Your Career Journey

 

When I first started reading chapter 2 of The Start-Up of You, I had my doubts. With quotes like, “Just because you’re good at something that you’re really passionate about doesn’t mean that someone will pay you to do it,” (Hoffman, 2012, p. 38) I wasn’t really sure what I was going to get out of this and was feeling more discouraged than anything.

See, I am a big planner. Anyone who knows me could tell you that. My time management skills are impeccable because I have everything organized and know exactly when I should be doing what. I arrive everywhere ten minutes early and last minute plans stress me out. So of course I’ve been planning my career path for a while now, and it has been driven by my love for theatre and New York City. Now, with Hoffman saying basically just because you have a passion, doesn’t necessarily mean that there is a need for you in that market and if you come up with a long term plan, the field is changing so much that it’s likely that you won’t be able to do it all in that order and that way- it stressed me out. (Hoffman, 2012, p. 50)

However, as I kept reading, his words got a bit more promising. My favorite quote is when he says, “There is no beginning, middle, or end to a career journey; no matter how old you are or at what stage, you will always be planning and adapting.” (Hoffman, 2012, p. 58) I have always been worried about feeling stuck in a job for the rest of my life. For example, both of my parents have lived in the same place for all of their lives. I can’t imagine not getting antsy being stuck in one place. I am excited by the idea of having the opportunity to change careers throughout the course of my life and I think that that’s something that’s becoming much more common with the millennial generation.

So my planning and dreaming probably hasn’t all been for nothing. I will continue to work toward my goals as they change and adapt depending on my interests, passions, and skills and I look forward to  what the future will bring.

Hoffman, R., & Casnocha, B. (2012). The start-up of you. New York: Crown Business.

Drucker and his innovative society

In these last few chapters of The Essential Drucker, Drucker focuses on a few last questions that seem to have been touched upon in my previous posts such as “Who is concerned with the common good?” (Drucker, 2001, p. 317) and “What do these institutions have to do to advance the public good?” (Drucker, 2001, p. 318). These questions are then answered when he discusses an entrepreneurial and innovative society that is, in his opinion, exactly what we need.

This society would make innovation and entrepreneurship “normal, steady, and continual” (Drucker, 2001, p. 325), which I have found is exactly the world that Champlain seems to be preparing us for. I would argue that Champlain’s curriculum with the upside-down and Core aspects, along with the current lessons that are taught in classes, is exactly the definition of innovative, not to mention our many opportunities that encourage students to be entrepreneurs.

At first, Drucker seemed to be insinuating that the social sector of businesses are responsible for creating citizenship and advancing the public good by allowing individuals to make a difference by volunteering (Drucker, 2001, p. 316). This, however, wouldn’t be a perfect solution because these kind of businesses can only get so big- they’re definitely not going to become the next Apple.

Drucker got me back on board as soon as he talked about knowledge workers that would exist in this innovative and entrepreneurial society. In this society, he states, “Individuals will have to learn new things well after they have become adults- and maybe more than once.” (Drucker, 2001, p. 325) I think this is so true and something that we definitely see today. Especially with the constant innovations in technology, people in almost any field need to stay up to date on different programs and machines that are being developed.

I personally love the idea of a more innovative society. Maybe it’s just the background that I come from, going to a college that encourages creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship, but I know that innovation is the only way that we will be able to move forward as a society and improve the way that things are now. To bring it back to Drucker’s questions that I mentioned above, a more innovative society means that businesses will come up with better, more efficient ways to run that will be able to not only increase profit, but also be socially responsible. At least, that’s my positive outlook on what it would create.

Drucker, P. F. (2001). The essential Drucker: Selections from the management works of Peter F. Drucker. New York: HarperBusiness.

Drucker on how to be an innovator

In Chapter 20 of The Essential Drucker, Drucker discusses the do’s and don’t’s of innovation. They include: do analyze opportunities, don’t try to be clever, do start small, don’t innovate for the future, etc. In the final paragraph of the chapter, he sums it all up by saying an innovator should not be risk-focused, but opportunity-focused (Drucker, 2002, p. 279). This is something that I strongly agree with, and I think that Drucker creates a great example of this in Chapter 25 when he talks about community organizations.

Drucker starts off by saying that there will be an increase in need in respect to “services that aim at changing the community and at changing people.” (Drucker, 2002, p. 329) I think that we have already seen this in our society. As I learned in my Corporate Social Responsibility class, there are many businesses now that are focusing on changing both the community and people, such as Seventh Generation, a local brand that works to improve the environment and people’s lives by creating safe and healthy products.

Both big businesses and small community organizations have an opportunity to be innovative because of this need for restoring communities that Drucker claims is only growing in urgency (Drucker, 2002, p. 332). They can create new products that save the earth, or create new programs that will bring communities together. The opportunities are endless.

I have a particular interest in the arts myself and have had multiple internships in that area that have shown me what an impact the arts can have on bringing a community together. I think that people who work in these organizations have a responsibility to be innovative in this time of opportunity. The arts have the power to lift people’s spirits and connect them to each other, creating a more vibrant and positive community. Like Drucker said, you have to innovate for the present, and the need for community programs is very current not only in the United States, but in other countries as well (Drucker, 2002, p. 276).

Innovation isn’t easy. As Drucker says, innovation is work and “when all is said and done, innovation becomes hard, focused, purposeful work, making very great demands on diligence, on persistence, and on commitment.” (Drucker, 2002, p. 277) It takes a specific kind of person to take on those demands and as Drucker claims, “There is no known way to teach someone how to be a genius.” (Drucker, 2002, p. 273) But the results are often incredibly rewarding and can change our entire society for the better, and you never know, you could already be a genius and not even know it.

Drucker, P. F. (2001). The essential Drucker: Selections from the management works of Peter F. Drucker. New York: HarperBusiness.

Drucker and Effective Communication

A few weeks ago, I talked about a great internship I had that I believed to be efficient and effective. Now, after reading more about Drucker’s opinions on efficiency and communication, I would like to talk about some positions I’ve had that were not so great at these skills.

As a manager, you have to be a good communicator. If you aren’t, no one is going to get work done properly because no one knows what you expect from them. Drucker says that there are four fundamentals of communication: “Communication is perception. Communication is expectation. Communication makes demands. Communication and information are different and indeed largely opposite- yet interdependent.” (Drucker, 2001, p. 262)

Communication is perception. This means that you have to be able to perceive, to recognize what is going on in the company, in order to communicate. This connects to what Drucker said about feedback, that “One needs organized information for the feedback. One needs reports and figures. But unless one builds one’s feedback around direct exposure to reality […] one condemns oneself to […] ineffectiveness.” (Drucker, 2001, p. 251)

I have been in jobs where my supervisors will sit at their desks all day, completely oblivious to what is going on around them. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but essentially, the feedback they get is through the facts and figures that Drucker mentions, and through opinions of others. To be an effective communicator and an effective manager, you have to actively step away from the computer and see for yourself what is happening in your company. This way, you can identify problems (or successes) first hand and be able to make those decisions on how to function more effectively.

Communication is expectation and it makes demands. When I took on a leadership role in one of my jobs last year, my responsibilities were not clearly defined. I was supposed to enforce the rules, but the second I would step over the (seemingly undefined) line, my supervisors would scold me for it. Had there been effective communication about their expectations for me, I would’ve had a much more positive experience in this role and been able to be a better leader for those around me.

Communication and information are different, yet interdependent. You need information to communicate and you communicate to spread information. In all of this, we also come back to effectiveness. It’s all about the way that you communicate the information that makes a company effective. Whether you tell everyone in the company, or you tell one person to tell another to tell another- it will affect how the job is done. As a manager, I think that the ability to effectively communicate is one of the most important skills you can have.

Drucker, P. F. (2001). The essential Drucker: Selections from the management works of Peter F. Drucker. New York: HarperBusiness.

Drucker’s Old vs New Business

In these chapters, Drucker talks about the way that people have thought about businesses over the years. He mentions how since the first data processing tools emerged, businesspeople overrated their importance to the point of believing that eventually there would be computer generated business models that could probably run an entire business (Drucker, 2001, p. 95). I think this is something we see even today as the most sophisticated technology continues to be developed every day and we all fear being replaced by robots.

However, I think Drucker touches on something important toward the end of chapter eight when he says, “The new approach defines a business as the organization that adds value and creates wealth.” (Drucker, 2001, p. 111) Something that we talk about in a lot of our classes like Corporate Social Responsibility and that a lot of students have discussed in their blog posts is the idea that business is all about creating wealth, or creating a profit. There are businesses that will only focus on the profit, not about their employees or the surrounding community, and in my opinion, this is very much the old idea of how to define a business, as Drucker describes.

Now, in the new approach he mentions, a business is not only an organization that creates wealth, but it also adds value. This could mean many different things. A business can add value by producing their product in such a way that it is made out of all materials that are good for the environment. A business could also add value by creating a great work environment for their employees who feel motivated to come to work every day, therefore creating a positive and healthy workforce. A business could add value by creating programs to have their employees volunteer to improve the surrounding community. The list goes on and on.

This new idea of a business is much like what I wrote about last week with mission-driven nonprofits. Businesses are slowly realizing that it is not all about the money. It’s not only about doing whatever it takes to be the wealthiest company, but it’s about adding value to the workplace, the community, and even the world.

Drucker, P. F. (2001). The essential Drucker: Selections from the management works of Peter F. Drucker. New York: HarperBusiness.

 

 

 

Drucker on Nonprofits

As someone who has worked for a number of nonprofits, I was very interested to see what Drucker had to say on the matter, especially because so many of his other chapters focus on for profit businesses.

One of the first things Drucker says is, “The best nonprofits devote a great deal of thought to defining their organization’s mission.” (Drucker, 2001, p. 41) I couldn’t agree with this statement more.

In my junior year at Champlain, I was an intern at the Flynn Center. During my time there, I was able to be invited to an employee development day where they spent six hours looking at similar arts organizations and different strategies they have used to expand their audience. In the second half of the day, we went through these strategies and the different audiences we could reach out to, and kept returning back to the Flynn’s mission to make sure that any strategies they went ahead with were aligned with that mission.

In general, the Flynn does a lot of these professional development days with their staff and I think it is part of what makes John Killacky such a great executive director. He seems to really be devoted to improving the organization with a strong focus on their mission.

I thought that what Drucker said about the increase in popularity of volunteers was especially interesting. As most of my work for nonprofits has been in unpaid internships, I have been a sort of volunteer. I really connected with what Drucker meant when he said of volunteers, “They are knowledge workers in the jobs in which they earn their living, and they want to be knowledge workers in the jobs in which they contribute to their society-that is, their volunteer work. If nonprofit organizations want to attract and hold them, they have to put their competence and knowledge to work. They have to offer meaningful achievement.” (Drucker, 2001, p. 47) I completely understand, especially in nonprofits, why they need unpaid interns and I have found that when I have been the most okay with giving them my time has been when I felt like I was building real skills from it. It’s hard to give an organization your time when you feel as though they don’t trust you with anything but putting numbers into spreadsheets but, for example, by the time I left the Flynn, I was able to work on rebranding their entire PACT (Providing Accessible Community Tickets) program and it was such a great experience to have. Not to mention I made connections that I know will help me in the future.

In conclusion, I think Drucker hit the nail on the head when it comes to nonprofits. The mission comes first, and the way you treat the volunteers (and unpaid interns) really does matter. I am curious to know of anyone else’s internship experiences in the comments regarding the work you have done for paid and unpaid internships and what made them feel the most beneficial to you.

Drucker, P. F. (2001). The essential Drucker: Selections from the management works of Peter F. Drucker. New York: HarperBusiness.

 

 

 

Drucker and Thomas Edison

As someone who strives to become a manager one day, the parts of Drucker’s work that interest me the most are the parts where he talks about what it means to be an effective manager. In these chapters about entrepreneurial management, I was introduced to this topic that I knew nothing about. I assumed entrepreneurs were only people who started their own business, but now it has become more clear to me that it can also be a more broad style of management even for existing companies.

I found it particularly interesting when Drucker mentions Thomas Edison when discussing just how important good management is. Even though he was an incredible business planner, was able to gain investments, and created products that everyone wanted, he refused to create a management team (Drucker, 2001, pg. 145). This was ultimately why his companies collapsed.

Drucker then lists, as he likes to often do, his four requirements for entrepreneurial management in a new venture. These are to have a focus on the market and financial foresight, build a top management team early on in the venture even if it can’t necessarily afford it, and make sure the founder understands and defines his or her role in the company (Drucker, 2001, pg. 145)

From this list, I would have to agree with the two main parts which are, as I understand them, to always be aware of finances both in and outside of the company and to define the roles of the management. My financial management and economic classes taught me about two different types of finance in business that I had never even thought about before. I now understand how to pay attention to what the market is doing and how to interpret what different influxes mean.

I also have to agree with Drucker when he insists that you need a management team. If you have a small company, this may be difficult, but you can never truly run a business all on your own, and you absolutely can’t have the mindset that you can. There is a lot to think about in a business: not only all of the finance aspects mentioned above, but also the operations, marketing, and development, just to mention a few. You, as the founder, need to be able to have support in all of these areas so you can make sure that you are making the business the best it can be. I’ve worked in small non-profits with limited employees and have seen that they are not as innovative as they can be, because they have such a limited team to give insights.

I am glad that Drucker discussed the importance of having a great management team behind you in these chapters because it is something that I have always believed is a vital instrument to a successful business.

Drucker, P. F. (2001). The essential Drucker: Selections from the management works of Peter F. Drucker. New York: HarperBusiness.

Drucker & Cooperrider

While reading the next few chapters of The Essential Drucker, I kept Professor Lindsey Godwin’s presentation on Appreciative Inquiry in mind. Recalling the connections that Kirby made between the two last week, I already knew that they had similar techniques and ideas on management. After reading these chapters, the similarities are more evident than ever to me.

In the Focus on Contribution chapter, Drucker discusses not only the idea of an individual holding himself or herself accountable for the organization as a whole, but he also discusses asking questions and the idea of committing to change. He uses the example of a hospital environment, where a new employee has stepped into the role that Nurse Bryan used to hold. Nurse Bryan, he says, in the face of a new decision to be made, would always ask, “Are we doing the best we can do to help this patient?” (Drucker, 2001, p. 211) This kind of question, although on a smaller scale than one might usually ask in Appreciative Inquiry, is, to me, everything that AI is about. By asking this, they are not saying “What did we do wrong?” or “Did the surgeon do all he could to help this patient?”. Instead, they are focusing on making sure that they have the best practices in all areas to help their patients. To return to the airline example Lindsey used, they are not just asking “How do we stop people’s bags from getting lost?” but “How do we improve customers’ arrival experiences as a whole?”

On that same page, Drucker goes into the idea of change in an organization. He says, “The most common cause of failure is inability or unwillingness to change” (Drucker, 2001, p. 211). I think this is a statement that David Cooperrider, the pilot behind Appreciative Inquiry, would agree with. Lindsey stressed to us in class that Appreciative Inquiry is all about change that will improve an organization and asking the right questions to initiate that change. If you look to the paragraph above, you will note that Drucker also strongly believed in asking questions.

In the process of writing this blog post, I did some research on David Cooperrider, only to find out that he was awarded the Drucker Fellowship in 2012 which, after learning about both of their ways of management, seems well deserved (“David Cooperrider,” 2012). I look forward to reading others’ comments on whether or not they made the same connections between Appreciative Inquiry and the management focuses that Drucker discussed in these few chapters.

David Cooperrider, PhD, awarded prestigious Drucker Fellowship – David Cooperrider. (2012, March 7). Retrieved February 04, 2016, from http://www.davidcooperrider.com/2012/03/07/david-cooperrider-phd-awarded-prestigious-drucker-fellowship/

Drucker, P. F. (2001). The essential Drucker: Selections from the management works of Peter F. Drucker. New York: HarperBusiness.

Drucker: What is Management?

From just the first chapter of The Essential Drucker, we as readers are able to get a real grasp on what he thinks are the essential principals of management. As my first blog post, I thought it would be important to focus on these bullet points that he makes in chapter one so that we can have a good base of what Drucker believes management is all about. From there, I will be able to decide whether or not I agree with him on these ideas.

The very first statement he makes in this list is, “Management is about human beings.” He goes on to explain that the employees rely on the management as much as the management relies on the employees. I have found this to be true in all of my jobs. You as the employee rely on your manager not only as an employer who pays you, but as someone to give you the skills and information you need to properly execute your job. Your manager then relies on you to complete the tasks required of you in that position so that their business is successful.

Next, he discusses the idea that management is “deeply embedded in culture.” I remember learning about this in my International Business class. Specifically, when we discussed high and low context cultures. High context cultures focus more on non-verbal communication, whereas low context are the opposite. In management, you need to learn how to work with people who may be from a different type of culture they are and understand that they naturally work a little differently than you and value different things. This ties into the next point.

One of Drucker’s next points is that management requires “commitment to common goals and shared values.” Many of my business classes such as Consumer Behavior and Human Resources have stressed how important it is for employees to be aware of and feel committed to the company’s values and goals. Without this, you will have employees who don’t believe in the company and are generally disconnected from the work they are doing, which will leave them not feeling motivated to complete any of their tasks because they don’t see the purpose behind it. It is definitely management’s job to make their goals and values clear to everyone in the company so that they all understand what they are working towards and what is the meaning behind all of it.

After reading these few chapters, I definitely feel as though I have a better understanding of who Peter Drucker is and what he believes. I have to say that he does have some good points, at least considering the matters mentioned up above, and they align with what I have learned so far in the Stiller School of Business.