Managing Oneself

Avthar's Weekly Wisdom #58 (08/16/2021)

Aug 16, 2021

Welcome to edition #58 of Avthar's Weekly Wisdom!

🔥 I’m Avthar, a South African technology entrepreneur based in New York City. This digital letter is where I share practical wisdom about self-mastery, entrepreneurship, health and happiness, all to help you live better.
My guarantee is that you’ll discover one thing that will help you change your life in every edition. As a reminder, you can find all previous editions of this newsletter in the archive. And you can find more of my writings at avthar.com.

I’m back after some time on the sidelines due to work stress and moving apartments. I certainly missed writing and sharing, and some of you even told me you missed reading this newsletter.

The good news is that I’m re-energized, unpacked and ready to share practical wisdom with you every week going forward right here in this letter (which will usually drop on Sundays).

Let’s get started…

Managing Yourself: The Essential Skill to Succeed in the Internet Age

I recently re-read perhaps the most useful business book ever - it’s just 60 pages long but it packs 60+ years of wisdom into its pages.

I’m talking about “Managing Oneself” by Peter Drucker - the writer, teacher and consultant who revolutionized business management.

Avthar.com 🇿🇦 @avthars

Revisiting a classic. I’ll share my key learnings later this week.

It’s a must read book for every working adult - whether you’re an entrepreneur or C-level executive, or an intern or someone just starting their career - this book will help you perform better and have a more fulfilled working career.

Here’s my 3 minute summary of the book, boiled down to 7 questions for you to reflect on:

Drucker’s seven questions for self-management mastery

1. What are my strengths?

Analyze the feedback you get in order to discover your strengths. Then concentrate only on improving your strengths and forget about your weaknesses. Place yourself where your strengths can produce results.

2. How do I perform?

There are many different ways to think, learn, communicate, work with others, execute and make decisions. You must identify how you perform best. Accept and embrace your performance method rather than trying to change.

3. What are my values?

Values are (and should be) the ultimate test. Your values will help you navigate which opportunities to use your strengths are best for you and which to avoid. Work with people and organizations with aligned values (not the same, but not in conflict).

4. Where do I belong?

You’ll likely know where you belong after your twenties, so don’t worry if you don’t know yet. Successful careers are not planned. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, way they perform best and values. Knowing where you belong can turn even an otherwise ordinary person into a top-performer.

5. What should I contribute?

You have the privilege of deciding how you can make the world better. How can you use your strengths, way of performance and values to achieve meaningful results in a given situation?

6. How can I take responsibility for relationships?

Other people also have their own strengths, ways of performing and values. It’s up to you to understand them - whether they be your colleague, boss or employee - and adapt yourself so that you can succeed when working with them. This simple but few put this into practice.

7. What does the second half of my life look like?

What might your second career be after you’ve reached your target level of success in your current career... and you inevitably become bored? You’ll likely need another source of challenge, service and meaning during the ups and downs of your career and life.

Writing down your answers to these questions and then putting the insights you unearth into action will radically transform your work life and career path. I encourage you to stop reading and take 30 mins to reflect on Drucker’s 7 questions above.

If you’d like to unpack each of Drucker’s questions to help you master managing yourself, you can read my extended summary of the book at the end of this letter.

📚 Related reading:

Tweet of the week

Avthar.com 🇿🇦 @avthars

Failure is a bruise, not a tattoo

Podcast I’m listening to

“With the knowledge we have today and with today’s scientific advancements, everybody should be within a healthy body weight... because we know the benefits of it.”

Firas Zahabi is a renowned Mixed Martial Arts trainer and coach - most notably to UFC Champion Georges St-Pierre. Oh, and he also holds a degree in philosophy. In this podcast, Firas talks with Mohammed Hijab about bravery, health and lifestyle.

🙏 Thank you again for reading and for your support! I wish you a week of happiness, success and peace!

With gratitude,

Avthar

Managing Oneself: An Extended summary

What does “Managing yourself” even mean?

Managing yourself means learning to develop yourself, and placing yourself where you can make the greatest contribution. It’s also knowing when and how to change the work you do in order to contribute meaningfully.

What are my strengths?

A person can perform only from strength.
Knowing your strengths is a uniquely modern problem. In previous times, we were either born into a certain position in society and line of work (e.g if your father was a trader, you’d become a trader too. If your family were farm workers, you’d become a farm worker as well etc.)
But today, everyone has the opportunity to choose their line of work and knowledge of one’s strengths helps you choose where you belong.
How can you uncover your strengths? Feedback analysis. Here’s how it works: Whenever you make a key decision or action, write down what you think would happen. Then in 9-12 months, compare the actual results to your expectations. Doing this for 2-3 years will help you uncover where your strengths truly lie. (This is similar to the “decision journal” recommended by Michael J. Mauboussin in his book “Think Twice” in order to become better at making decisions.)
Energy, resources and time should go toward making a competent person into a star performer.
Feedback analysis will also help you uncover what not to do. Time spent improving areas of low competence is a waste - you’ll only go from incompetent to mediocre and that energy is better spent in taking you from strong to world class.
Once you’ve discovered your strengths, concentrate on them. Place yourself where your strengths can produce results.
Work on improving your strengths. You want to go from being really good to being world class. To do this: (1) Discover where your intellectual arrogance is causing disabling ignorance - and overcome it. (2) Acquire secondary skills and knowledge to fully realize your strengths. (3) Remedy your bad habits - things you do (or don’t do) that hinder your performance and efficacy.
Manners are the lubricating oil of an organization - feedback can uncover where your issue is a lack of manners -- a lack of manners will hinder you in the long term.

How do I perform?

There are many different ways to think, execute and make decisions - you must discover how you perform best.
Your way of performance is just as fixed as your strengths - it’s better to accept and embrace your performance method rather than conform to another method.
Some questions to help you identify how you perform: (1) Am I a reader or a listener? (2) How do I learn? (writing, taking notes, discussing with others, doing)
Most people know how they learn best, but very few people actually act on that knowledge. Not acting on how you best learn dooms you to non-performance and ineffectiveness in your career.
(3) Do I work well with people or am I a lone wolf? If I work well with people, in what relationship do I work best? (as a decision maker, a right hand person, a coach, a mentor, a team member etc)
(4) Do I produce results as a decision maker or advisor? (5) Do I work well under stress or do I need a highly structured, predictable work environment? (6) Do I work best in a big organization or a small one?
Do not try to change yourself - you probably won’t succeed. Work hard to improve the way you perform and don’t take on work where you can’t perform or will perform poorly.

What are my values?

Part of values is ethics. Ethics is “how should one behave?”. To answer that for yourself, use the Mirror test: Ask yourself, “What kind of person do I want to see in the morning?”
Also need to understand an organization's value system: To succeed in an organization, your values must be compatible with the organization’s values. Working at a company with an incompatible value system will doom you to frustration and non-performance.
Some examples of organization values are: promote from within or bring in fresh blood for leadership? Iterative, small improvements or big, risky bets? Running the business for short-term results or long term ones?
Values are (and should be) the ultimate test. Conflict between your strengths and values may occur - and your values should help you navigate and resolve those conflicts.

You should focus most of your early career on getting a good understanding of your strengths, way of performance and values.

Where do I belong?

You will only learn this after your mid-twenties -- need to taste many things first.
Should also be able to decide where you do not belong -- eg) if you don’t perform well in a big organization, say no to it.
To a particular offer, you should be able to say: “Yes I’ll do that. This is the way I should be doing it. This is the way it should be structured. This is the way relationships should be. These are the kind of results you should expect from me, and in this time-frame, because this is who I am.”
Successful careers are not planned. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, method of work and values. Knowing where you belong can turn even an ordinary person into a top-performer.

What should I contribute?

Like knowing our strengths, this is a modern day conundrum. Throughout history, people were told what to do, by the work itself or by a master. Deciding your contribution is a question for today where we have the opportunity to decide our work.
To uncover what you should contribute, ask yourself three questions:
(1) What does the situation require?
(2) Given my strengths, way of performing and values, how can I make the greatest contribution to what needs to be done?
(3) What results have to be achieved to make a difference?
Don’t bother looking too far ahead - 18 months is about as far as you can plan while being clear and specific. (e.g Veda on asking “What’s most important to me now?”)
Better question is: Where and how can I achieve results that will make a difference within a year and a half?
What does “results” mean? Results are (1) hard to achieve, require stretching, (2) within reach, something you could actually do, (3) meaningful, (4) visible (5) measurable.
From the definition of results will lead you to a course of action.

How can I take responsibility for relationships?

Other people are as much individuals as you are. And they have their own strengths, ways of performing and values.
Understand people you work with so you can best use their strengths, ways of performing and values. To be effective you need to know the strengths, ways of performing and values of your co-workers and boss. And to adapt yourself to empower them.
Take responsibility for communication.
The people around you need to understand the context for your work. Context = what, why, how and results expected. If someone doesn’t understand the context around your work, it’s your fault, not theirs.
Go to your colleagues and say: “This is what I’m good at. This is how I perform. These are my values. This is the contribution I plan to concentrate on and the results I expect to deliver.
And continue by asking them: “And what do I need to know about your strengths, how you perform, your values and your proposed contribution?
This helps build trust - which is understanding each other. Not necessarily liking each other.

What does the second half of your life look like?

What might your second career be after you’ve reached a level of success you’re satisfied with in your current career?
Managing oneself leads one to begin a second career. Why?
When work was manual labor or doing one thing for 40 years. Then retirement simply meant enjoying doing nothing or as one pleased.
Today, most knowledge workers are not “finished” after 40 years, they’re just bored.
You might be very good at your job, but you might not be learning, contributing, or feel challenged or satisfied by the job.
To being a second career, you can (1) jump organizations (e.g change industry or role altogether).
(2) Develop a parallel career. This might include writing, volunteering, service in some way etc.
(3) Social entrepreneurs - you continue your job, but take on other jobs, usually service based (like foundations or non-profits).
Key to your second career: It’s a source of challenge.
Develop a second interest. And develop it early.
Why? It gives you another avenue to contribute, to serve and to feel successful in life. This is very important especially when setbacks and disasters are inevitable (especially in your primary career).
Historically, there’s no such thing as success - success was just slipping into ruin and staying where you were. Today we suffer from the burden of success. And a second career helps us ease that burden and carry it better.
Second career offers you an opportunity to become a leader, be respected and to become a success.

🙏 Thank you again for reading! Let me know which parts spoke to you by replying to this email or hitting the comment button below:

The Lifelong Learner

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