While reading chapters $15$ and $16$ of Drucker, I felt almost a sense of relief about his suggestion of a process for self management, as I am considering a change in my career $($particularly after the completion of my MBA$)$ and I am doing so because I no longer feel like I am in a place where I belong. As I begin this journey of rediscovering where I do belong, and what is next for me$,$ I will absolutely be following Drucker's process.

I found it interesting that Drucker mentioned we are often better at recognizing our weaknesses than our strengths. I do believe this to be true, but I do feel that in identifying our weakness, the strengths may become more apparent if we are willing to accept them. For instance, I am aware that a weakness of mine is figuring out step by step processes, for example, policies and procedures. I am not good at describing each step that needs to be taken to reach an outcome. It is too detailed for me$.$ On the other hand, what this tells me about P&Ps$,$ which are a requirement of my role, is that I am good at identifying what P&Ps we need, and what I want the outcome of those to be$,$ but will need to task someone else with completing the step$-$by$-$step.

In terms of how I work, Drucker mentioned we may be listeners or readers. I know for sure that I am a listener. I don't just work this way, I learn this way. I have always done better listening to a lecture $($or watching a video as is the new way for most of these online classes$)$ and not just reading material. As an auditory learner, I have also found that when I do need to read, doing that through an audio format works better for me$.$ I am currently listening to Drucker on Audible, not reading a hard copy. In addition, I prefer to have a meeting $($although a short one$)$ rather than a lengthy email $($unless of course I need progress documented$).$ We all need to be able to do a bit of both, but particularly when I am working with the staff that report to me$,$ I do tell them that I prefer a phone call, TEAMS chat or stop by my office to talk through something or answer a question versus an email. At the same time, not all of the staff who report to me feel the same and I try and respect their preference in this regard as well. If they prefer an email, I will attempt to do that as their preference. Because as Drucker put it "manners are the lubricating oil of an organization" and I feel it is respectful to try and honor my staff's preferred way of communication and working.

Knowing your values is almost the most important piece to this, in my opinion. For me personally, I cannot work for a business or corporation that does not have values that align with mine. I have not had of a struggle with this particular issue in my career until now. Although I am up for a promotion at my current organization, I am having more and more experiences with my job that are telling me their values do not align with mine. Too much to share here, but despite the potential for promotion, a substantial salary increase and fantastic stability at this current job, I know that I will not be able to stay working here as their values are shifting and no longer align with what I feel is important.

In reading some of the other materials, I do feel like other authors would agree with Drucker, particularly Covey. When Covey speaks of "proactivity" he is stating that we are responsible for our own lives and with such need to make decisions for ourselves about our strengths, type of worker we are, and aligning our values with the organization we work with. Those are all a part of proactivity in my opinion.