Back in 1981, Ken Blanchard wrote his #1 bestselling book, “The One Minute Manager”.  The book demonstrates some very practical and proactive ways to manage your people, all centered on the thought process of quick and focused interactions with your employees.  The end goal was an empowered team that was led by a proactive and focused manager.  Some thirty years later, it seems that our business culture has morphed many of our leaders into the “Got a Minute Manager”.  The “Got a Minute Manager” is characterized as being easily accessible, constantly operating in interruption mode, and micromanaging the team to the point that the entire organization operates with a short term, tactical focus.  The end result is a team and organization that is working harder, not smarter, and employees asking the question, “Whatever happened to great leadership?”  If you find yourself living in the world as the “Got a Minute Manager”, here are some steps to get you back to the “One Minute Manager” mentality:

 Take Back Your Time by Implementing Strong Boundaries

The key to ending your days as the “Got a Minute Manager” is to build some strong boundaries around your time.  The best way to accomplish this is to tell your staff that they are no longer free to interrupt or approach you whenever they feel like it.  Ken Blanchard suggested in “The One Minute Manager” to set up 15 or 30 minute touch bases once a week with your employees.  Instruct your employees to bring their questions and issues to their weekly touch bases.  If there is an emergency and they absolutely have to talk to you, set up two or three 10-minute times during the day where you have an “open door” to address those specific issues.  Taking this step will free up your time so that you aren’t in constant reactionary mode, and will allow you to have time to actually lead, instead of react.  Additionally, it will empower your employees to find their own solutions to problems, instead of constantly relying on your direction.

End Wasteful Meetings – Once and for All

“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.’” – Dave Barry

As the quote above suggests, most meetings are a complete waste of time.  If you find yourself spending an inordinate amount of time in wasteful meetings, here are a couple of key things you can do to end this problem: 

• Have a written meeting agenda for every meeting you hold, and demand the same from others
• End your meetings with specific assigned actions items and due dates
• Make sure your meetings have a time limit, and stick to it

Following these three simple keys will eliminate 80% of your wasteful meetings, and open up huge blocks of time to focus on the two key areas every great leader focuses on, which is leading and developing.

Lead and Develop Yourself and Your Team

Great leaders do two things well – they lead their teams, and they develop the capacity of their people.  One of the main reasons that we have so many “Got a Minute Managers” these days is simply because managers don’t understand how to lead, and the power of developing the talents of their team.  So, it becomes easier to completely avoid these things by being ‘busy’ reacting to things all the time.  By installing some boundaries and managing your time, you can open up the time to lead and develop.

Great leaders take the time to understand the needs of their employees, and work with them to develop their talents so they can move up within the company, as well as increase their capacity to contribute to the team.  Now that you have extra time for this, set up a time to talk to each of your employees to have a discussion about where they want to go with their careers, and how you can help them.  Put together a formal development program, where you are meeting on a regular basis to develop your staff and provide them the tools and training to do so.  Additionally, be a role model by doing the same for yourself.

If you follow the 3 keys above, you’ll quickly make the shift from the “Got a Minute Manager” to the “One Minute Manager”.  The end result will be a team that works smarter, not harder, and an environment of development, growth, and superior results.  Now, go be a great leader!

As a life and executive coach I do a lot of work with people around their goals. Setting goals puts you in the driver’s seat, giving you the power to transform your life or take a company to another level. Successfully setting and executing goals is not rocket science but there is a tried and true way that works for my clients and me. Sticking to this program guarantees success. It doesn’t matter whether your goals are personal or they are used to direct a large enterprise, the steps and the pitfalls are identical. I’ll take you through a quick tour. If you like, you can identify a goal of yours and do a test run of the system.

The steps to executing goals are simple, unambiguous and easy to follow and should be practiced every day. Skipping one step increases the odds that you won’t realize your goal.

The first step to goal setting is to have absolute belief and faith in the process. If you don’t believe you can absolutely transform your life and get what you want, then you might as well put down your pencil and do something else. If you are in doubt, look around you. Everything you can see began as a thought. If you identify something you really want, you can make it happen if want it badly enough.

Visualize what you want. Think of what you deeply desire in your life or where you want your company to be a year from now. What has to change for that to happen? What transformations need to take place? What do you need to know or learn? What spiritual, emotional, personal, financial, social or physical properties need to be addressed? The clearer you can get with each of these dimensions, brings your vision into sharp focus. The clearer you are about what you want, the easier it will be to focus on making it happen. Write down as many things as you can think about. Not being absolutely clear about your vision will make taking action very difficult.

Get it down! Writing down your goals is key to success. A 1953 Yale study followed 100 students to see how they ended up. Only 3% had written goals. Ten years later, this 3% was happier, more satisfied and had reached the goals they had set out to achieve. More importantly, the net worth of that 3% was greater than the rest of the 97% combined. By writing down your goals, you become a creator. Failure to write down your goals often means you will forget them or won’t focus on them, most likely like that other 97%.

If you have multiple goals, you may need to chunk elements of your vision into individual goals. Having a list of twenty or thirty objectives can be hard to keep track of and even more difficult to focus on. Chunking involves grouping “like” items together. For instance let’s say you have goals around taking your business to the next level. You might chunk your goals into financial, marketing, organizational and so on. It’s easier to focus on a few goals than a list of 20-odd items. Failure to chunk results in failure to focus and loss of direction.

The next step is to identify a purpose for each goal. Knowing why you want to achieve your goals is powerful. Identifying the purpose of your goal will help you instantly recognize why you want that particular goal and whether it’s worth working toward.. Knowing why you want something furnishes motivation to see it through to the finish. After all, if the purpose of earning a million dollars is to put it in the bank to save for a rainy day, you probably won’t be as motivated as if you need it to pay for your child’s cancer treatment. Your purpose says a lot about you as a person and your goals.

The next step of goal setting is to commit to your goals. This might sound obvious to you but it’s a step that has huge consequences when it is taken lightly. Write a few pages about why and how you are committing to each goal; why it’s important to you, what it means to you, why the outcome is necessary and what are you going to do to make it happen. Without strong commitment you aren’t likely to follow through.

Stay focused. By staying focused on your goals, you manifest. You may not know how you’ll reach your goals but when you make a daily practice of focusing on your goals, they become easier to reach. The more you focus, the more people and things will come into your life that help make your goals a reality. Having your goals written down somewhere where you will see them each day is a good idea. Your mind will notice that there is a discrepancy between where you are now and where you want to be which will create pressure. Pressure is motivation to change. If you lose focus you can always bring it back. Without a regular practice of focusing on your goals you will get distracted by something and your goal will disappear.

The next step is to create a plan of action. Being really clear about what you want, knowing your purpose, writing your goals down, committing to them, and staying focused gives you the power of clarity to write down a list of action steps the need to be executed over the year. You may not know all the steps ahead of time but you will know the next steps that take you in that direction. Even if you don’t know how you are going to do something, write it down and when the time comes, you will be surprised at the options that may appear. Having goals without a plan of action is like trying to complete a complex project without a project plan. There is too much going on, it’s too disorganized, you miss deadlines and you don’t have priorities. Eventually you get frustrated and the project/goal fails or collapses under it’s own weight.

To show how committed you are to your goals, think of something you can do right now that will get you moving toward fulfilling your goal. Even if it’s just making a phone call, do it now. You will be surprised how this simple step reinforces all the previous steps and gets you motivated and moving toward what you desire. Why wait? If you are not motivated to so something right now, how are you going to get motivated tomorrow?

To push through when things get tough, you will have to hold yourself accountable unless you bring in outside help like a coach. It makes sense to have someone besides yourself who can provide valuable feedback at critical junctures, like in the visualization stage. Some people tell their friends and family about their goals which gives them the accountability they need to stick to it. Once you start to achieve some success you will find it easier to keep motivated. Consider having a backup plan. What can you do if you get stuck for too long?

Make it part of your day to review your goals and take action. This will keep your goals alive and top of mind. By following these steps and practicing your goals each day, you have all the elements you need to succeed and achieve your goals. It isn’t always easy to push through. Some days will be easier than others but if you keep focused on your goals you will be amazed at the progress you will make. Remember, almost everything begins as a thought. You can be what you imagine if you follow these simple goal-setting rules.