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
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