A Minute Manager – The Second Secret

Alright Pals, ready to know the second Secret of “A Minute Manager”? Well, here it is.

Second Secret is “A Minute Praising”. Yes, you heard it. It’s a minute praising.

Being a Minute Manager, one should make it very clear to its subordinate on very first day that he(manager) know that it will be a lot easier for him(subordinate) to do well if he gets crystal clear feedback from the manager on how he was doing. A manager should make sure to convey the subordinate that he wants him to succeed, be a great help to organization and enjoy his work as well and therefore he would try to let him(subordinate) know in all certain terms when he is doing well and when performing poorly. This might not be the most comfortable situation at first for both manager as well as subordinate cause people are not used to with this concept, as most managers do not manage this way. But in that case, manager should assure its subordinate that such feedback would be of great help to subordinate himself.

Let me explain you guys in details…

Once Goal settings are done for a staff, you being a Minute Manager should be in a close contact with him. You can do this in two ways, firstly, observe all the activities of sub-ordinate very closely and secondly, make your sub-ordinate keep detailed records of his progress and have him send it to you regularly. Initially, your sub-ordinates might think that you are spying on him and that you don’t trust in him. But believe me, eventually he will get over with this wrong interpretation. 
Motto behind all this should be only one and that is Try to Catch him doing something RIGHT.

Help People Reach Their Full Potential…

Catch Them Doing Something Right.

Most of the managers spend their efforts in trying to catch people doing something wrong. You being a minute manager should try to catch them doing something Right. And this is the moment where Praising comes in Action.

Yeah! Correct… When you see your sub-ordinate doing something right, go to him and make a brief contact. That may include putting your hand on his shoulder or touching him in a very friendly manner. I know you are laughing at this, but believe me it makes a great difference. It just makes your sub-ordinate feel that you really care about him and that you want him to prosper. He feels that you both are on the same side. So anyways, after that just look straight into his eyes and tell him precisely what he did right. And then share with him how good you feel about what he did. It certainly will make your sub-ordinate feel good.

But make sure you are consistent in doing this. I mean, things may not be going well for you elsewhere and no matter how much annoyed you are about other things, but do respond to your sub-ordinates situation and praise him for his good performance and when he deserves it. The things going around you should not affect your response. Your sub-ordinate would surely appreciate it.

Now you would say, I am a manager and I already have a lot on plate daily. I am very busy person and that wont this praising and all take a lot time of mine? Well – Not really.. Remember, you don’t have to praise someone for very long to let them know that you noticed and do care. It should not take more than a minute. And that’s why its called “A Minute Praising”.

Just a last point to note, you should try catching your sub-ordinates doing something right only when he starts to work with you or when he being to new project or responsibility. After your sub-ordinate get to know the rope you can reduce being around him. This is because, by that time you and he have other ways of knowing when his job performance is “praiseworthy” cause then onwards you both can review the data in information system e.g. Sales Figures, project schedules etc. Also, by then, your sub-ordinates begin trying to catch himself doing right and praising himself. Plus, he is wondering when you praise him again and this feeling keeps him going when you are not around.

Well folks! You must be thinking that though one can’t argue about effectiveness of catching people doing something right, especially after they know what they are to do and what good performance looks like - But do one minute praising really work?. You must be wondering, does all this a minute management stuff really gets results – the bottom-line results?

To get answers of these and such all of your questions and to know little more about our Third Secret for being a Minute Manager, lets meet in my next post. Same Place, with same passion and at.. umm… lets say, somewhere in near future !!.. ha ha… ciao.. Stay Tuned and have a Happy Managing…

Courtesy :
the One Minute Manager
by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
All Content and/or ideas Copyrights are reserved and maintained by Authors/Publishers.

A Minute Manager

Friends, Its been quite a while, I have had written something nice. The other day, I was having a sip of coffee whilst enjoying view in my garden, I saw bunch of people working in my patio with their in charge yelling at them for doing some work in-correctly. And it suddenly struck with the topic in my mind to discuss with you pals. So here we are today discussing How a Good Manager should be.. I guess my this post would interests many New as well as prospective Managers...

Lets see the definition of a manager. The act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively is called the Management and the person who uses/posses these management skills to achieve those goal by leading people is called Manager. A boss or A supervisor is a literal dictionary meaning of Manager.

In our daily life, we come across various types of managers. Government Administrators, Military Officers, Construction Superintendents, Corporate Executives, University Professors and Shop Stewards. Managers of shops, banks, restaurants and hotels with men and women… young and old, almost all types.

We see many ‘tough’ managers, whose organization seems growing but people they have are lost. If we ask them what type of manager they are, they would proudly quote ‘autocratic – who keep on top of the situation’, bottom lined, hard-nosed, strict, realistic, profit minded etc. Despite of their proud, these words speak their interest in results.

Versus, we also see many ‘nice’ managers, whose people seems wining but their organization fails. If we ask these managers, what type of manager they are, they with proud in their voices, would quote democratic, supportive, participative, considerate, humanistic etc. These words clearly shouts loudly about their interest in people.

If we look closely, many managers fall in either of above category. Managers who interests in results are labeled as “autocratic” whereas those who are interested in people are labeled as "democratic". But each of these types of managers is partially effective kinda like half manager.

I feel a manager should be an “Effective Manager”, who with his presence, should not only profit Organizations but also the people he works with while managing himself and the people working with him.

Now that I have quoted what a Manager should be like, lets discuss what one can do to be a great Effective Manager.

An Effective Manager should be more in touch with his people through meetings. Meetings should not be far distant that people forget what was discussed in past meeting and should not be frequent enough to consume all of our people’s time in meeting only. I guess May be a weekly meeting of an hour or two should be enough. Target of those meetings for manager should be more like listening to the problems and accomplishments his people had in past week and the things that are yet to accomplish. Together they should come up with strategies and plans for the coming week. The decisions and plans should be binding to both Manager as well as staff. Of course, if not binding there won’t be any point of arranging meetings, don’t you agree? J

A Manager should neither be participating in his staff’s decision nor should he be only result oriented. Startled ?!? Well Yes, One can not achieve results if its not through people! They both go hand in hand.

People Who Feel Good about Themselves, Produce Great Result!

Wont you agree with above statement? You get things done more when you feel good about yourself! So, a Manager should be always remembering, “helping people feel about themselves is a key to getting more done”. While doing so he must not forget that “a productive is more than just a quantity of work done. It’s quality also”. Thus, “Productivity is both Quality and Quantity”.

We can call such Manager who achieves the productivity mentioned above through people as “A Minute Manager”. Why “A Minute Manager”? Because, it takes a very less time to get very big results from the People.

Well, now you guys seem a bit surprised to hear this. So to explain you a bit better, let me take you a bit down in the concept.

I can see there are Three secrets for being “A Minute Manager”. Lets go through them one by one.

First Secret is “A Minute Goal Setting”.
A minute goal setting is a foundation of “A Minute Management”. Most of the times you guys have seen that there is conflict between the manager and staff for understanding the responsibilities staff is held accountable for. In fact, I guess, many of you have been in trouble for not doing some job, which you at first place never thought is yours. “A Minute Manager” should always make it clear to his staff what their responsibilities are and what they are being held accountable for.

Once a manager and staff have agreed on what needs to be done, then each goal should be written on a single page. Goal with its performance standard should be expressed in no more than 250 words. Its like, anyone should be able to read that in a minute. Both, a manager and staff should keep a copy of this so everything is clear and progress can be checked periodically.

Goals should be set with 80-20 Goal setting rule, i.e. 80% of really important results should come out of 20% of goals set.

Isn’t it sound like “No Surprises” – everyone knows what is expected from them from starting.

It doesn’t stop it yet. Once these minute goals are set, a minute manager should always ensure what a good performance is. Thus, performance standards are made clear.

You must not also forget to take a minute every once in a while out of your day to look at your performance and see whether or not your behavior matches your goal.

Well I guess, by now you have understood the importance of Goal Settings in your work. After all how can you be an effective manager, if you and your staff doesn’t know what they are being asked to do? And what is an efficient way to do it.

I think this is enough to you guys for a day... I would take a break here… The rest of two secrets being “A Minute Manager”, I will cover and share with you very soon in my another posts. So stay tuned and till then, Aloha !! Wish you new managers a Very Happy Managing.

Courtesy :
the One Minute Manager
by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
All Content and/or ideas Copyrights are reserved and maintained by Authors/Publishers.