Self-management is number one priority

Do you have a career plan? Are you strategically focused on developing MePLC or are you just drifting through life? Bernice Walmsley, the author of the new Instant Manager book on Managing Yourself, talks to Sue Mann about the benefits of applying your management skills to your own advancement.

Do you have to be really single-minded to achieve ‘overnight’ success?

I’m not sure there is such a thing as overnight success. Most people who are really successful have been putting in a lot of effort for a long time. But real success does require determination and single mindedness to some extent.

So few of us seem to know what we really, really want. Is it realistic to expect people to have ‘a vision of where you want to be’?

I think it’s not only realistic but it’s essential. If you don’t know where you’re going it’s unlikely that you will get there. Knowing yourself is something that the book is aiming to help people with and ambitious people will certainly need to understand their values and requirements in life.

If you had to pick one of the personal resources you list in your book – skills, abilities, values, attitudes, knowledge and experience – which would it be and why?

That’s a tough one. It’s hard to see how anyone can be really successful without all of those personal resources. Maybe the right attitudes are the most important because with the right attitudes – including determination - you can work your way up and learn what you need to know.

In chapter 3 you talk about motivation. What motivates you?

I am quite disciplined so deadlines do it for me. I get a great deal of satisfaction from producing work on time. Of course, I’m like almost everyone else, I think, in that positive feedback and getting paid are enormously motivating!

As someone who works from home, do you find it difficult to maintain the ideal work/life balance which you describe in the book?

I’m fairly disciplined in my home life as well as in my working life and, although I don’t keep them totally separate, I do know when to stop. I make an effort to get away from my desk and out of the house quite frequently – partly to get some exercise but also to avoid spending all my days alone at my computer.

I think it’s vital to understand what you need on a work and a personal level and then to tailor your use of time to ensure that all your needs are met. Strange as it may seem for someone who has chosen a solitary occupation, I know that I need company so I go out and find it.

This is an extract from an article in the July issue of Professional Manager.

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