A book highly rated by the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Business Week, and a management book that has been at the top of the charts for over 30 years in a row, has been translated into more than 40 languages and has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. This book will teach you how to manage a business with practical applications in your own work.
The authors of this book are two individuals: The famous business manager Ken Blanchard, who has many years of experience in human resource management and business management, and has received countless awards. The other is the popular author Spencer Johnson, whose works are famous all over the world. You might know books with titles like "Who Moved My Cheese?" and "The Present," which are all his works.
This book is titled "The One Minute Manager" and it will show you the right management system for your organization. This is a management book that you must listen to if you are a manager in an organization. This "One Minute Manager" book has three main points as follows: One-minute goal setting One-minute praising And one-minute reprimands.
This management book does not tell us about principles or theories in management as you have learned in university. It is a book that talks about practical application in management. In fact, this book talks about only one thing: how to manage people under your authority well. And this question is what all managers want to know.
But it seems that no one has researched and compiled it into a document. About how to manage employees well. In the job market, there are two different types of managers. The first type of manager is a person who is strict, demanding, and focuses on results and company profits. To achieve high work results, this type of manager always assigns a lot of tasks and closely monitors work achievements. Employees who work with this type of manager often work a lot of overtime and have a high resignation rate.
But with this type of manager, the subordinates are not very satisfied, but the superiors are satisfied because they can generate a lot of profit for the company. As for another type of manager, it is a person who uses a lot of emotion towards employees or subordinates. In general, subordinates like to work with this type of manager very much because they are understanding and know about their difficulties. But if this type of manager is too lenient, they cannot create work results and generate profit for the company.
Therefore, they are often not well-liked by superiors or CEOs. So, what kind of person should we, as managers, be? How should we manage to make our subordinates respect and love us, and at the same time, make our superiors love and be satisfied with us? This book will answer these questions. The author spent a lot of time researching this strategy. And as a result, he compiled the "One Minute Manager" method. Before we get into understanding this strategy, let's define what management is. Most people misunderstand that management is commanding subordinates to do what one wants. But the author does not see it that way. He states that good management is not about telling others to do something as one has ordered.
But it is about guiding them so they can manage themselves. Understanding this meaning, let's talk in detail about the "One Minute Manager" method, which is divided into: one-minute goal setting, one-minute praising, and one-minute reprimands. First point, one-minute goal setting. You probably understand that a manager's daily job is to set goals. For example, asking Clara to write a marketing plan, or asking Sam to complete a financial report. This is goal setting. But often, the goals that are set do not achieve the planned results.
Because the message is not delivered correctly, or we can say that the boss doesn't know how to use their subordinates. Or sometimes, the subordinates barely understand what the boss said, but the boss himself thinks that the subordinates have received enough information. There is a joke about Jack Ma buying KFC fried chicken. One day, Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group, said to his assistant, "Please go buy some KFC fried chicken for me." Half an hour later, his assistant came back and said, "It's bought, boss. 460 million dollars." Actually, the story is like this. Jack Ma just wanted his assistant to go buy some fried chicken for the staff to eat together during a meeting. But his assistant went and bought the KFC China company instead.
This is because of unclear communication. The superior thinks the subordinate understands what they want to say, but the subordinate may not fully understand. And when we are superiors without knowledge in management, it can cause the hard work of our subordinates to not be the result we want. This is because the superior and the subordinate have different definitions of the set goals. Setting goals seems easy, but it is easy to have problems if communication is not good. Speaking of the joke just now, if you were Jack Ma, how should you have told the goal to your assistant?
The author in this book states that goal setting is not an order that should come from the superior. It should be a discussion between the superior and the subordinate who set the goals together. Regarding the story of buying KFC fried chicken, he should have asked his assistant first, "I want to buy KFC fried chicken, do you have any suggestions?" Then, he should have provided more details, purpose, and timeline for achieving the goal before starting the task. For example, is this KFC fried chicken for Jack Ma to eat alone or for all the staff to eat? Should we eat it now or wait a bit longer? Besides buying fried chicken, do we need to buy coffee? What kind of coffee? What percentage of sugar? We need to provide all the details to the subordinates to avoid back-and-forth questions that waste time. And finally, we must set a deadline for achieving the goal.
This fried chicken must be delivered to the workplace within 30 minutes at the latest. See? This is what is called real goal setting, not just shouting at subordinates and being done with it. You need to add details, clarify the purpose, and set a clear timeline. Of course, these are just examples. In managing an organization or a company, it is much more complicated than buying fried chicken. The author wrote that: For important and complex goals like this, write each goal on a piece of paper and add these three elements: details, purpose, and a clear timeline.
But not too long, just one minute, so it's understandable and sufficient. This is called one-minute goal setting. What if there are many goals, hundreds of goals? Shouldn't we write them on hundreds of sheets of paper? Not necessary. At this point, you should use the 80/20 principle. The 80/20 goal principle means that 80% of success comes from only 20% of the goals. In fact, not all goals are equally important. Don't think that everything is important. You need to prioritize them and set goal priorities. You will see that the most important things are only 20%. So your job is to find the 20% of goals that are most important. So, one-minute goal setting at this point is to show that the manager writes down the goal, details, purpose, and a clear timeline for achieving the goal on paper, and can let themselves and their subordinates see and understand it all in just one minute.
Any kind of goal can be done this way to ensure that both superiors and subordinates clearly understand what everyone wants. This point is very important. Most of the work is done repeatedly but not yet completed, and sometimes it requires employees to work overtime to complete those tasks. When we haven't set clear work goals, it will waste time. Some tasks take two hours, but they are dragged out for two or three days because the superior does not provide comprehensive information, and the subordinate receives unclear information, which leads to endless problems. Therefore, as leaders, we must know how to use this one-minute goal-setting strategy to reduce unnecessary matters and not to waste too much time.
And as managers, we must know how to delegate those goals to our subordinates to practice so that employees learn to manage themselves. When we have written the goals clearly on paper, the employees will know exactly what they have to do, how to do it, and when to do it. In the past, you would just tell the employee the goal you wanted, and when they encountered a problem, they would come and ask you, the manager. But now, you have already discussed the goal, purpose, timeline, and evaluation standards, and other details. When they perform the task, they will evaluate their own work according to the standards we have set. Even when we are not around, they can still work independently, without having to ask us back and forth. Because they know how to manage themselves. See? A good manager knows how to make their employees manage themselves.
Now we will have enough time to think about strategies and action plans. In summary, the first lesson that managers need to learn is to know how to set one-minute goals to ensure work efficiency and have a comprehensive evaluation system. When the author has set the goals, the next step is for the employees to start implementing the work. When employees implement the work, the results can be of two kinds: success or complete failure. To respond to these results, what should a manager do? Now we must move on to the second point, which is one-minute praise when they succeed, and the third point, one-minute reprimand when they fail.
Let's talk about the one-minute praise technique. When should it be done, and how should it be praised, to be correct according to the procedure? Speaking of praising, most managers are not quick to praise their subordinates. Because they think that praising employees can make them complacent. And another thing is that the manager themselves is not a person who is good at using words of praise. In fact, employees need to grow, and always praising them can be a motivating force in performing their work, and it also shows recognition within the organization for their work performance, and it is also a model for other employees. The growth in personality and work ability of an employee is like a growing child. Imagine when a mother and a small child are walking in a playground, the child is learning to walk and suddenly falls.
The mother then slaps her own child two or three times and adds, "So stupid, you walk without looking." If it were you, you would probably think this mother is crazy. The child is just a baby, instead of encouraging the child to try to walk, she slaps the child and scolds them. But often in some organizations, it's the same. A new employee is expected to do a perfect job from the start, how is that possible? And sometimes when they don't do well, they get scolded and their salary is cut. What if you see a scene like this? When the child stumbles and falls, and gets up again, falls and gets up again, the mother sometimes helps to lift them up, sometimes encourages them by saying, "My child can walk, my child is trying hard." Even if the walking is not good, the child has the motivation to continue moving forward. In the end, they will learn to walk by themselves.
What about in our organization? If we manage our employees this way, what will happen? Maybe at first, the work is not done perfectly, but they are also growing. You have to encourage them, help guide them, help correct them, and most importantly, when an employee successfully completes a task, don't forget to express positive feelings, tell them they did a good job, and that their work has contributed greatly to the organization and the team. You might think, how is that possible? The work assigned by the superior is the work that has to be done. If you praise a little, praise a little, some employees will surely get complacent. And praising too many times can make it lose its value. Thinking like this is not entirely wrong, but this happens not because of the praise, but because of the wrong way of praising. Praising also has its techniques.
We call this way of praising "one-minute praise." So how to praise correctly? And how many stages is the praise divided into? The author revealed some techniques in praising and divided them into three stages: The first half-minute. The next few seconds. And the last half-second. The first half-minute is to praise in a timely manner, don't wait too long. When he does something right, you must praise him immediately. And you must praise the right thing he did well, what point did he do right. You have to express your feelings to him, let him know how happy you are when he does a good job like this, and how his work results can help the company and his colleagues. For example, the story of the boss assigning Clara to write a marketing plan above.
When she does well, you don't just praise her by saying she did well, you have to praise her like this: Clara, you did a great job on this marketing plan. Not only are the data detailed, but you also spent time researching reference documents very well. I am really pleased with this work. Clara's dedication really makes me proud. For an employee like this. Not only that, Clara's plan is really helpful for the company's marketing strategy. I hope we can capture a large market share in the near future. Our team is also happy, and the superiors also highly value Clara's work.
This time, you did a really great job. I am sure that if you were Clara, you would be very happy and would continue to work even harder next time. But as a manager, it's not just about one word of praise and you're done. The second stage, the technique of praising is to be silent for a few seconds. That is, you should not say anything at all. Why do this? It is to let him receive the feeling of us praising him. You are silent for two or three seconds because in a moment you will move on to the third part of the praise, which is to strike while the iron is hot. It is to give him confidence so that he can work even better in the future.
You should continue to say: We all know about Clara's ability in making this marketing plan. But we don't stop here, we will do even better. Based on Clara's experience, we will surely do it. I am confident that Clara can do it. If you were Clara, listening to this point, you would surely feel excited and happy about the trust from your superior in your ability. And you would definitely try to work even harder. The above is a 360-degree praise that makes Clara feel good and very proud of her work achievements. First, you praise what she did well, then you express your feelings about having an employee who works so well, and you also point out the qualities she has contributed to the company and her colleagues. Give her a few seconds to absorb this good feeling, and finally, strike while the iron is hot. Encourage her to do even better, give recognition and encouragement, and trust in her. I am sure that such a comprehensive praise will surely be unforgettable for Clara. This story is no different from the example we mentioned above when a child is just learning to walk, and we praise him for doing well, encourage him to work hard, and then he will do better and better on his own. On the contrary, sometimes some employees don't do well. That is, they don't complete the work assigned by the superior. In such circumstances, what method should be used? At this time, a technique called one-minute reprimand should be used. When an employee does not do well or sometimes even makes a mistake, as a manager, we may need to correct him or sometimes we are required to criticize him in a constructive way.
But at this point, if you don't do it correctly, you may lose the employee, make the employee discouraged, or sometimes even resign due to his own mistake or because we as managers criticize incorrectly or without rules. Most managers make these two mistakes. First, they are afraid to criticize. They beat around the bush, the criticism is not to the point, they only talk about the problem, it's not clear, they don't know where the employee went wrong. Then the employee will certainly not know his mistake and he will not know how to correct it. And sometimes, the manager does not criticize or correct in a timely manner.
Sometimes he holds it in for a long time, does not tell the employee in time, but when it's time to talk, he brings up the employee's mistakes from three or four months ago, saying he did this wrong, he did that not comprehensively, and so on. This kind of criticism is not correct, and as time goes by, if you correct it then, it's too late, it makes the employee feel bad. The second mistake is not knowing how to criticize. I am sure that most leaders do not know how to criticize their employees because they have not learned the technique of criticism.
For example, the story of Clara writing the marketing plan above, which was not good. You would probably say: A marketing plan like this took months and it's still not good. Even a recent university graduate could do better than you. Hurry up and go fix it. Clara would probably not respond, but would just take the marketing plan and rewrite it, without knowing where she went wrong and how to fix it. In fact, criticizing people and praising people are the same, they both have their techniques. The one-minute reprimand is also divided into three stages. The first half-minute is called criticizing the issue, not the person. The manager must point out clearly where the employee made the mistake. And use that mistake to discuss what you can do to help.
Let him know where the mistake is, then let him know your feelings when he made the mistake, and the bad consequences that resulted from his mistake. For example, regarding the story of Clara not doing the marketing plan well again. You should criticize like this: Clara, this marketing plan is really not comprehensive, and the data is also very biased. It makes me have no confidence in presenting it to the superiors. Because of Clara's inaccurate data and data without clear sources, it can cause the company to lose money and make the wrong strategic decisions, which can also waste our team's time. See? These words not only tell Clara that she did not do well, but also clearly point out where the problem is and how big the consequences she brought to the team and the company are.
Then you pause for two or three seconds to let her absorb this feeling and reflect on her own mistakes. Then you take a deep breath and move on to the third stage of criticism. That is, talk about the person, stop talking about the issue. Now you have to let her know that she made a mistake, but everyone makes mistakes.
The important thing is whether you know how to correct it or not. In fact, you still believe in her ability, believe that she can do better than this, and hope that she will correct her mistake so that it won't happen a second time. You can say to her: Clara, actually, in the past, you have always worked very diligently. I see your efforts, and this mistake can also be corrected. I hope Clara will learn from this mistake and correct it to be better. I still believe in Clara's ability and hope that Clara will come back and create a great marketing plan for everyone.
This is a good criticism that a manager should learn and follow. Not only does it point out the problem and the specific mistake, but it also encourages him to correct the mistake and motivates him to do even better in the future. But at this point, there is an important thing that you need to pay attention to, which is to separate the person from the thing he did. His mistake is the issue, but he is a capable person. We should not use the mistake he made to deny or evaluate the ability of any individual. We must give him a second chance to make corrections.
In summary, the above are the three main points we have learned from the book "The One Minute Manager." To become a capable leader, you need to know three techniques: one-minute goal setting, one-minute praising, and one-minute reprimands. One-minute goal setting is to know how to use a piece of paper to write down the goal, purpose, details, and a clear timeline for achieving the goal, and to create a work monitoring system and measurement standards so that he can manage his own work.
When employees perform their work, there must be a system of motivation and a system of correction. Praise when he succeeds in his work, and let him know clearly what he did well and how to motivate him so that he can perform his work even better. And when he does not perform his work well, he must be criticized professionally. Tell him about the mistakes he made, your feelings when he made the mistakes, and the consequences of his mistakes. Another thing is to separate the issue from the person. His mistake is his wrong action, but the person himself has the opportunity to perform his work, build his reputation, and clear his mistakes.