When I read I usually take some reading notes (in Evernote) to help me retain the main points and some learnings. I thought it might be a good idea to start publishing these in an occasional series, in case they may be helpful to anyone. They are unedited; just notes that I take while reading about what struck me. There won’t be any commentary, just lots of bullet pointed ideas. Let me know if they are useful, interesting, or both.
The One Minute Manger by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
“The best minute I spend is the one I invest in people” (63)
“People who feel good about themselves produce good results” (19)
One Minute Goals
1. Agree on your goals.
2. See what good behavior looks like.
3. Write out each of your goals on a single sheet of paper using less than 250 words.
4. Read and re-read each goal, which requires only a minute or so each time you do it
5. Take a minute every once in a while out of your day to look at your performance, and
6. See whether or not your behavior matches your goal.
One Minute Praisings
1. Tell people up front that you are going to let them know how they are doing.
2. Praise people immediately.
3. Tell people what they did right – be specific.
4. Tell people how good you feel about what they did right, and how it helps the organization and the other people who work there.
5. Stop for a moment of silence to let them “feel” how good you feel.
6. Encourage them to do more of the same.
7. Shake hands or touch people in a way that makes it clear that you support their success in the organization.
At first, praise things that are approximately right, and help people move towards desired behaviour.
If, instead, we leave people alone and then punish them when they don’t do exactly the right thing, then they start to do as little as possible.
One Minute Reprimands
1. Tell people beforehand that you are going to let them know how they are doing and in no uncertain terms.
the first half of the reprimand:
2. Reprimand them immediately. [reprimand the behavior only, not the person or their worth]
3. Tell people what they did wrong – be specific.
4. Tell people how you feel about what they did wrong – and in no uncertain terms.
5. Stop for a few seconds of uncomfortable silence to let them feel how you feel.
the second half of the reprimand:
6. Shake hands, or touch them in a way that lets them know you are honestly on their side.
7. Remind them how much you value them.
8. Reaffirm that you think well of them but not of their performance in this situation.
9. Realize that when the reprimand is over, it’s over.
Never save up negative feedback, always give it immediately and in very small doses.
Definitely don’t have surprises at performance management time.
“When you ____, I feel ___.” Then reaffirm their worth.
“We are not just our behaviour, we are the person managing our behaviour.” (93)
why does it work?
“the number one motivator of people is feedback on results” (67)
“feedback is the breakfast of champions” (67)
there would be no point playing golf in the dark; people need to know how successful they are being
“most companies spend 50-70% of their money on people’s salaries. And yet they spend less than 1% of their budget to train their people” (64)
