Managing employees is not an easy task for most managers or business owners.  For myself, I started out working as an employee and decided to open my own business.  As a result, I was thrown into a management role with no actual experience…only examples of what I had experienced as an employee.  I knew that I needed assistance in the area of management, so I sought that in reading books.“The One Minute Manager” by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson is an excellent book.  It is a quick and easy read that covers the basics of managing your team. It demonstrates that managing people does not have to be a time consuming part of our jobs if done properly. The emphasis is on setting goals and establishing clear expectations, praising people by catching them doing something right and correcting poor performance. Each of these parts can be done without spending a great deal of time.

The main ideas in the One Minute Manager come down to these simple techniques:

• One Minute Goal Setting
• One Minute Praising
• One Minute Reprimands

One Minute Goal Setting:

With the employee:

• Reach agreement with the employee on goals
• On a single sheet of paper for each goal, write out the goal in less than 250 words
• Read and re-read each goal
• Periodically review the employee’s performance to see if it matches the goal

One Minute Praisings:

• Tell the employee up front that you are going to let them know in no uncertain terms how they are doing
• Praise them immediately
• Tell the what is right about what they have done and be specific
• Tell them how good you feel about what they have done and how it helps the organization and the other people who work there
• Pause to let them “feel” how good you feel
• Encourage them to continue the good work
• Shake hands or touch them in a way that makes it clear that you support their success in the organization.

One Minute Reprimands:

• Tell employees beforehand that you are going to let them know in no uncertain terms how they are doing
• Reprimand them immediately, when necessary
• Tell them what they have done that is wrong and be specific
• Tell them how you feel about what they have done wrong
• Pause for a few seconds of uncomfortable silence to let them feel how you feel.
• Shake hands, or touch them in a way that lets them know you are honestly on their side.
• Remind them how much you value them
• Re-affirm that you think well of them but not of their performance in this situation
• Realize that when the reprimand is over, it’s over

What’s In It For You, as the Manager?

The One Minute Manager is simple system to learn and apply.  There are three simple techniques to learn.

You will be able to obtain best performance out of each member of your team.  It will help you to manage the team so that the overall performance is excellent.

It will make your feel that you are a better manager because you have become proactive rather than reactive. You are setting goals and providing quick feedback on performance – whether good or bad.

It will make your staff feel better about their work…even those that receive a few One Minute Reprimands. They will finally know what is expected of them through the One Minute Goals.