The New One Minute Manager

management
leadership
business
Transform your leadership style in minutes! This Learnerd summary of “The New One Minute Manager” by Ken Blanchard breaks down the Three Secrets for modern management. Learn how to set clear One Minute Goals, deliver effective One Minute Praisings to build confidence, and use One Minute Re-Directs to correct mistakes constructively.

1 Listen to The New One Minute Manager Summary

2 Book Summary: The New One Minute Manager

The core philosophy of The New One Minute Manager is that “People Who Feel Good About Themselves Produce Good Results”. The book presents a simple, powerful framework for leading people that is built on three practical techniques, or “Secrets”, designed for today’s fast-paced, collaborative work environment.

2.1 The First Secret: One Minute Goals

Clarity is the foundation of performance. One Minute Goals ensure that both the manager and the team member are on the same page about what needs to be done and what good performance looks like.

  1. Plan goals together: In a collaborative, side-by-side discussion, agree on the most important goals.
  2. Write them down clearly: Each goal should be described on a single page, in 250 words or less. This ensures it can be read and reviewed in about a minute.
  3. Focus on key responsibilities: Use the 80/20 rule. Focus on the 20% of goals that will deliver 80% of the results. This usually means 3-5 key goals for each person.
  4. Review frequently: Encourage team members to take a minute each day to review their goals.
  5. Check behaviour against goals: This daily review allows people to see if their current actions are moving them toward their objectives, enabling self-correction.

A key part of setting One Minute Goals is ensuring expectations are crystal clear. Don’t just state the goal; describe or show what success looks like. For example, instead of “Improve customer reports,” you might say, “A good customer report is one page, includes key metrics A, B, and C, is free of typos, and is submitted by 9 AM every Friday”. This removes ambiguity and empowers the individual to succeed.

2.2 The Second Secret: One Minute Praisings

To help people reach their full potential, managers should actively look for opportunities to praise them. The key is to “catch them doing something right”, especially when they are new to a role or task.

  1. Praise immediately: Give the praising as soon as you observe the positive behaviour. Don’t save it for a performance review.
  2. Be specific: Tell people exactly what they did right. Vague praise like “good job” is less effective than “I was really impressed with how you handled that difficult client call by calmly explaining the solution”.
  3. Share your feelings: Explain how their good work makes you feel and how it helps the team or the organisation.
  4. Pause: After giving the praise, pause for a moment to let the person feel good about what they’ve accomplished.
  5. Encourage more of the same: End by reaffirming your confidence in them and encouraging them to keep up the good work.

When someone is learning a new skill, it’s vital to praise progress, not just perfection. Catch them doing something approximately right. Just like you’d praise a toddler for taking a wobbly first step, praising incremental improvements builds the confidence needed to achieve mastery. This avoids the demotivating “leave-alone-zap” style of management.

2.3 The Third Secret: One Minute Re-Directs

When a mistake occurs and the goal was clear, a One Minute Re-Direct is used to correct the behaviour while reinforcing the person’s value. This is the updated, more collaborative version of the original book’s “reprimand.”

  1. Re-Direct as soon as possible: Address the mistake quickly after confirming the facts.
  2. Focus on the behaviour: Review the specific mistake together. Express how you feel about the mistake and its potential impact on results, focusing solely on the action.
  3. Pause for reflection: After addressing the behaviour, be quiet for a few seconds. This allows the person to process the feedback and feel concerned about their mistake.
  4. Reaffirm their value: This is the crucial second half. Remind them that they are better than their mistake and that you still value them as a person.
  5. Express your trust: Reinforce that you have confidence and trust in them and support their success.
  6. Move on: Once the Re-Direct is over, it’s over. Don’t hold a grudge.

The Re-Direct is effective because it separates the person’s behaviour from their inherent worth. You are tough on the behaviour, but supportive of the person. The message is: “Your performance in this instance was not acceptable, but you are a valuable member of the team.” This approach prevents defensiveness and encourages the person to take ownership of the mistake and learn from it.

2.4 Other key ideas

The entire system is built on a simple, powerful truth: People Who Feel Good About Themselves Produce Good Results. Investing a minute in setting clear goals, praising good work, and correcting mistakes respectfully is an investment in your people. This investment pays off through higher productivity, quality, and engagement.

Goals are the foundation for both Praisings and Re-Directs. You cannot praise someone for doing something right if you haven’t first defined what “right” is. Similarly, you cannot fairly correct a mistake if the person wasn’t clear on the goal in the first place. Goals begin behaviours, and consequences (Praisings or Re-Directs) influence future behaviours.

The Three Secrets are only effective when used with honesty and transparency. Let people know up front how you plan to manage them. The goal is not to manipulate people into doing what you want, but to empower them to manage themselves and succeed. When people understand why you are giving them specific, timely feedback, it becomes a tool for their own growth, not a method of control.

2.5 Key Phrases to use

  • “Let’s take a minute to review this goal and agree on what good performance looks like.”
  • “I just saw you [specific positive action]. I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate that because it helps us by [positive impact].”
  • “I need to talk to you about [the specific mistake]. When that happened, I felt…”
  • (After a pause) “…I’m telling you this because you are better than that mistake, and I have great confidence in you.”
  • “Could you take a minute to look at your goals and see if your current behaviour is matching them?”

3 Summary Video

4 Practise

The book emphasises that these skills need practice. Try role-playing a scenario with a colleague. One person plays the manager, the other a team member.

Scenario: A team member who is usually reliable has missed an important deadline for the second time this quarter. The goal was clearly set and understood.

Practice delivering a complete One Minute Re-Direct. Focus on:

  1. Addressing the specific mistake (the missed deadline).
  2. Expressing its impact without attacking the person.
  3. Pausing.
  4. Reaffirming the person’s value and your trust in them.

Switch roles so both people get to practise. Notice how it feels to both give and receive the feedback.

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