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One of the main mantras that prevail in the personal improvement/effectiveness movement is this idea of personal responsibility and ownership. The discourse tends to argue that you can improve yourself by “owning” your own destiny. Take on a new project, develop a “can-do” attitude or change how you see problems. The theory seems to state that we are all happier and more committed when we have a sense of meaning and a level of autonomy in our lives. Apparently, we are less stressed as a result.

Tips three and five in the Harvard Management Tips book builds on this idea by advising you to open your mind to new things and increase your desire to learn. Ask questions and find ways to apply your expertise to different situations. Adopt a learner’s approach. Tip eight advises you to stop making excuses for your bad behaviours and change! Think of the impact your character flaws have on others around you.

How to change your behaviour is outlined in Tip 33. Firstly, you should take ownership and believe you can change. Secondly, be patient and persist with your personal changes. Thirdly, accept any difficulties you encounter on the way. Fourthly, refuse to be distracted. Fifthly maintain your changes constantly. If you can persist with your changes you will find that you are a better leader, apparently!

I guess a good way to start improving yourself is to audit your behaviour and ask others for feedback. Feedback seems to be a key requirement in the self-improvement process. I would accept that it serves as a useful reality check, but only if someone is willing to accept other people’s criticisms of their conduct.

Although I do wonder sometimes, whether our character flaws are what make us human. If we change too many things about ourselves, do we deny the past experiences that brought us there in the first place? Who has the authority to change you? Why should you change if you get things done well? And when do we stop improving? How long does this process continue for? The phrase life-long learning is very popular, but can you really teach an old dog, new tricks? So many questions – I guess I must be opening up my mind!

References:
Harvard Business School, (2011) “Management Tips from Harvard Business Review”, Boston, Massachusetts, Harvard Business Review Press, p5, p7, p10, p43.

Using the handy Harvard Management Tips booklet for guidance, I have decided to work through its advice to see whether I can improve my management perspective and self. Tip one advises you to clarify and refine your leadership vision by articulating your values and re-examining your goals for the future.  It says to find a few important episodes in your life that you think defines your values/you.

I guess one important value for me will be the achievement of my MBA in June 2012. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much I have enjoyed the course materials and the re-development of my analytical thought processes. It has left me wanting more, particularly now that I feel that I have mastered the art of writing merit-graded assignments! Maybe that’s a little self-absorbed, but it feels nice to gain academic validity from something that I have put a lot of effort into. I’m a better student, more careful and mature, than I was when I completed a BA in English in my early twenties.

Another rather important value for me is nurturing my family. It has taught me to be a little less self-absorbed and more considerate of others. I think I’m more ethical and interested in longer-term, more sustainable things because of it. Before marriage and children I was more hyper and impatience. I’ve learnt to temper some of that by listening more and trying harder to see beyond the right-now. Mind you, it’s not always easy!

After thinking of what these episodes mean, you then need to write a personal leadership statement explaining the type of leader you want to become and the contributions you want to make by 2025. I assume this means how you want to lead yourself and not others. In that context, I hope that I’ll be using my talents and expertise to keep myself busy! If I’m a little more specific I hope that I have a Ph.D. and a sustainable writing career. I hope I can keep myself motivated and open to new perspectives and ideas. If I manage to influence others and gain some sort of recognition for it in years to come then that would obviously be a bonus.

Tip 46 builds on this leadership vision by suggesting that you develop a leadership brand and articulate it in a statement. Mine is “I want to be known for good research skills so that I can deliver useful ideas and perspectives to others”. Once you have your leadership brand you should ask others for feedback on whether or not you are living up to your brand. Let’s see how the next few months pan out for me!

References:

Harvard Business School, (2011) “Management Tips from Harvard Business Review”, Boston, Massachusetts, Harvard Business Review Press, pp: 3, & 60.

Although I’m working on my last OUBS assignment ”What makes a Good Manager?”, I have been distracted by a handy little Harvard Management Tips book I picked up in WH Smith recently. The book is a compilation of the Harvard Business Review‘s Management Tip of the Day and suggests “useful”personal development, team and business advice. It has given me an idea. I fancy blogging my way through the advice and sharing my experience of it here. A sort of Julie and Julia approach (the American girl who blogged her way through a 1950s cookbook but I’d be doing it on management.).

The first tip is to Create a New Leadership Vision. I need to articulate my values and re-examine my goals for the future. I will then need to draft a statement illustrating what I hope to have achieved by 2025! I’m not sure I can even think that far ahead. It is already making me feel older than I am already. And what does it mean by leadership and major contributions? I assume it is about how I plan on leading myself to something big. But will I drink (you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink!) by the time I get there?  What if I change my mind? And what if my goals are not to win a Nobel Prize but rather more mundane?

Well, I suppose some of the things that might make my personal development list this week are: potential Ph.D study and my imput as a Professional Advisor to the OUBS’ Alumni Advisory Board. Although I didn’t make it to a seat on the board, I have been offered an expertise role, which is very exciting. I will hopefully find out more in the coming weeks.  My research into Ph.D. programmes continues too. At the moment, my research ideas are about blogging and reflection, the limitations of reflection, and entrepreneurship. All the research ideas are works-in-progress. Hopefully, I’ll have some further inspiration once I press “submit” on my last MBA assignment.

How can you improve your career prospects whilst developing your own learning? Peter Drucker (1999) in his Harvard Business Review article Managing Oneself advocates a lengthy period of reflection on your actions and the resulting outcomes of it. Drucker suggests that through personal Feedback Analysis we can all understand where our strengths lie and work on improving them. We can also see what skill and knowledge gaps need to be improved on and take action to correct them. Overcoming our intellectual arrogance is a priority as it prevents learning from others and thinking more flexibly.

Drucker argues that it is increasingly important that knowledge workers learn to develop themselves so they can be more effective. Work on remedying your bad habits and develop good inter-personal skills to gain the cooperation of your work colleagues. Also, as Pareto’s Principle states, only work on what matters. Direct the 80% of your action towards the 20% that matters to your learning and development. There is no point wasting time on assignments and tasks that will only result in mediocrity and not star performance.

Another area to focus on is how you perform. How do you learn and work in your job? Are you a reader or listener or writer? Personally speaking, I see myself as a writer and talker. I make notes on paper and on my text books. Any book that I read I have to annotate with my own marks and diagrams. I find I remember more by writing things down and then discussing the ideas with others for alternative viewpoints. It is also important to work out whether you work best with others or alone; as a leader or deputy; or better in a large or small organisation. Knowing where you belong is extremely important.

Furthermore understanding your personal values system can help you perform much more effectively. Your personal values need to be compatible with those of the organisation you work for otherwise you will only become frustrated. Drucker believes that successful careers develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values. Only then can a person make a difference to themselves and the organisation they belong to.

In making a difference, the results need to be SMART and meaningful. The results should also be visible and measurable. From this standpoint, a course of action will develop. Another important consideration is the impact others may have on your objectives. Knowing your co-workers and their strengths and weaknesses can help you work more effectively with them. It is also important to communicate well. Tell people what you are doing and what you are hoping to achieve. Organisations are made up of people; it’s your responsibility and duty to gain the cooperation and trust of your co-workers through developing good working relationships.

Overall, I found Drucker’s advice actionable and I intend to audit my strengths and embark on more feedback analysis both on a personal level and with others. I also think it is important that I explore my value system so that I can understand where I fit into the world following the completion of my Masters. However, Drucker’s advice is based on anecdotal evidence in this article and not backed-up by hard statistical “facts”. This is slightly worrying for me as acting on someone’s own anecdotal evidence may not be appropriate for my needs or situation.

Obviously I accept that Drucker had an illustrious academic career, but most of what he says seems like common sense rather than “proved” by research. On one hand I believe that as individuals we have choices and responsibilities, but depending on your “professional” career, some people have more choice than others. For instance, I’m fortunate to be able to study full-time and spend time writing my blog and reflecting on my learning. Many people don’t have the luxury of being able to undertake postgraduate study, nor have enough autonomy in their role to direct what assignments they will take on.

I remember an interview situation with a prospective employer where I was asked for an example of a situation in which I turned something negative into a positive result through personal leadership. After I ran through my own anecdotal situation, I was then told that organisations can’t have too many leaders insinuating that too much personal autonomy would not work at that organisation! If Drucker is right that knowledge workers have to manage themselves and behave like their own Chief Executive Officer, personal goals are likely to conflict with the goals of the organisation and other work colleagues. How one balances this dichotomy is no doubt an art rather than a science in my view.

References:
Drucker, F. P. (1999). Managing Oneself Harvard Business Review (March)