The One Minute Manager talks about how to be an effective manager… in only one minute. It’s actually about how to empower your people to begin to manage themselves, requiring minimal input from you.

According to the authors, there are three keys to being an effective “One Minute Manager.”

1. One Minute Goals – Have employees define the most important aspects of their job through simple, clearly articulated goals. These should be short and to the point, no more than 250 words, and should be reviewed regularly. Don’t try to codify every part of a job in this way, just the most important 20% or so. That’s where 80% of the work will get done anyway. This way, employees will know what is expected of them and how to achieve success.

2. One Minute Praises – When employees succeed, give them praise immediately. Tell them what they did right and how it makes you feel. This will encourage good performance.

3. One Minute Reprimands – When employees fall short, correct them immediately. Tell them exactly what they did wrong and why it upsets you. Then make it clear that you don’t think they are failures, that it is only this task that was not performed up to par, and that you appreciate them and their work. This will discourage bad performance but still ensure an employee knows that he or she is valued. It also avoids leaving an employee feeling dumped on by an end of the year review in which everything he or she has done wrong for the past 12 months is recounted.

While, as the authors admit, effective management is not quite so simple, these do serve as helpful guidelines. Ensure your people understand the definition of success. Pay attention so that you catch them doing things right, and offer gentle but firm correction when they do it wrong.

I don’t have a ton of managerial experience, but it seems to me that the difficult part here is effectively and gently correcting mistakes. It’s certainly something I’m still figuring out how to do, especially in the context of working with a volunteer team.

All-in-all, I give The One Minute Manager a 7 out of 10 and encourage you to check it out.

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1. Book Recommendations for Young Leaders