Peter Drucker Meets Myers-Briggs

June 30, 2008  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in on July 2008 “Know thyself” said the Oracle; “To thine own self be true,” said Shakespeare; and “Leadership comes from within,” said Warren Bennis. “But how do we find the truth?” we ask.

Well, Peter Drucker, management guru par excellence, has at least shown us what to look for. In 1999, Drucker published an article called “Managing Yourself” in the Harvard Business Review that gave us his ideas on using self-knowledge to take charge of your career and being your own CEO.

Start by identifying your strengths. Don’t obsess with your weaknesses. You can build on strengths, but not on weaknesses. Remember, “It takes far more energy to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than to improve from first-rate performance to excellence.”

Know how you perform, how you get things done. Whether you are a listener or a reader, for example, can have a big impact on your performance. Curiously, he advises, “Do not try to change yourself. You are unlikely to succeed. Work to improve the way you perform.”

Armed with this self-awareness, you then must determine where you belong. This is the old “What do you want to be when you grow up?” inquiry, and very few people know the answer until they are well beyond their mid-twenties. According to Drucker, “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.”

Drucker does not offer much in the way of how we can perform this self-examination, but this is where StrengthsFinder 2.0 comes to the rescue. Written by Tom Rath of the Gallup Organization, this little book shows us how. Currently the No. 1 best-selling business book in the Wall Street Journal poll, its predecessor, Now, Discover Your Strengths, was also a huge best-seller worldwide. The new improved version promises to expand the audience further.

In spite of my skepticism of self-help books, I must admit I am impressed with this one. Part of the appeal is that it is more than a book, or I should say it is a “cyber book.” Inside, there is a sealed password that gives you access to the Gallup Web site. There, you are guided through an extensive questionnaire that takes about 35 minutes.

The questions will remind you of those used by Myers-Briggs and other personality profile tests based on activity preferences. Your responses are then compared to the database developed by Gallup and, presto, you are presented with a Strengths Discovery and Action-Planning Guide. This report claims to provide you with a close look at the nuances that make you unique. It includes a Top 5 list, not of your strengths, but of areas or themes “where you have the greatest potential to develop strengths.”

Gallup claims its database includes surveys of more than 10 million people in the last decade on the subject of worker productivity. This has helped the firm identify 34 of these themes.

In addition to highlighting your top five themes, the assessment gives 10 Ideas for Action to go with each theme. These are designed to help develop strengths within the themes. And that’s not all. You also get three tips on how to work with others who have similar themes. My own feedback seemed to be largely accurate, yet contained enough surprises to make me think. It all sounds great, but this is why books like this drive me crazy. Let’s see … five themes, each with 13 to-do entries, adds up to 65 new items to add to an already full list of Things To Do Today For Sure. And that doesn’t count the items left over from yesterday’s list. Where does one find the time to find the strength to develop one’s strengths?

Nevertheless, the Drucker article is a gem and the Rath book is well worth reading.

Put them both on your To Do list.