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Summary

THE NEW ONE-MINUTE MANAGER

PEOPLE WHO FEEL GOOD ABOUT THEMSELVES – PRODUCE GOOD RESULTS

ONE-MINUTE GOALS

ONE-MINUTE GOALS – WORK WELL WHEN YOU:

Plan the goals together and describe them briefly and clearly. Show people what “good” performance looks like.

Have people write out each of their goals, with due dates, on a single page.

Ask them to review their most important goals each day, which takes only a few minutes to do.

Encourage people to take a minute to look at what they’re doing, and see if their behavior matches their goals.

If it doesn’t encourage them to re-think what they’re doing so they can realize their goals sooner.

STEPS for ONE-MINUTE GOALS:

Recognize and embrace that one of your goals is to identify and solve your own problems.

Describe:

Tell me what people are doing, or not doing, that’s causing the problem.

Describe:

Tell me what you would like to be happening.

If you cannot identify what you’d like to be happening, you don’t have a problem yet, you’re just complaining.

Note: a problem only exists if there is a difference between what is actually happening and what you desire to be happening.

Describe:

Talk about what may have caused the discrepancy between the actual and the desired.

Describe:

What are you going to do about it?

Solution A: would what you want to happen, actually happen? If not, bad solution.

Solution B: would what you want to happen, actually happen? If not, bad solution.

Keep going with solutions: Continue to combine, remove, adjust, etc. the solutions until you will get the desired result.

IMAGINE: What does this do for the New One-Minute Manager?

Managers have more time to think and plan, and to give their organization the kind of help it really needs.

Managers have more time to spend with their families and pursue other interests.

Managers have more time to relax.

The Organization:

Had fewer costly personnel problems, less illness, and less absenteeism.

The manager should also admit to his team when becoming a New One-Minute Manager:

I’m not used to telling people how good they are or how I feel. And I’m not sure that I can always remember to tell you that I value and think well of you when I give a Re-Direct.

By simply asking people if they wanted to be managed by such a manager, and admitting that you may not always be ablet o to do it right, you’ll accomplish something important:

People knew up front that you were honestly on their side from the start, and that makes all the difference!

ONE-MINUTE PRAISINGS

HELP PEOPLE REACH THEIR FULL POTENTIAL. CATCH THEM DOING SOMETHING RIGHT.

ONE-MINUTE PRAISINGS – WORK WELL WHEN YOU:

The First Half-Minute

Praise people as soon as possible.

Let people know what they did right – be specific.

Tell people how good you feel about what they did right, and how it helps.

Pause for a moment to allow people time to feel good about what they’ve done.

The Second Half-Minute

Encourage them to do more of the same.

Make it clear you have confidence in them and support their success.

STEPS for ONE-MINUTE PRAISINGS

After Manager and Employee set the One-Minute Goals – Manager stays in close contact:

Manager observes activities.

Manager requires Employee to send reports of progress.

Manager intends to catch the Employee doing something right! Gives a One-Minute Praising:

First: Praise soon after the Employee’s done something right. (Immediately (as soon as possible))

Second: Manager specifies exactly what the Employee did right.

Third: Manager is Consistent.

Manager praises when Employee does a job well – and praise is deserved by the Employee (regardless of what else is happening anywhere else!).

Most Praising occurs when a new person is hired and when a new project or responsibility is started.

After the Employee gets to know the ropes, the Employee knows the Manager has confidence in the Employee based on past Praisings!

In time, the EE begins to catch him/herself doing things right. The EE starts praising him/herself. The Manager will occasionally praise the EE, which keeps the cycle going!

Note: The Employee recognizes: “I know when I get a Praising, I’ve earned it.” Because the confidence that is earned helps you deal with all the changes that are occurring. We’re expected to be confident enough to innovate in order to stay ahead.

Remember: Recognize and embrace that one of your goals is to identify and solve your own problems.

This connects One-Minute Goals to Praisings, which brings out the best in people.

Managers, consider:

How can you argue with the effectiveness of catching people doing something right? Isn’t that what everyone would like to experience?

ONE-MINUTE RE-DIRECTS

THE BEST MINUTE I SPEND IS THE ONE I INVEST IN PEOPLE.

IF THE GOAL IS CLEAR, A ONE-MINUTE RE-DIRECT WORKS WELL WHEN YOU:

The First Half-Minute

Re-Direct people as soon as possible.

Confirm the facts first, and review the mistake together – be specific.

Express how you feel about the mistake and its impact on results.

Pause - Be quiet for a moment to allow people time to feel concerned about what they’ve done.

The Second Half-Minute

Remember to let them know that they’re better than their mistake and that you think well of them as a person.

Remind them that you have confidence and trust in them, and support their successes.

Realize that when the Re-Direct is over, it’s over.

STEPS for the ONE-MINUTE RE-DIRECT

Managers must realize that Praising people doesn’t always work if it isn’t combined with the Re-Directs to correct mistakes when they occur.

A Re-Direct can help an Employee get back on track and achieve their goals.

When an Employee makes a mistake, the Manager must respond quickly.

First, the Manager makes sure he’s made the goal we’ve set clear. If it isn’t, he takes responsibility for that and clarifies the goal.

Then the Manager provides the Employee with a One-Minute Re-Direct in two parts:

In the first half, he focuses on the mistake.

In the second half, he focuses on the Employee.

This is done as soon as the Manager becomes aware of the mistake.

The Manager confirms the facts with the Employee and the Manager and Employee review what’s gone wrong. We’re both very specific.

The Manager then tells the Employee how he feels about the mistake and its possible impact on the results, sometimes in no uncertain terms.

After the Manager expresses his feelings, the Manager is quiet for a few seconds to let them sink in.

Note: This quiet pause is surprisingly important – it provides a quiet moment for the Employee to feel concerned about his/her mistake and think about the impact it might have on him/her and the organization.

The Manager then reminds the Employee that he/she is better than their mistake and that he has confidence and trust in the Employee.

The Manager says he doesn’t expect a repeat of that mistake and looks forward to working with the Employee.

RECAP

Manager specifies exactly what went wrong so Employee knows that the Manager is on top of things and that the Manager doesn’t want the Employee or their team to be known for poor or mediocre work.

Since the Manager ends the Re-Direct by reaffirming that the Manager values the Employee and the team, it’s easier for the Employee not to react negatively and become defensive.

The Employee doesn’t try to rationalize away his/her mistakes by putting blame on someone else.

Note: It helps to know that the Manager will take responsibility if a goal isn’t clear to everyone. Because of that, Employees know the Manager is being fair.

When the Re-Direct is over, it’s over. The Employee will remember it, and since it ends in a supportive way, the Employee will want to get back on track.

Managers – encourage your Employees to speak up if they notice you may be mistaken about something. It helps you prevent an error you might make in the future.

Managers, consider:

Our Goal is to Build Confidence in People to Help Us Get Better Results.

Laugh at ourselves when we make a mistake so we can get over it by doing better work!

We Are Not Just Our Behavior. We Are the Person Managing Our Behavior.

Goals Begin Behaviors. Consequences Influence Future Behaviors.

Everyone is a Potential Winner. Some People are Disguised as Losers. Don’t let Their Appearances Fool You.

Summary: Managers – Consider:

The number one motivator of people is feedback on results. They want to know how they’re doing. Managers assume wrongly that the people on their team know what to aim for.

Observe new people a lot in the beginning, or when your more experienced people are starting a new project.

Most managers wait until 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.

New, inexperienced people: they are welcomed aboard, taken around to meet everyone, and then left alone. Not only do these new people not get praised for doing something approximately right, but they are also zapped when they do something wrong. This causes disengagement; they become disinterested; and they are uncaring about personal and organizational results.

Rather than punish inexperienced people who are still learning, we need to re-direct them. That involves resetting clear One-Minute Goals to make sure they understand what’s expected of them and what good performance looks like.

When feedback is saved for a “once-and-done” appointment, managers (typically) store up observations of poor behavior until frustration builds. They tell people Every. Single. Thing. they’ve done wrong for the last several weeks or months – or more!

Employees disagree; simply keep quiet; become resentful; or become defensive. If managers would address things earlier, Employees could deal with one behavior at a time and the person would not be overwhelmed; they’d be more likely to hear feedback the way it was intended. You want to get rid of the bad behavior but keep the good person!

Keep things Simple. Set One-Minute Goals. Give One-Minute Praisings. Provide One-Minute Re-Directs. Ask brief, important questions; speak the simple truth; laugh, work, and enjoy.

Summary: Managers – Remember:

Ensure to set One-Minute Goals.

(Employees) Take a minute to look at your goals. Then look at what you’re doing and see if it matches your goals. (daily reminder)

Praising must be Merited and Sincere.

Re-Direct: Tell people what they did wrong; tell them how you feel about it; and remind them they are better than that. (Their performance is bad, but they are good.)

Re-Direct works because the feedback happens in small doses, the error is caught early on, and the Employee has time to learn and correct course.

Re-Direct: You want to separate the Employee’s behavior from their worth. Reaffirming them after you’ve addressed the mistake focuses on their behavior without attacking them personally.

Re-Direct: You want the person aware of and concerned about what they did, instead of turning to a coworking and talking about how they were mistreated or what they think of your leadership style. Otherwise, the person takes no responsibility for the mistake and the manager becomes the villain.

Respect the individual – when you’re setting goals, praising, and re-directing. Always.

Your job is to show people how to manage themselves and enjoy it. You want them to succeed when you’re not around.

Sometimes, you have to care enough to be tough – that is, tough on the poor performance but not on the person.

Making mistakes is not the problem. It’s not learning from them that causes real problems.

Design an environment, through the New One-Minute Manager, where Employees work for themselves. Deep down, people like to work for themselves.

Examples

Bowling Anyone? RE: One-Minute Goals

When someone gets a strike, they cheer. Why? Because they can see the pins – and see that they knocked them all down!

Why don’t people at work have the same level of excitement?

Because they don’t know where the pins are… they don’t know what they’re aiming at.

When many managers assume that people know what’s expected of them, they create an ineffective form of bowling. Managers set the pins up, but when the bowler goes to roll the ball, he notices there is a sheet across the pins. So, when he rolls the ball and it slips under the sheet, he hears a crack but doesn’t know how many pins he knocked down. When you ask him how he did, he’ll say “I don’t know, but it felt good.”

A third form of bowling all too common:

When the bowler goes to the line to roll the ball, the pins are still up and the sheet is in place but now there is another ingredient in the game – a supervisor standing behind the sheet. When the bowler rolls the ball, he hears the crash of falling pins, and the supervisor holds up two fingers to signify he knocked down two pins. Do most managers actually say “You got two?” NO – they’ll say you missed eight!

So why doesn’t the manager lift the sheet so both of you can see the pins?

Learning to Walk. RE: One-Minute Praisings

Can you imagine standing a child up and saying “Walk” and when she falls you pick her up and spank her and say “I told you to walk?” Of course not… when she stands a bit, albeit wobbly, we praise her! And we continue to praise her until she’s walking.

The key, in the beginning, is to catch somebody doing something approximately right until they can eventually learn to do it right! By setting up a series of goals, they are establishing targets that can be more easily achieved. People who are learning benefit from praise and encouragement from others.

Playing Ball. RE: One-Minute Re-Direct

The best player on a basketball team was playing so poorly in an important game that unless he quickly improved his game, the team would likely lose. The coach took this player out of the game and had him sit on the bench. Unless the player played his A game, the team wasn’t going to win and would miss competing in the championship.

So as the player sat on the bench, the coach told him exactly what he was doing wrong. ‘You’re missing easy shots, you’re not grabbing nay re-bounds, and you’re loafing on defense. I’m angry with you because you don’t look like you’re even trying.” He waited a moment and added, “You’re better than that. You need to sit on the bench until you’re ready to play the way you’re capable of.” After what seemed like forever, the player stood up, went over to the coach, and said “I’m ready to go in, Coach.” The coach responded: “Then get back in there and show me what you can do.” When the player got back in, he was all over the court, diving for loose balls, grabbing rebounds, and making his usual shots. Thanks to his effort, the rest of the team also improved their play and they won the game.

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Summary

THE NEW ONE-MINUTE MANAGER

ONE-MINUTE GOALS

ONE-MINUTE GOALS – WORK WELL WHEN YOU:

STEPS for ONE-MINUTE GOALS:

IMAGINE: What does this do for the New One-Minute Manager?

ONE-MINUTE PRAISINGS

ONE-MINUTE PRAISINGS – WORK WELL WHEN YOU:

STEPS for ONE-MINUTE PRAISINGS

ONE-MINUTE RE-DIRECTS