Book Summary: More Than A Minute
In the past 25 years, the workplace has changed dramatically. New technologies, new business models, new ways of communicating and new generations of workers have rendered the 21st century workplace increasingly unrecognizable to the 20th century leader and manager.
For today’s leaders and managers, perhaps the most fundamental shift has come in what they manage. In the past, managers managed tasks. They told people what to do, how to do it and when to get it done. Now, managers must manage people as well as the context they work in, which requires a new and more challenging skill set.
In More Than A Minute, Vistage Speaker Holly G. Green revisits the management principles first explored in Ken Blanchard’s One Minute Manager. But rather than dwell on the past, she updates and reinvents these vital concepts to fit today’s diverse, rapidly changing workplace.
Green asserts that what today’s great leaders have in common is that they:
- Get back to basics when everything around them diverts them into complexity
- Focus their time, attention and energy on winning
- Set clear expectations of what excellence looks like
- Communicate consistently and with clarity making sure that all employees know and believe in the goals
- Build a high performing culture that supports the strategies and brings them to life
- Provide others with continuous feedback, recognition and opportunities to learn
- Exhibit a strong commitment to their own learning and unlearning
Green divides More Than A Minute into five sections that offer a mix of practical theory and hands-on management tools specific to rapidly-changing work environments.
- Setting the Stage (Chapter 1) explores the basics of strategic planning and organizational goal setting, with an emphasis on the importance and how-to of full integration.
- Driving Focus (Chapter 2) examines how individual goal setting and communication contribute to accomplishing the organizational objectives.
- Creating the Context for Excellence (Chapter 3) provides updated ideas, tools and techniques for developing a high performance culture.
- Sustaining Alignment (Chapter 4) covers a major area of weakness for many managers — how to give positive and constructive feedback on an ongoing basis.
- Leveraging and Learning: Measuring Performance and Ongoing Improvement (Chapter 5) offers new insights into methods for tracking performance and ensuring that the strategic plan becomes the driving engine for the organization, rather than an idea that never got traction.
An experienced leader and consultant, Green combines proven management practices with actual business applications used by successful companies around the globe. Her concepts are grounded in business realities, and she provides convenient checklists and lists of “executables” at the end of each chapter that keep you on track to translate the ideas into action.
More Than A Minute effectively also serves as a leader’s workbook to be referenced as you manage your workforce and build your business. You can find more information at www.MoreThanaMinute.com