Managing Oneself- Part 4

How do I Learn?

 

The next thing one should know after "How do I perform?" is, how one learns. We saw last week being a reader or listener impacts how you perform.

 

Next thing to look at how one learns, few of us learn by reading and some by listening and some others by writing. Winston Churchill is an example who did poorly in school, which focused on learning by reading and listening where as Churchill's trait was learning by writing.

 

Don't force yourself to know how you learn, start observing yourself and use the feedback mechanism and you will know over a period of time.

 

To ask "How do I perform?" and "How do I learn?" are the two most important questions. But they are no means the only questions.

 

Other thing to know about yourself is do you perform well under Stress, or you perform well under a predictable environment. Are you a good manager or good subordinate? Are you a decision maker or executor?

 

Next thing you should know is, do you perform well in a team or you can perform better as an individual contributor.

 

So far we have looked at various aspects of one's identity and persona. To be able to manage oneself, one finally has to know "What are my values?",

Drucker call it as a Mirror test, when you take any action your value system will tell you is it the right thing or not. When you look yourself in the mirror you can face yourself when you are in harmony with your values.   

At your workplace, if the organization values and your values are in conflict you cannot perform.

 

Values are and should be the ultimate test.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thoughts@work Newsletter article - to subscribe write to mithare@gmail.com