"People Who Feel Good About Themselves Produce Good Results."- The One Minute Manager, page 19
One common tie between the One Minute Goal Setting, Praising and Reprimand, is the underlying sense of respect and inherent worth that is maintained (and shared) with the individual on the receiving end.
Goal setting is conducted together, with the manager valuing the insight from the employee. Up front, responsibilities and consequences are established and discussed until both parties understand their personal responsibilities. They get to feel a sense of ownership and know that they are trusted. The One Minute Praising is powerful because it’s specific and immediate. And the One Minute Reprimand reminds the employee that it’s the action that’s being criticized, not the person.
“He looks you straight in the eye and tells you precisely what you did right.
Then he shares with you how good he feels about what you did.”
Regardless of the relationship, and whether you’re in a senior role or are on a level playing field, keep one fact in mind; People want one thing – to feel valued.
"Most managers wait until their people do something exactly right before they praise them. As a result, many people never get to become high performers because their managers concentrate on catching them doing things wrong – that is, anything that falls short of the final desired performance."- The One Minute Manager, page 82
What is true of most managers, can easily be true of most parents, spouses or friends. Try catching someone doing something right. Let them know what it means that they did it to such great quality, and how it makes you feel. No one will ever fault you for giving a deserved compliment.
"If you can’t tell me what you’d like to be happening, he said, you don’t have a problem yet. You’re just complaining. A problem only exists if there is a difference between what is actually happening and what you desire to be happening."- The One Minute Manager, page 31
I think this is one of my favorite quotes from any book in the last 12 months. I think it’s a great rule of thumb for discussion with anyone – if you can’t identify what you’d like to see happen, then don’t waste time talking about “problems”. A problem has a solution; maybe not a readily available one, and certainly not always an easy one. But the possibility is there. Don’t tell someone what they’re doing wrong until you can identify what it is they should be doing right. You’ll save yourself, and them, a lot of time, energy and grief.
The One Minute Manager is a simple message, wrapped in an extremely enjoyable read. The profound truth to the three messages in the book are so simply explained, they can be picked up and adopted by any one at any stage of life. Possibly the most important thought though, buried near the end of the book is this: “As he looked back, he was glad he had not waited to use One Minute Management until he thought he could do it just right.”
Few people have influenced the day-to-day management of people and companies more than Ken Blanchard. A prominent, sought-after author, speaker, and business consultant, Dr. Blanchard is universally characterized by his friends, colleagues, and clients as one of the most insightful, powerful, and compassionate individuals in business today. Ken is one of the most influential leadership experts in the world and is respected for his years of groundbreaking work in the fields of leadership and management.
