The New One Minute Manager - Ken Blanchard, Spencer Johnson

 The New One Minute Manager

Effective managers always find new ways to get great results in a short time

Most managers are either primarily interested in results or people. Managers who are interested in results are regarded as autocratic, while those interested in people are regarded as democratic. Both management methods are only partially effective and managers who practice just one of the two will not lead a balanced and fully productive organization.

With everything changing in the leadership world today, more companies and managers are looking for the most effective way to improve their organization and employees. Managers can improve their organization's situation by taking a cue from The New One Minute Manager's tips.

Unless it's critical and highly confidential, make efforts to involve all team members in your decision-making process.

Smart managers get results by drawing the talents of everyone on board thereby increasing overall productivity. They are both results-oriented and people-oriented.

It's important to get yourself familiarized with the skillsets of the people you manage. For instance, the fact that two junior employees work in marketing does not mean they necessarily have the same skills. Of course, they both are expected to have the skills required for their marketing roles on the surface level. But when you look beyond those surface-level skills, you will see the differences in their strengths and weaknesses. This is what you want to use to your advantage: the knowledge you have will enable you to delegate tasks properly.

Communicating effectively with your employees, superiors, and coworkers is another effective way to grow your organization. Managers should always let their employees know exactly what they expect of them, this can enable them to create smart goals essential for growth and development. These two tips are not all you need to become a crazily productive manager. That's why the rest of this summary is dedicated to exploring more ideas. From the first chapter through to the end of this summary, you will learn the secret of productive managers. Some of the major things this summary will teach you include:

• The number one thing that determines whether an organization stands or will fail in the nearest future

• How to set goals with subordinates and ensure everyone is on track

• The power of feedback and how to wield it, and much more

Did you know? Smart managers don't measure productivity by the quantity of work done, but by its quality.

The first secret to becoming a one-minute manager is to create one-minute goals

The New One Minute Manager sets one-minute goals with workers to help them increase productivity without much help from them. It is the first of the three secrets to successful one-minute management. The manager makes it clear what everyone's responsibilities are and what they are accountable for. The one-minute goals are created by writing out goals, how they will be carried out, and their due dates. Once they have been written out concisely, it is easy to look at them often and stay focused on what is important.

Practicing delegation works well with goal setting. It may appear easy but it is often difficult to delegate. Most managers find their organizations so precious that they cannot leave a lot of decisions to their employees, they want to have a hand in everything. However, successful managers know that leading without delegating can waste everyone’s valuable time. Once your employee is responsible and qualified, managers should trust that the task will be well done.

Delegation allows your team members to gain skills and leadership experience that will improve the organization.

No matter how complicated, each one-minute goal should be written in a way that can be read within a minute.

When the goal delays more than necessary, or team members run into a problem, the one-minute manager tries to identify what people are supposed to be doing but are not doing. They help other managers get to the roots of their problems and provide solutions easily. They also show colleagues how to solve problems on their own.

The one-minute goal will work when you plan goals together with your people, set metrics to measure, and give them freedom to be creative.

The second secret to becoming an effective manager is the one-minute praisings

One-minute managers follow up with employees by asking for progress reports and regularly observing employee activities. The new one-minute manager is interested in catching employees doing impressive work, unlike other managers who look out for faults. When the manager finds employees doing something right, they give them one-minute praisings. This encourages employees to keep up the good work. It usually takes about a minute and it motivates people to achieve organizational goals. One-minute goals together with one-minute praisings make people more effective, bringing out the best in them.

The new one-minute manager's praisings work because one of the best ways to encourage employees to be more efficient and to spur them into action is by recognizing them. Appreciating your workers for a job well done will make them feel encouraged to continue increasing their productivity. You can decide to give public recognition, or a private “thank you.” You can also give them a raise or a paid time off.

Managers can support their employees by cutting out excesses and unnecessary tasks when they are focused on a larger goal. Make it a point to give employees more time to work on higher-priority assignments.

When giving the one-minute praisings, pausing momentarily and allowing people to feel good about what they have done usually yields better results.

The third secret of the one-minute manager is the one-minute redirects

The new one-minute manager is a people developer. They know that one-minute praisings may not work alone if not combined with redirects to correct mistakes when they occur. This third secret was regarded as the one-minute reprimand in the former edition of the One Minute Manager and has always been effective. In one-minute redirects, the manager quickly corrects employee mistakes immediately after they make them. But before this point, the manager ensures the set goal is clear enough, so employees won't be acting out of ignorance or misinformation. The manager breaks the one-minute redirects down into two parts. The first half focuses on the mistakes, and the second part focuses on the one who made the mistakes. Put it more clearly, the manager addresses the mistakes committed, then turns to the employee to understand why it happened and try to see how the employee can be helped if they need help.

When employees make mistakes, don't be in a hurry to judge, seek to understand why the mistake happened.

As a manager, you can decide to hire an expensive employee who is a high achiever as long as you can identify one. However, if you realize that an individual is willing to learn from their mistakes and become better, keep them close and help them improve.

One-minute redirects are like training and corrections. Any organization that refuses to train or correct its employees, may have problems with efficiency. As much as it is advisable to allow employees to work with little or no guidance, a manager cannot afford to have workers haphazardly trying to accomplish a task with zero guidance. Teach employees the necessary skills to do their job and they will be better for it. This way, they can accomplish their tasks on their own, and they won't keep coming back to the manager to waste time answering questions or correcting errors.

Did you know? If you started working full-time at 25 and worked 40 hour weeks until you were 65, you would have worked approximately 90,000 hours.

First, you set goals, then you align your actions towards actualizing those goals

Everyone is a potential winner. One-minute goals work because they help individuals review their objectives and see what they are doing right or wrong. One-minute praisings work because they enable people to focus on becoming high performers. It also helps when reprimanding managers don’t focus on only what is wrong but on what is right too.

Being intentional about developing your employees is not a waste of resources but an investment that will always pay off

One-minute redirects work well because they make it possible for managers to deal fairly and clearly with one behavior at a time so the person receiving the feedback can work on it effectively. Telling people what they did wrong, how you feel about it, and that they are better than that is the best way to give a successful redirect.

You will also be more successful with a redirect if you respect the person you are redirecting. If however, you have corrected a person yet they refuse to change or listen then you may have to let them off the team.

Share the managing secrets you have learned with others

One of the best ways to become fulfilled and forever remembered as an effective manager is not only to be a one-minute manager yourself but to share the secrets you have learned with others, especially your employees. As you help others develop the right habits and behavior, let them know why it is required and how they can pass on the knowledge they have gained. Refusing to pass lessons out of ignorance or sheer negligence is one major reason organizations do not last.

We all know that no human will live forever, but organizations can last as long as possible so long as the leadership is great. The secret behind those thriving, long lasting organizations you see or hear about is that they have among other things mastered how to pass on legacies to coming generations. If you have the growth of your organization at heart, you will do the same. Find worthy people within your company and teach them the management secrets you've learned from teachers and personal experiences.

Be careful who mentors you because your life will soon start looking like theirs.

You become an effective one-minute manager when you begin to keep things simple. Set one-minute goals, quickly reviewing them and making corrections. Give specific one-minute praisings and provide one-minute redirects for issues that need to be addressed immediately.

One-minute managers ask brief, and important questions; speak the simple truth; laugh frequently in the workplace, work hard, create time to relax, and enjoy. In addition to all that, they not only manage but also lead people to be creative and to do new things.

Conclusion 

If you head an organization and you need it to become more agile and productive, then put to practice the teachings of The New One Minute Manager. The principles, which include setting one-minute goals, making use of one-minute praisings, and using one-minute redirects are valuable and they make a real difference. These secrets are also easy and powerful ways to accomplish goals sooner. They also help you to have more time to think, plan and make a difference in your organization. You can improve your management potential by exploring the wisdom of the new one-minute manager and by building the leadership skills important for success.

Today, it is expedient that organizations respond faster, with fewer resources, to keep up with evolving and fast-growing technology and globalization. The world has changed and a new, more collaborative approach to leading and motivating people is what is effective now. When leaders work together, relating as partners with their employees, the organization is more productive. This is because people are increasingly looking for fulfillment in their work and personal lives. By making them feel that sense of importance, you are almost guaranteed to succeed.

Additionally, The New One Minute Manager teaches that attracting and keeping talent is a top priority. Invest as much as is necessary in finding top talent because this is an investment that is bound to yield results.