Personal effectiveness
Self-help movement branch
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- 3 chapters
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Through Self-help
Beginnings
Many of the ideas behind the personal effectiveness movement derive from the field of business and management. Thinkers including Peter Drucker, W. Edwards Deming, and Genichi Taguchi revolutionized business and industry in the mid-20th century by focusing on such concepts as quality, efficiency, and optimization. In particular, Drucker's ideas of “management by objectives” as explained in his 1954 book 'The Practice of Management' emphasized the importance of clarity of roles, responsibilities, and expectations. They also outlined the framework of SMART goal setting. In the management field, these advancements branched into the leadership movement (for examples see Ken Blanchard, Jim Collins) and the more technical advancements including lean thinking, and six sigma.
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Overview
Early self-help classics such as Dale Carnegie's “How to Win Friends and Influence People” (first published in 1936) tended to have a specific focus on success in one particular goal. Although this trend continues, with common specializations in weight loss, health, or spirituality, a few contributors are becoming more interdisciplinary in their scope. As the field matured, authors began to integrate ideas gleaned from their peers, and a more comprehensive approach to personal effectiveness began to emerge.
Some key contributors to the field, along with their areas of focus:
Business model
The business models of various personal effectiveness gurus typically revolve around traditional publishing, but may also include public speaking tours, corporate bookings and/or media appearances. Recently a new trend has emerged which embraces the open-source paradigm of free content. Noteworthy open-source personal effectiveness content sites include Steve Pavlina and Level grinding.