According to Peter Drucker (Managing Oneself, Harvard Business Review Mar-Apr 1999, p67), “It takes far more energy to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence.” This is not a happy thought.
He suggests that you need to use feedback analysis to identify the strengths on which to build. A glance back through my journal at entries for 9-12 months ago shows that I’m good at recognizing gaps in my capability but hopeless at following through. I suppose what Drucker intended in building upon strengths was that rather than treat myself as an incompetent planner and put inordinate energies into becoming a great one, I should divest myself of habits such as procrastination that inhibit real action. It is worth noting that as I sat down to draft this, I so nearly started up a computer game as a distraction.
The first implication for action according to Drucker is that having identified strengths, one should put oneself where those strengths can produce results. Since I didn’t write my journal 9-12 months ago with feedback analysis in mind, at least not overtly, I haven’t recorded key decisions in a ‘retrievable’ way. As such, believing myself good at this or bad at that is prone to challenge, but as a starter-for-10 I believe that I’m good at: recognizing other people have different viewpoints, even if I stupidly try to imagine what they are without asking; recognizing my own needs; seeing broad connections between different fields; creativity, when I let the juices flow; prayer; accepting criticism (eventually) and – arguably – creative writing. On further reflection I’d add to my strengths singing and, strangely, that if I begin the morning with ‘no computer games today’ I usually stick to it. So what I bring into my consciousness at the start of a day will normally last.
Where to place myself to capitalize on such strengths? Well the church for a start, with all the implications for that thorny question ‘what is the church?’ I don’t necessarily mean standing in a pulpit, in other words. There are lots of ways of being church ripe for my exploration.
Drucker’s second implication for action is to improve strengths. Some obvious candidates for action include listening skills, systems theory and practice, creative thinking, writing, and singing. With a little thought, I could probably combine some of these to bring about synergy. So for example I could write a meditation on listening.
Thirdly, Drucker advises the improver to look out for what Egan calls blind spots (The Skilled Helper). These are those things that we arrogantly believe we don’t need to bother ourselves with or which we studiously ignore. Off the top of my head, I’m not too good at affirming other people, as if I believe that they should deal with their own neuroses without me having to get involved. That’s not a good standpoint for someone currently training in pastoral counselling, as I am, so blind spot it is.
So we come back to bad habits, like er procrastination (and the ugly thought that writing a blog is a way of getting out of real work). I don’t use my organizer or the family calendar properly, and I’m pretty awful at tidying up after myself and others. This means that something my diary reveals is important to me – hospitality – is hindered.
None of this has helped me identify things that I ought really to leave well alone, but there is probably plenty. So my need to journal is strong and with it the need to record key decisions and to review them in order to hone my strengths.
Watch this space.
He suggests that you need to use feedback analysis to identify the strengths on which to build. A glance back through my journal at entries for 9-12 months ago shows that I’m good at recognizing gaps in my capability but hopeless at following through. I suppose what Drucker intended in building upon strengths was that rather than treat myself as an incompetent planner and put inordinate energies into becoming a great one, I should divest myself of habits such as procrastination that inhibit real action. It is worth noting that as I sat down to draft this, I so nearly started up a computer game as a distraction.
The first implication for action according to Drucker is that having identified strengths, one should put oneself where those strengths can produce results. Since I didn’t write my journal 9-12 months ago with feedback analysis in mind, at least not overtly, I haven’t recorded key decisions in a ‘retrievable’ way. As such, believing myself good at this or bad at that is prone to challenge, but as a starter-for-10 I believe that I’m good at: recognizing other people have different viewpoints, even if I stupidly try to imagine what they are without asking; recognizing my own needs; seeing broad connections between different fields; creativity, when I let the juices flow; prayer; accepting criticism (eventually) and – arguably – creative writing. On further reflection I’d add to my strengths singing and, strangely, that if I begin the morning with ‘no computer games today’ I usually stick to it. So what I bring into my consciousness at the start of a day will normally last.
Where to place myself to capitalize on such strengths? Well the church for a start, with all the implications for that thorny question ‘what is the church?’ I don’t necessarily mean standing in a pulpit, in other words. There are lots of ways of being church ripe for my exploration.
Drucker’s second implication for action is to improve strengths. Some obvious candidates for action include listening skills, systems theory and practice, creative thinking, writing, and singing. With a little thought, I could probably combine some of these to bring about synergy. So for example I could write a meditation on listening.
Thirdly, Drucker advises the improver to look out for what Egan calls blind spots (The Skilled Helper). These are those things that we arrogantly believe we don’t need to bother ourselves with or which we studiously ignore. Off the top of my head, I’m not too good at affirming other people, as if I believe that they should deal with their own neuroses without me having to get involved. That’s not a good standpoint for someone currently training in pastoral counselling, as I am, so blind spot it is.
So we come back to bad habits, like er procrastination (and the ugly thought that writing a blog is a way of getting out of real work). I don’t use my organizer or the family calendar properly, and I’m pretty awful at tidying up after myself and others. This means that something my diary reveals is important to me – hospitality – is hindered.
None of this has helped me identify things that I ought really to leave well alone, but there is probably plenty. So my need to journal is strong and with it the need to record key decisions and to review them in order to hone my strengths.
Watch this space.
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