountains; ideas show where the bulldozers should go to work.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“Organizations are no longer built on force but on trust. The existence of trust between people does not necessarily mean that they like one another. It means that they understand one another. Taking responsibility for relationships is therefore an absolute necessity. It is a duty. Whether one is a member of the organization, a consultant to it, a supplier, or a distributor, one owes that responsibility to all one’s coworkers: those whose work one depends on as well as those who depend on one’s own work.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“It is a law of nature that two moving bodies in contact with each other create friction. This is as true for human beings as it is for inanimate objects.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“The first secret of effectiveness is to understand the people you work with and depend on so that you can make use of their strengths, their ways of working, and their values. Working relationships are as much based on the people as they are on the work.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“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. Knowing where one belongs can transform an ordinary person—hardworking and competent but otherwise mediocre—into an outstanding performer.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“Values, in other words, are and should be the ultimate test.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“Introverts do better alone with competition, extraverts do better in large group without competition”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“If you have a goal that you still postpone, that means, it's not one of your strengths”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“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 ? The answer must balance several things. First, the results should be hard to achieve—they should require “stretching,” to use the current buzzword. But also, they should be within reach. To aim at results that cannot be achieved—or that can be only under the most unlikely circumstances—is not being ambitious; it is being foolish. Second, the results should be meaningful. They should make a difference. Finally, results should be visible and, if at all possible, measurable. From this will come a course of action: what to do, where and how to start, and what goals and deadlines to set. RESPONSIBILITY”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“Strong decision makers often put somebody they trust into the number two spot as their adviser—and in that position the person is outstanding. But in the number one spot, the same person fails. He or she knows what the decision should be but cannot accept the responsibility of actually making it.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“A person’s way of performing can be slightly modified, but it is unlikely to be completely changed—and certainly not easily. Just as people achieve results by doing what they are good at, they also achieve results by working in ways that they best perform. A few common personality traits usually determine how a person performs.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“I saw no point in being the richest man in the cemetery.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“It takes far more energy and work to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“We hear a great deal of talk about the midlife crisis of the executive. It is mostly boredom. At 45, most executives have reached the peak of their business careers, and they know it. After 20 years of doing very much the same kind of work, they are very good at their jobs. But they are not learning or contributing or deriving challenge and satisfaction from the job. And yet they are still likely to face another 20 if not 25 years of work. That is why managing oneself increasingly leads one to begin a second career.
There are three ways to develop a second career. The first is actually to start one. [...] The second way to prepare for the second half of your life is to develop a parallel career. [...] Finally, there are the social entrepreneurs.
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There is one prerequisite for managing the second half of your life: You must begin doing so long before you enter it.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“What does the situation require? Given my strengths, my way of performing, and my values, how can I make the greatest contribution to what needs to be done? And finally, What results have to be achieved to make a difference?”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“This failure to ask reflects human stupidity less than it reflects human history.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“others is required, it probably indicates a lack of courtesy—that is, a lack of manners.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“Do not try to change yourself—you are unlikely to succeed. But work hard to improve the way you perform. And try not to take on work you cannot perform or will only perform poorly.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“...it is vitally important for the individual, and equally for the individual’s family, to have an area in which he or she can contribute, make a difference, and be somebody.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“Consider the experience of a newly appointed hospital administrator. The hospital was big and prestigious, but it had been coasting on its reputation for 30 years. The”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself: The Key to Success

“First-rate engineers, for instance, tend to take pride in not knowing anything about people. Human beings, they believe, are much too disorderly for the good engineering mind. Human resources professionals, by contrast, often pride themselves on their ignorance of elementary accounting or of quantitative methods altogether. But taking pride in such ignorance is self-defeating. Go to work on acquiring the skills and knowledge you need to fully realize your strengths.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself

“It is incumbent on the people who work with them to observe them, to find out how they work, and to adapt themselves to what makes their bosses most effective. This, in fact, is the secret of “managing” the boss.”
― Peter F. Drucker, Managing Oneself