The Way of Being One Minute Manager

In 2021 when I got an offer to manage the cloud infrastructure team which is critical for our organization, I was really excited and also worried about shaping my career in a different way such as being less technical. It was a really hard decision but also a new challenge that force me to accept. Finally, as Barney Stinson says “ Challenge Accepted” and the journey has started for me.

I attended so many personal training programs focused on studying leadership and management. Furthermore, I have worked with many successful managers throughout my career by who I have been inspired. However, uncertainty and taking out of my comfort area forced me to think about the bad scenarios instead of good ones. Before the new organization announcement, I read many books to figure out how will be the first 90 days of being a manager to clarify uncertainty. I created checklists and analyzed my teammates’ with their ways of doing daily work. But it was the indisputable truth that “In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different”

In this post, I want to summarize one of the books that really affect my career and approaches.

One Minute Manager aims to illustrate a young man like me who is studying leadership and management. The book illustrates a young man that has interviewed many managers but never being inspired until he meets “One Minute Manager”. The One Minute Manager offers three simple approaches that take little time when compares to others. The approaches are simple but highly effective to get people to stay motivated, and goal-oriented.

First, the approach explained book is one-minute-goal. The basic idea behind that approach was %20 of your goals directly affect %80 of your results. Setting goals as a team is a process that needs collaboration and communication. Assigning the goals to teammates would be another complicated task that needs to assess each teammate’s skill and experience. The common mistake that every manager does is assigning multi-goal for one employee without evaluating their priority. “One Minute Manager” advises us just select and assign three or six goals through their priority. Explain to employees your expected results and give your message that they are completely responsible for the results.

Second, the basic approach will be as you guess one-minute-praising. If someone does his job and gets magic results don’t be afraid to praise him. If one employee is responsible for expected results, why shouldn’t he receive something in return? So praise your teammates when they achieve their goals. It’s an inevitable manner of feedback.

Take a minute! Look at your goals! Look at your performance! See if your behavior matches your goals.

Last but not least important one is one-minute-reprimand. Avoid overreacting when someone didn’t accomplish his goals. Everyone is a potential winner. Some people are disguised as losers. Don’t let their appearances fool you. Give him good and on-time feedback to correct himself. Be fair about what you expected and what he did and how it has affected the total goal. Don’t make him feel like you don’t value him and the results even if all results are bad.

Help people to reach their full potential. Catch them doing something right”

We are not just our behavior. We are the person managing our behavior”

The One Minute Manager approach is intended to remind each of us to look into the faces of the people we manage and to become aware of the power of feedback. And to realize that they are our most important resources behind failure and success.