I wish I know the silver bullet answer for that question. I don’t dare to say I’ve seen a lot of managers, but from what I can see and from the people I’m dealing with, I can see how they manage their people. You might have seen more than me. You can share what your thought on this. But from what I can see, it seems becoming a good manager is hard. There suppose to be balance on how you treat your employee.

Usually when you’re not in managerial role, you can think of something that will make it better when you are in their position. Beside, how hard is it to be a manager, right? I can say it’s not hard to be a manager. Given opportunity and experience, you can be a manager. It’s more like a title compare to anything else. But to be a good manager, that’s different story.

For you who is pursuing managerial role, don’t be afraid to take the challenge. At the end, you need to start somewhere. And this might be a good starting point. But what should you do when you actually become one? I read a book called “one minute manager”. It might be a simplified version of what good manager does. After reading the book, I feel that if you are not sure where to start, this book might be a good start.

To be a good manager, according to Blanchard and Johnson, you just need one minute each for these 3 activities:
1. One minute of goal
The idea is on writing the goal. It should be short and concise. You just need a minute to review your goal. The harder part is to set a clear goal for people to follow and to grow.

2. One minute of praising
Most of the time, manager look at their subordinate as a resources. They need to make sure everything is done on time. So anything that hinder that is an obstacle that need to be highlighted. This exercise is good because it’s encourage your subordinate to do better. They can see what goes well and really know what they need to do to excell in their role. If you will get more on the things that you focus on, what kind of things do you want more? Wrong things or right things?

3. One minute of redirect/reprimand
Being a good manager, not only you need to be soft and encouraging, but you also need to be tough. That’s where this one minute comes in. I’m sure that eventhough you have encourage your subordinate, you still see something wrong. This is when you need to redirect your employee. The point of this, is to build people up and not tearing them.

Another lesson pop up or become the highlight of this book is about the order of tough and nice. You have to follow that order. Not the other way around. Why? I’ll let you read from the book.

For closing, I feel that this book is too simplified for seasoned leader. But for new leader or someone who want to learn leadership. This book can give some basic idea of what to do. There are still many things to learn, but if you want to start, this book might be a good start.

Tell me about your experience. What do you learn from this book? If you are a leader, what things relevant to your situation?

“Do to others as you would like them to do to you.” Luke 6:31

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. —Jack Welch