The New One Minute Manager Snippets

I just completed reading The New One Minute Manager, written in the form of a short-story about how a young man goes in search for inspiration on a management philosophy, the one minute manager way. I found this little book quite insightful, and thus decided to capture the snippets in this post so I can always refer back to it when needed. The authors, Blanchard & Johnson encourage their readers to share with others.

I cannot say that I've practised this particular method, however, I have used the techniques of feedback and redirects, although not consistently, in some of the projects I manage. You don't have to be a line manager, anyone in a leadership position can implement these techniques, and I find it especially appealing in the context of project management, where I have moved more to meeting with individuals on a one-on-one basis (owners and managers that report to my project stream), than having those big round-table status-update meetings, that wastes a lot of time and limits engagement. 

If you get the chance, please read this book, otherwise, checkout these snippets that convey the core message of this One Minute Manager technique. I hope you find it as interesting as I have!

Let's start with a highly apt Dilbert strip, from my daily calendar, that so happens to be the same day as writing this post :-)

One Minute Manager In a Nutshell

Some Powerful Anecdotes

All these are extract quotes from the book, courtesy of the authors Ken Blanchard & Spencer Johnson:

One Minute Goals: Summary

One Minute Goals work well when you:

1. Plan the goals together and describe them briefly and clearly. Show people what good performance looks like.
2. Have people write out each of their goals, with due dates, on a single page.
3. Ask them to review their most important goals each day, which takes only a few minutes to do.
4. Encourage people to take a minute to look at what they're doing, and see if their behaviour matches their goals.
5. If it doesn't, encourage them to re-think what they're doing so they can realise their goals sooner.

One Minute Praisings: Summary

One Minute Praisings work well when you:

The first half-minute

1. Praise people as soon as possible.
2. Let people know what they did right - be specific.
3. Tell people how good you feel about what they did right, and how it helps.

Pause

1. Pause for a moment to allow people time to feel good about what they've done.

The second half-minute

1. Encourage them to do more of the same.
2. Make it clear you have confidence in them and support their success.

One Minute Re-Directs: Summary

If the goal is clear, a One Minute Re-Direct works well when you:

The first half-minute

1. Re-Direct people as soon as possible.
2. Confirm the facts first, and review the mistake together - be specific.
3. Express how you feel about the mistake and its impact on results.

Pause

1. Be quiet for a moment to allow people time to feel concerned about what they've done.

The second half-minute

1. Remember to let them know that they're better than their mistake, and that you think well of them as a person.
2. Remind them that you have confidence and trust in them, and support their success.
3. Realize that when the Re-Direct is over, it's over.