In this updated version of the bestselling book, The One Minute Manager, the authors share 3 important secrets that will help you to concurrently get better results, have more time, and empower the people around you to be more effective and fulfilled. Similar to the original book, the authors use a fable to illustrate the key ideas. In this summary of The New One Minute Manager, we’ll outline the 3 secrets that can help you/your team to find job satisfaction, make meaningful contributions, and feel engaged and appreciated. Do get the book for the full fable, or get our complete book summary for a detailed overview of the tips!
The simple story is about a smart young man, who has been looking all over the world for a great manager to work for and learn from. He finally finds a great manager, who is known as the “New One Minute Manager”. The manager (a) has found the secret formula to concurrently achieve results for the company, and fulfillment for his team; and (b) is able to adapt his techniques to keep up with rapid changes.
By interviewing the New One Minute Manager and his managers, the young man discovers his 3 Secrets, is eventually offered a job, and becomes a New One Minute Manager himself.
One common problem in organizations is the lack of clearly defined roles and responsibilities. In order for people to be effective:
• They must know exactly what their goals are and what success looks like; and
• This definition must be shared between the staff and supervisor.
One-Minute Goals are about setting goals that can fit in 1 page, and be reviewed daily in less than 1 minute every day. In the book or our full 9-page summary, we outline how to use One-Minute Goals effectively, including how to develop and review them, and facilitate self-management in your staff.
After setting the one-minute goals, stay in close contact with your staff:
• Monitor their activities or results, and request for short progress reports.
• It’s vital to explain that the reason for your close supervision is not to pick on their mistakes, but to catch them doing something right.
This paves the way for you to apply the other 2 secrets of the New One Minute Manager: to praise people when they do something right, and re-direct them when they are off-track.
Most people don’t know how they are performing, nor how they can improve. Often, managers wait until the annual performance review to provide feedback – by then, there’re too many incidents or issues to be addressed in specific, actionable detail.
Once you notice a staff doing something right, offer your one-minute praise. In a nutshell:
• Share your praises (30 seconds).
• Pause for a short while.
• Affirm your staff (30 seconds).
What happens when people make mistakes or do something wrong? Similar to the one-minute praising, the key is to provide feedback as soon as possible, using the One-Minute Re-Direct.
Once you’re aware of a mistake, quickly check if the goal is clear; if not, start by clarifying it. Then, apply the One-Minute Re-Direct:
• Address the mistake (30 seconds).
• Pause for a short while.
• Affirm the staff (30 seconds).
Get more tips on how to conduct One-Minute Praisings and One-Minute Redirects effectively, in the book or our complete summary. In the meantime, here’s a quick overview of the 3 secrets:
Obviously, it will be ideal to hire star players, give them their 1-page goal and have them score 100% all by themselves. Unfortunately, such people are rare and expensive to hire. On the other hand, it’s also ineffective to hire average people, leave them alone and hope that they’ll miraculously deliver outstanding results.
The best way is to hire people with potential, and methodologically coach them to become star players. The One-Minute Goals give people a clear target to aim for, and the One-Minute Praisings and One-Minute Re-Directs help them with progressive course-correction, until they have the knowledge and skills to achieve stellar performance.
Review the tips at a glance with our book summary and infographic!
In the book / full summary, we’ll also explain why the 3 Secrets work, with additional tips to implement them effectively with your team so both the staff and organization can win.
Remember: people work for themselves not for you as the manager. Your true goal is to empower people to self-manage and feel good about it, so you need not manage them. That way, you’ll free up your own time to plan and improve your own results, enjoy less stress and more time for yourself and your loved ones, and positively impact others to enjoy greater success and fulfilment.
OTHER DETAILS IN THE BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR
This is an extremely easy-to-read book, presented in a short story that anyone can identify with. Although the ideas are simple, they have remained relevant after 35 years, and are practical and easy to apply in our hectic workplace. If you enjoyed this article, do get a copy of the book for the full fable, get The New One Minute Manager summary bundle to review the ideas and tips at a glance, or go to http://newoneminutemanager.com.
Start facilitating self-management in your team!
Click here to download The New One Minute Manager book summary and infographic
Thanks for summary. Planning to compose goal within one page so that I can read in less than one minutes.