(Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis
by considering your opportunities for advancement in your
present organization (or elsewhere) and assessing any threats
that might prevent you from realizing your ambitions.
KNOWING WHAT YOU WANT
- Find out what you are good at doing and then do it.
- Analyse not only your strengths but also your weaknesses:
‘There is nothing that helps a man in his conduct through
life more than a knowledge of his own characteristic weak-
nesses’ (William Hazlitt). - Decide what you want to do and then go for it. Believe that
if you really want something you can get it, and act accord-
ingly. - Set demanding targets and deadlines for yourself. ‘People
grow according to the demands they make on themselves’
(Drucker). But don’t over-commit yourself. Be realistic
about what you can achieve. - Pursue excellence. ‘If you can’t do it excellently don’t do it at
all’ (Townsend). - Focus on what youcan contribute. ‘To ask “what can I
contribute?” is to look for the unused potential in a job’
(Drucker). - Get your priorities right. Adapt Drucker’s rules for identi-
fying them:- pick the future as against the past;
- focus on opportunities rather than on problems;
- choose your own direction – rather than climb on the
bandwagon; - aim high, aim for something that will make a difference
rather than something that is ‘safe’ and easy to do.
- Keep it simple. Concentrate. Consider all your tasks and
eliminate the irrelevant ones. Slough off old activities before
you start new ones. ‘Concentration is the key to economic
results... no other principle of effectiveness is violated as
constantly today as the basic principle of concentration...
Our motto seems to be: “let’s do a little bit of everything” ’
(Drucker).
86 How to be an Even Better Manager