Information Outlook, Vol. 6, No. 5, May 2002
The Process of Self Development
by Bruce Rosenstein
Peter Drucker is his own best advertisement for self-development and self-management.
At 92, he has done more major work in recent months than most of us can comprehend. He wrote a 19-page feature for The Economist last November and an article in the Harvard Business Review this February. And he will be the keynote speaker at the 2002 Special Libraries Association Annual Conference in Los Angeles this June.
"Managing Oneself" is one of the largest chapters in his 1999 book, Management Challenges for the 21st Century. He addresses the topic in articles and speeches, and in the lesser-known but fascinating 1997 book, Drucker on Asia: A Dialogue Between Peter Drucker and Isao Nakauchi. He also provides some excellent tips on the subject in his February 2002 interview with Information Outlook.
Changes in communications, technology and society in general have made our work considerably different from what it was only a decade ago. But Drucker provides us with ideas for managing our careers no matter what curves technology or other forces throw at us.
Managing yourself, in Drucker's world, revolves around some basic principles. It is up to you to ask yourself questions about how you think and work and then seek answers. You must then act on these answers Drucker has found people rarely do.
Identify your strengths and weaknesses. Identify areas where you can improve, to make new contributions to your organization. Figure out what size institution best fits your talents. Learn to take responsibility for the quality of your relationships with your boss and others in your organization. Determine whether your learning and working styles revolve around listening or reading. Drucker says the failure to do these things leads to ineffectiveness.
Have a strong set of values and a sense of ethics. The latter need not be a complex concept. He simply proposes the "mirror test." What sort of person do you look at in the mirror when you awake each day?
Don't underestimate the power of manners. SLA members know the workplace can be a harsh and cold climate. Drucker says we'd be surprised how far a genuine "please" and "thank you" will take you.
He also advocates a "feedback analysis." When you make a major decision or start on a new course of action, write down what you think the effects will be. Nine months later, compare what happened to what you thought would happen.
In Drucker on Asia, there is a revealing section about his own development from a young European law student into a renowned management authority. As he relates in the Information Outlook interview, he spent much of his time in the City Library of Hamburg, Germany. But he also attended the opera weekly and a performance of Verdi's Falstaff changed his thinking and his life.
"When I made a study," he writes, "I found, to my great surprise, that this opera, with its gaiety, its zest for life, and its incredible vitality, was written by a man aged 80!" Drucker discovers why the famous composer felt the need to write a demanding new opera when he was already elderly and famous. Drucker quotes him: "All my life as a musician, I have striven for perfection. It has always eluded me. I surely had an obligation to make one more try."
The effect on Drucker was profound: "I have never forgotten these wordsthey made an indelible impression on meI then resolved that, whatever my life's work would be, Verdi's words would be my lodestar. I then resolved that if I ever reached an advanced age, I would not give up, but would keep on. In the meantime, I would strive for perfection even though, as I well knew, it would surely, always elude me."
Bruce Rosenstein is a librarian at USA TODAY and an adjunct professor at The Catholic University School of Library and Information Science in Washington, DC. He can be reached at brosenstein@usatoday.com.
Selected Bibliography:
Drucker on Asia: A Dialogue Between Peter Drucker and Isao Nakauchi (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1997)
The Effective Executive (HarperBusiness,1967, paperback)
The Essential Drucker (HarperCollins,2001)
Management Challenges for the 21st Century (HarperBusiness,1999; 2001 paperback)
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