In The Next Society, an article that Peter Drucker wrote for the Economist magazine, he discusses the future of the knowledge worker, how we should be managing our own careers since the company no longer looks out for us, and the transitions that we make as we grow older. In the same article he also discusses the future of manufacturing.

‘What has not yet sunk in is that a growing number of older people—say those over 50—will not keep on working as traditional full-time nine-to-five employees, but will participate in the labour force in many new and different ways: as temporaries, as part-timers, as consultants, on special assignments and so on. What used to be personnel and are now known as human-resources departments still assume that those who work for an organisation are full-time employees. Employment laws and regulations are based on the same assumption. Within 20 or 25 years, however, perhaps as many as half the people who work for an organisation will not be employed by it, certainly not on a full-time basis. This will be especially true for older people. New ways of working with people at arm’s length will increasingly become the central managerial issue of employing organisations, and not just of businesses.’

The Society of Cost Management takes Drucker’s predictions to heart with;

• a series of blogs based on Managing Oneself by Peter Drucker, this being the first;
• a job hunting discussion board where members can discuss their mid-career transitions; and
• a best practices discussion board where we can discuss transferring cost management applications learned in manufacturing to new industries and applications.

Managing Oneself by Peter Drucker was written for the Harvard Business Review in 1999 and is still pertinent to this day.

Prior to there being knowledge workers, people would work for 40 – 50 years at something because their father did or because there was one company in the town to work for. You performed the task that the company needed you for and then retired and did nothing. Many professionals have their careers managed for them, engineers, for example have a career path that is usually laid out for them in many companies.

Professionals in Cost Management are Knowledge Workers, and usually do not have clear career paths. It is the responsibility of each of us to manage our own careers, based on a thorough knowledge and understanding of our strengths and weaknesses, and our personality.

To properly manage your career, Drucker suggested that we ask ourselves several questions. The first of which is:

What are my Strengths?

Most people are unaware of their strengths and their weaknesses, Drucker recommends the use of feedback analysis to determine these for us. To use feedback analysis; On a major project write down what you expect to happen then compare the actual results with expectations.

Always concentrate on your strengths, instead of trying to turn your weaknesses into strengths, try improving your strengths. Look tuned for part 2 of Managing Your Career.

 

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