HBRs 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself (with Bonus Article How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen)

Harvard Business Schools Christensen teaches aspiring MBAs how to apply management and innovation theories to build stronger companies. But he also believes that these models can help people lead better lives. In this article, he explains how, exploring questions everyone needs to ask. How can I be happy in my career? How can I be sure that my relationship with my family is an enduring source of happiness? And how can I live my life with integrity? The answer to the first question comes from Frederick Herzbergs assertion that the most powerful motivator isnt money; its the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute, and be recognized. Thats why management, if practiced well, can be the noblest of occupations; no others offer as many ways to help people find those opportunities. It isnt about buying, selling, and investing in companies, as many think. The principles of resource allocation can help people attain happiness at home. If not managed masterfully, what emerges from a firms resource allocation process can be very different from the strategy management intended to follow. Thats true in life too: If youre not guided by a clear sense of purpose, youre likely to fritter away your time and energy on obtaining the most tangible, short-term signs of achievement, not whats really important to you. And just as a focus on marginal costs can cause bad corporate decisions, it can lead people astray. The marginal cost of doing something wrong just this once always seems alluringly low. You dont see the end result to which that path leads. The key is to define what you stand for and draw the line in a safe place.

On the last day of class, I ask my students to turn those theoretical lenses on themselves, to find cogent answers to three questions: First, how can I be sure that Ill be happy in my career? Second, how can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness? Third, how can I be sure Ill stay out of jail? Though the last question sounds lighthearted, its not. Two of the 32 people in my Rhodes scholar class spent time in jail. Jeff Skilling of Enron fame was a classmate of mine at HBS. These were good guysbut something in their lives sent them off in the wrong direction.

As the students discuss the answers to these questions, I open my own life to them as a case study of sorts, to illustrate how they can use the theories from our course to guide their life decisions.

One of the theories that gives great insight on the first questionhow to be sure we find happiness in our careersis from Frederick Herzberg, who asserts that the powerful motivator in our lives isnt money; its the opportunity to learn, grow in responsibilities, contribute to others, and be recognized for achievements. I tell the students about a vision of sorts I had while I was running the company I founded before becoming an academic. In my minds eye I saw one of my managers leave for work one morning with a relatively strong level of self-esteem. Then I pictured her driving home to her family 10 hours later, feeling unappreciated, frustrated, underutilized, and demeaned. I imagined how profoundly her lowered self-esteem affected the way she interacted with her children. The vision in my mind then fast-forwarded to another day, when she drove home with greater self-esteemfeeling that she had learned a lot, been recognized for achieving valuable things, and played a significant role in the success of some important initiatives. I then imagined how positively that affected her as a spouse and a parent. My conclusion: Management is the most noble of professions if its practiced well. No other occupation offers as many ways to help others learn and grow, take responsibility and be recognized for achievement, and contribute to the success of a team. More and more MBA students come to school thinking that a career in business means buying, selling, and investing in companies. Thats unfortunate. Doing deals doesnt yield the deep rewards that come from building up people.

I want students to leave my classroom knowing that.

A theory that is helpful in answering the second questionHow can I ensure that my relationship with my family proves to be an enduring source of happiness?concerns how strategy is defined and implemented. Its primary insight is that a companys strategy is determined by the types of initiatives that management invests in. If a companys resource allocation process is not managed masterfully, what emerges from it can be very different from what management intended. Because companies decision-making systems are designed to steer investments to initiatives that offer the most tangible and immediate returns, companies shortchange investments in initiatives that are crucial to their long-term strategies.