Managing oneself
Darren T. Armstrong
Prof. Schattan
1/21/15
MGS 3400
Managing Oneself
Managing oneself takes great knowledge of who you are as an individual, for instance, what
are your strengths and weaknesses, how do you perform and under what conditions do you
perform best, what are your values and how do you maintain them? Knowing the answers to
these questions helps one to not only manage themselves, but helps them to manage others, like
bosses, co-workers and others in a professional atmosphere. Also, it makes it possible for and
individual to improve on strengths and performance and work in accordance with their values.
Finding ones strengths may take some time to accomplish, as pointed out by the author, but
can be done using a technique known as “feedback analysis”. By using feedback analysis you
would write down an expected result for a decision made, and compare the actual outcome with
your prediction, similar to forecasting. What this method does is show you what areas you are
good at, which areas you need to make stronger and which areas you fail at. Areas at which you
fail should be dropped so to focus on continuing to enhance your strengths and work on areas
that could be stronger. For myself, I know that one of my strengths is listening and analyzing
situations and coming up with solutions to problems. This would be an area that I should expand
on and continue to make stronger so that it becomes second nature.
Knowing how you perform is another important area. The author ask the question “am I a
reader or a listener” and answering this could help in improving performance and efficiency. The
second important question that you need to ask yourself is, how do I learn? Not everyone learns
the same way, some learn by doing, some earn by writing and other by listening to themselves
talk out loud. It is important to understand this because by learning these things about yourself
helps you to better understand the way others perform and helps you to adjust to them in order to
bring out the best in them. Personally, I learn best by doing. Having someone tell me the way to
do something will give me the general idea of how to accomplish the task at hand, but it is not