An Effective Manager

Have you read a self-help book called The One Minute Manager before this? It tells a story of a bright young man looking for an effective manager and a great manager reveals him 3 secrets to productive and efficient managing, and leading skills. The man is a venerable leader that is highly spoken of by his employees, his 3 secrets being the essential elements to his success.

The first secret is One Minute Goals. This involves a meeting of the manager and the employee where goals are agreed on, written down in a brief statement, and occasionally reviewed to ensure that productivity is occurring. This whole process takes a "minute", which truly means it is a quick meeting, however it is not limited to just sixty seconds. The purpose of one minute goal setting is to confirm that responsibilities of each working is understood, understanding that confusion leads to inefficiency and discouragement.

The second secret is One Minute Praisings. This involves being open with people about their performance. When you catch someone doing something right, a goal of the one minute manager, you praise them immediately, telling them specifically what they did correctly. Pause to allow them to "feel" how good you feel regarding their importance to the organization, and finish by shaking hands.

The third secret is One Minute Reprimand. Being honest with those around you involves reprimanding when a wrong has occurred. The first step is to reprimand immediately and specifically. This is the same as the second secret, and it holds an important aspect of the first secret: it enables an understanding of responsibilities and how to complete them correctly. Following the reprimand, shake hands and remind the person that he or she is important and it was simply their performance that you did not like. The one minute reprimand consists of the reprimand and the reassurance, both being equally important. If you leave the latter out, you will not be liked by those around you and they will attribute mistakes to them being worth less, which is far from the truth.