Oh look, another book that is nice and quick to read….. I love em. It is always good to find something to give you a quick burst of motivation or something that makes you stop and think.
Drucker’s book starts off making you look at your strengths and weaknesses, which I am sure most people have been told to do at many points in their lives. However Drucker continues to ask more, or rather gets the reader to ask themselves further questions (even questions within questions):
How do I perform?
I am a listener or a reader?
How do I learn?
Do I produce results as a decision maker or as an adviser?
Do I perform well under stress, or do I need a predictable environment?
Do I work best in a big or small origination?
What are my values?
What kind of person do I want to see in the mirror?
What should I contribute?
What does the situation require?
Where do I belong?
At first I felt a little bombarded with the shear amount of questions that had been thrown at me. Though it becomes obvious that Drucker is hoping that the people reading his book will actually know the answers to some of them. Plus it only feels like a lot because they are all asked within 33 pages, no more than the size of A6. If they had been spread out between 200 pages it would have felt like far less, but then the impact may not have been as strong.
At every possible opportunity Drucker gives examples of where people go wrong and points out all ‘if only’ situations for them. I found this helpful, it makes you think of occasions where similar things could have happened in your own working life that you may have previously discounted as irrelevant.
After reading the first two thirds of this book I had a strong craving to do a personality test, two came to mind, one you can do online is:
Myers Briggs
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp
Finally the book ended with looking at what can change when a person hits midlife. He gives suggestions to keep oneself from, well, going stale if you will. I am sure that it is good advice, I will find out….
I love Drucker’s work.
So are you recommending this one?
Yeah. Drucker isn’t helping you manage yourself by just giving you techniques to follow, he is also making you figure out if you are in the right kind of environment and state of mind that makes you work well.