I’d just been promoted into my first management role, and keen to make a good impressions early on, I asked my new boss a question: what mistakes did he most often see in new people managers? His answer stuck with me. New managers, he said, are so worried about failing that they end up over-managing everything. I laughed, a little uncomfortably, because he’d just described me. I’d insisted on shadowing client calls I didn’t need to be on. I wanted to be involved in every step of my team’s work, as if letting go of any part of it meant losing control.

The One Minute Manager

Not long after that conversation, my boss recommended a book that I still use today, thirty years on: The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard. The idea is deceptively simple. A one-minute manager does three things. First, they agree clear goals with each direct report — goals simple and focused enough to be communicated in a single minute. Second, they give regular one-minute praise, calling out achievements in a way that makes people feel genuinely proud of their work. Third, they address mistakes immediately, with one-minute feedback that names what went wrong and its impact, while reaffirming the person’s value.

The Power is in Empowering

And that’s it. Those three things are all a one-minute manager does. It sounds almost too simple to work — surely good management requires more effort, more oversight, more involvement than that? But the power isn’t in doing more. It’s in empowering others to act, being there to catch them when they fall, and making them feel good about their efforts. Letting go of the need to oversee everything didn’t make my team perform worse — it made them more confident, more accountable, and more motivated.

Sometimes the best thing a manager can do is less, done better. If you believe you might be micromanaging your team, team coaching can help you to understand how to trust and empower them more. Get in touch to find out how we can help.

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