No one starts out wanting to be a bad manager. Nor do most people intentionally plan their day to wind up exhibiting bad management practices.

But a lot of people sure do end up being one. In fact, the odds say you have a greater chance of being a bad manager than a good one, despite all of the books, audiotapes, lectures and seminars produced on the subject.

So if you are bound to be a bad manager, you might as well be a good one. Here are 10 things you need to do:

1. Don’t trust the people under you. In fact, go out of your way to question their work or behavior every chance you get. After all, you know they’re only out for Numero Uno and it’s not you.

2. Micromanage your people to death. Everybody knows you can do their jobs better than can do their jobs, so you might as well just do it for them. Who cares if they get upset. Your bosses want things done, right? If you don’t micromanage them, it’s a simple fact it won’t get done they way it’s supposed to be done.

3. Play favorites. After all, it’s just human nature. Everybody plays favorites. Why should you be any different? Besides, isn’t that how you get special things done for you? This isn’t communism. Some people under you deserve better treatment and others don’t. That’s just the way it is, right?

4. Be arrogant and exhibit authoritarian behavior. Let’s face it. You’re in charge and that’s no accident. Being nice is okay, but being tough is better. Somebody has to bark orders. That’s the only thing people respond to, right?

5. Don’t give others credit. You’re the boss. If anybody should credit for the success of your department or division, it should be you. After all, you’re the one who’s going to get fired if things don’t work out. Conversely, should the others bask in your glory?

6. Don’t respect other people’s time. So what if people have to wait for you before holding a meeting? Your time is a lot more valuable than theirs considering your position. And who care is they have pressing personal issues. If you have to work late hours without complaint, then so should they.

7. Be passive-aggressive. Bring people to their knees by going behind their back. That’s the way the real world works, right? Forget being direct. Where does it get you but heartache. Better to strike silently in the shadows than to face confrontation.

8. Don’t set goals or change them in mid-stream. That way, people will always be off-guard and won’t get complacent on you. There’s nothing worse than complacent people just going through the motions.

9. Create fear for speaking out. Nobody needs a troublemaker. If you set the right tone to begin with so that people will think twice about questioning your decisions or authority, then everything will run a whole lot smoother.

10. Hire your friends or spouse. Enough said.

If you can master these 10 suggestions, then you will be well on your way to being the bad manager everybody says you are capable of being. Good luck.

Product managers are responsible for making a lot of decisions about our products while they are being developed; however, one of the most important decisions has to be if we are going to team with another company to develop a product. It’s the classic “Batman” (he’s got a sidekick names Robin) vs “The Lone Ranger” type of decision. Which way should you go?

Products That Are Simple

Look, not every product out there requires rocket scientists to create (can anyone say “pet rock”?). A couple of researchers, Esteve Almirall and Ramon Casadesus-Maxanell have spent some time looking into this issue.

What they have found may surprise you. It turns out that if you decide to partner with another firm, it’s going to create a whole bunch of hassles for you as a product manager. This can be just a cost of doing business; however, if the product that you are developing is simple, then partnering is a waste of your time.

The simpler the product, the less need there is to partner with another firm. Doing so will only slow down the development process as the teams try to coordinate when such collaboration really could all be done internally. Additionally, when it comes time to market the product, the firms involved may have differing opinions on how to go about doing this.

Products That Are Complicated

All the way on the other side of the product development spectrum are complex products. These are the ground-breaking products that potentially your customers have never seen before. Think of things like the original Palm Pilot or the Apple iPad.

These products are also poor candidates to be created by companies that team up. The reasons are fairly simple: ultimately during the development process the product teams are going to be looking for ways to innovate. This process is very hard to do internally and almost impossible to do if you have to coordinate your actions with an external company.

Especially if your product has no competition because it is so very new, then you know how hard it is for a product manager to keep your own management supporting the project. Just imagine how hard it would be to keep the management at multiple companies onboard!

Products That Are Just Right For Collaboration

Sorry for being so negative about this idea of companies collaborating in order to develop a new product. However, it’s not all gloom and doom. It turns out that there is one class of products that actually can benefit from having a product manager bring in an outside company as a development partner: medium-low complexity products.

Why does external collaboration work here? Good question. It turns out that when the design of a product is not all that hard, but when there are decisions that can go either way, having another partner company take a look at what your company is doing can really help.

Their insights can help prevent your company from making those product decisions that always seem so foolish in hindsight. The benefit of this insight turns out to far outweigh the effort that you’ll have to go through to coordinate development activities and marketing programs.

What All Of This Means For You

In our childhood we all liked both Batman and the Lone Ranger. However, when it comes to the job of a product manager we end up having to choose who we like better. The choice is not always easy to make.

If the product that we are developing is either fairly simple or wickedly complex, then partnering with another firm is a poor idea. It will just slow things down and won’t provide a lot of extra value. However, if we are working on a medium-low complexity product then partnering can have valuable benefits by providing additional sets of inputs and observations.

Product managers are generally not afraid to go it alone. However, there are times that we really do need another company to act as our sidekick when we are developing a new product. It’s the ability to make the right decision to partner or not that will turn you into a product management superhero within your company…

Every product manager dreams of his / her product turning into the next iPhone, or Google search engine, or some other runaway success like that. However, as we all too well know, the odds of that ever happening are actually pretty slim. However, maybe there’s another way to become successful and famous. Maybe the key to Product Management stardom is not in being an innovator, but rather in being a really, really good copycat?

You Mean I’m Allowed To Copy Off Of Others?

Would you like to know an ugly little secret? Dr. Oded Shenkar has been studying this area and he’s discovered that roughly 97.8% of the ultimate value that an innovation creates will end up going to the imitator firms, not the inventor firm.

Dr. Shenkar also points out that the world of copycats is moving even faster these days. In the old days it took a long time to copy someone else’s product, now not so long. A case in point is the mini-van that was invented by Chrysler back in the 1980′s. It was another 10 years before another car company came out with an imitation. On the other hand, CD players were imitated after only 3 years.

Just Making A Copy Isn’t Enough

Before you run off to go buy a copy of whatever your competition is making so that you can start to stamp out clones of it, you might want to wait for just a minute. Making exact copies of someone else’s product is going to get you in trouble with the patent office and it’s not going to help you to be successful.

What a copycat product manager needs to realize is that it’s not enough to copy another product, you actually need to improve on it. This is where things get difficult.

In order to find the right products to copy, a product manager needs to be constantly searching for the next candidate to copy. Where this product is going to be found is never clear – you may have to search far and wide in multiple industries to find what you are looking for.

Once you find a product that would be a good fit for your company to copy, your work as a product manager is just beginning. What needs to be done now is to understand what the core essence of the product to be copied is: why do people like it / use it / want it? What you are going to need to do is to create a way to make it cheaper, better, or faster than the original firm.

Why Aren’t More Product Managers Copycats?

Given that all of the evidence points to the simple fact that product managers who are good at copying what others have done end up being more successful leads to a simple question: why don’t more of us do this?

It turns out that the answer to this question is pretty simple: we’ve been conditioned to think of being a copycat as being “wrong”. Most firms like to think of themselves as being innovators, not as being imitators.

Too often we view the process of creating a copy of an existing product as being in some way undignified. What we’re missing is that if you are taking an original idea and then improving on it, you are well on your way to product success.

What All Of This Means For You

Apple is a great company that comes up with really innovative products such as the iPad. However, time will show that most of the value of the iPad won’t go to Apple – instead it will go to firms that create and deploy copycat products that do a better job than the iPad does.

Although most firms don’t like to think of themselves as being imitators instead of innovators, this is where the real value is. The secret is to make sure that you don’t just create a copy of a product, but rather that you improve on the original in a way that will make it even more attractive to potential customers.

The key to being a successful imitator product manager is to learn to keep your eyes open. Where the next product that you can improve on will be found is always a mystery. To win the race to deliver a successful product, you don’t have to be first, you just have to be the best.

So here’s a minor topic that might have some real significance for all product managers: what do you put on your business card? Yeah, yeah, I know that we’re living in the age of Facebook and LinkedIn but business cards are still what we exchange when we meet people face-to-face. What this means is that business cards still matter. What’s on your business card?

At this point in my career I must have had no less than 20 different business cards. Every once in awhile I’ll see a collection of them huddled together in the bottom of some drawer somewhere and I’ll have to smile as I realize just how much my description of myself and what I do has changed over time.

I’ll never forget when I got my first opportunity to sign up for business cards. This was it, I had made the big time. Despite being a lowly software engineer now I was finally going to have an “adult” way to communicate to others just how important I was. As with all large firms, most of the format of the business card was pre-established. However, I was given free rein to add my job title just under my name. Hmm, what to put? The first time out of the gate I put what the company listed for me in the corporate directory: “Software Engineer IV” or whatever.

It turns out that this was a big mistake. Outside of people who worked for my company, nobody else in the real world knew what a Software Engineer IV was! I’d get polite smiles and then the card would quickly disapper into someone’s pocket to probably be thrown away when it came time to do laundry.

A few business card iterations later, I started to get smarter. By this time I had moved over into the world of Product Management and so I changed my job title to “Product Manger”. This was much better. I don’t think very many people knew what a Product Manger was or did, but they sure thought that they knew what a manager did and so upon receiving my card they slotted me as a mid-level manager and left it at that.

The promotions came over time and whereas I was not yet a Vice President or a CIO yet, I had become a Senior Product Manger. At the next opportunity I updated the business card title to read “Senior Product Manger”. This seemed to garner me just a little bit more respect when I handed the card out. Once again, I don’t think that very many people knew what I did; however, they seemed to believe that I was now in the upper echelons of mid-level managers.

I was still finding that since folks didn’t actually know what a Product Manger does, they were struggling to pigeonhole me based on my title. The trick here is that if people can’t figure out quickly where you fit in the totem pole of responsibility, then they will end up not even bothering to try. I felt that one more evolution was required. I ended up dropping the “Product” and so today my business card reads simply “Senior Manger”.

Although less descriptive, I’ve found this title to be of great use at trade shows and when meeting with vendors. No, they still really don’t seem to know what I do for the company; however, they are easily able to realize that a “Senior Manager” is someone who must be very important. This means that they treat me as being someone important because they don’t have any reason not to.

One final note, with my obtuse title the very first question that I get asked is “what do you do?” This is a make-or-break question. If I identify myself as a Product Manager, this will get me classified as a low-level worker bee because nobody really knows what a Product Manager does. Over countless encounters like this I have honed my response to reply with a quick “I make problems go away.” In most cases, this generates quiet respect and there are no more probing questions.

The Social Media Manager is becoming the go-to person for businesses who require assistance with their online marketing efforts. It’s no secret the impact social marketing can have on a business and the advantages its brings. And it’s also no secret that most business owners cannot handle their social marketing all on their own.

A Social Media Manager does a whole lot more than just posting status updates on profiles. Social media management encompasses figuring out the who, the what, the when and why. Who does your business want to reach? What is needed to reach them? Where are they most active? Why should we use social media as part of our marketing efforts? Many businesses are finding that outsourcing or hiring someone to manage their campaigns is becoming an important part of using social media for marketing. An outside individual can usually see the bigger picture more clearly.

Social media management is a position that has attracted a huge amount of attention and membership in recent years. I see the main reasons for its popularity as:

– Low entry barriers

– A high demand for the services

– Big rewards

But is it really for everyone? Honestly, there are now a lot of social media managers. Some very, very good. Some really, really bad. So how do you filter out the bad ones and find the good ones? Well, the good social media managers will know their stuff and they understand what it takes to be successful.

Here are 21 questions you can ask your potential social media manager and what the better answers should look like…

1. How do you define success?

The amount of followers isn’t the only sign of success in social marketing. A social media manager should be able to help you define success on a strategic and tactical level, in order to support your larger marketing goals. If a social media manager has a limited view of success, or is unable to explain performance measurement beyond the volume of audiences, they won’t be able to provide you with higher level strategic solutions.

2. What sort of results can we expect?

A good social media manager will manage your expectations and let you know what results you could achieve. Remember that social media managers are not psychics. They should act on your behalf using the best practices of the industry, but there is a lot that is out of their control. They should be able to give you a rough idea of what they bring to the table based on their previous results and experiences. If a social media manager cannot communicate this effectively to you, then they probably don’t have the level of experience you need.

3. How is ROI defined in social marketing?

Contrary to popular thinking, ROI can always be measured in social marketing. But it can be perceptual. What are your goals? Were they achieved? If so, then you had a positive ROI. Did your campaigns help your business in any way or have any positive effects? If they did, then you were successful. Social marketing ROI is not always tied to tangible business benefits. Ask the social media manager which factors can be measured and how they will be reported to demonstrate the value they bring to your business.

4. What social platforms do you specialise in? Why would these particular platforms be right for our business?

Different social networks have different audiences and practices. Not every network is right for every business or industry. For example, how could a pharmaceutical company possibly engage in drug marketing on Twitter? The reality is that most businesses can take advantage of the networks out there in some way, but if there are limitations, you want your social media manager to be aware of them.

5. Should we be on every social platform?

A social media manager who has done their research on your business should know your target audience. How this is answered is the key because it provides you with an instant understanding of their perceptions of your business. If a social media manager extends your business visibility to many networks, then your marketing efforts may spread too thin and mean some of the campaigns might suffer. They should pick where your target audience is already situated and focus on maximising performance on those platforms.

6. Would Google+ be worth using for our business?

This should highlight the extent of your potential social media managers Google+ knowledge. Google indexes Google+ content faster than content posted anywhere else. It’s a platform that has grown rapidly since its launch in 2011 and is now one of the main social platforms. A social media manager should know this and should understand whether your target audience is present there, thus viable for your business, and how Google+ can be leveraged to fulfill your wider marketing objectives.

7. Could you give us an example of a limitation on a social platform that you have experienced? How did you overcome this?

A social media manager should know that social networks come with limitations; API calls, bandwidth limitations, character limits etc… If a social manager has never run into limitations and hasn’t experienced how to overcome them, then this likely means that they are not very experienced. In fact, they will probably be completely new to the social landscape. Asking how they overcome any hurdles with their past or current clients will give you a good indication of how they respond to adversity.

8. Can we run a “Like and Share to Win” style contest on our Facebook page?

If a social media manager does not know the answer to this, then move on. Its imperative you find someone who knows the rules and guidelines of each and every social platform and who will not have your business in violation of any Terms of Service. As a heads up, on Facebook you have to use a third-party app to host the contest and cannot use the ‘Share’ button, ‘Like’ button or require a comment in order to be entered to win.

9. Have you ever had to handle a social marketing crisis? If so, could you provide an example?

Asking a social media manager to define what that ‘crisis’ means to them can highlight their level of experience. If their biggest crisis consists of miss-typing a URL on a Pinterest pin and not noticing until their client asks why there’s so many messages about broken links, then chances are they are vastly inexperienced. It’s also insightful to ask what steps they took to resolve the crisis and how the situation was handled.

10. Could you show us some of the clients or projects you are currently working with?

Any reputable social media manager will show you their client accounts. And be proud to do so. Some profiles will probably be doing better than others depending on each campaigns goals and strategies. If they dodge the question or cannot show you anything, then it should rightfully lead you to think they are hiding something. Social media managers who take pride in doing quality work should want to show you their portfolio. Imagine turning up to a sales pitch without a product sample. Clients would never even think about placing an order unless they can see what they are buying.

11. How would you allocate our social marketing advertising budget?

A social media manager should be able to describe a plan for how best to allocate your advertising budget and how they would know if it’s successful. Specific metrics and KPIs should be given, analysed and reported. The choice of advertising platform will also allow you to gauge their perception of where they think your business should be promoted, in what format and to what audiences.

12. What will our responsibilities be as a client?

A social media manager doesn’t operate in a vacuum. They will need to be in the loop with your other marketing activities. You’ll also need to provide any necessary resources and wider marketing information or materials. A social media manager should have clear guidelines for their role, and yours as a client. This should typically be communicated to you prior to establishing a working relationship.

13. What are our competitors doing in social marketing?

Any social media manager who values your work opportunity will do initial research before sitting down with you. If they doesn’t know what your competitors are doing, it should raise alarm bells. A social media manager should be able to give you insight into the way your competitors are using the major social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube right from the offset. This can always be researched fully later, but will give you an idea into their proactiveness and organisation.

14. How do you evaluate new social platforms? How do you stay on top of the latest updates and innovations in Social Marketing?

The social landscape is always changing. Even the most experienced social media managers need to refine their skills, update their strategies and practice new techniques. A social media manager should have experience with building engagement and showing results across multiple platforms and with several different tools. There are some platforms considered to be the juggernauts right now, but remember the days of AOL, MySpace and eBay? Would you hire a social media manager who pitched engaging your I.T customers on MySpace? I doubt it. The point is that the social landscape is dynamic and a social media manager should be constantly evaluating new platforms and making recommendations to you on whether they are suitable for you to explore.

15. Do you offer community management in your Social Marketing services?

Social engagement doesn’t end when you publish your Facebook page. In fact, creating profiles is often the ‘easiest’ part of the process. The execution of the community management strategies that follows is the more difficult (and more expensive) element. It is important to know how your social media manager approaches community management and what strategies and tactics they will use to interact with your audiences. If you don’t know this, then you will have no clue on how they will manage your brand online. You should have guidance and offer feedback into how your business is positioned and wants to be perceived online.

16. Do you have your own blog? Do you currently write content for various Social platforms?

Social media managers should practice what they preach. You can ask to see their blog in action and see if they are posting regularly. Being a social media manager is about so much more than updating Facebook and Twitter. Content should be balanced, otherwise your social streams will either be giant advertisements or lists of interesting articles that they came across. A good social media manager will be able to write effectively, allowing you to have a constant stream of interesting and engaging articles. They will also be SEO savvy and content will be optimised to have the right keywords in the right place, ultimately linking back to your business. You can ask to see what articles they have already written so you can determine whether or not their style of writing would fit your business.

17. What blogs or social sites do you regularly read?

Social marketing is always evolving and effectively marketing on social platforms can be a bit like trying to hit a moving target. Google+, for example, had become a commonly used tool for 40% of marketers within only a year of launch. That is a huge gain in such a small space of time. This is just how social marketing works. New blogs and social sites come and go within the blink of an eye. A good social media manager should stay on top of these changes, which means a lot of reading. They should be able to list multiple reputable social sites and explain why it is they follow them.

18. What is your understanding of Edgerank?

Social media managers that know their trade will be able to explain about Edgerank to you. Edgerank is basically what runs Facebook posts. Without knowledge of this, they will have little insights into how to properly optimise Facebook campaigns. Edgerank determines who sees what, when they see it and how often it’s seen. It also provides a good picture into their technical knowledge and understanding of social marketing.

19. What do you think is the most important thing a Social Media Manager should be doing?

A solid answer you should look for would be something along the lines of ‘monitoring’ and/or ‘listening’ to your audiences within your social domains. It’s quite an ambiguous question, but the answers will provide insight into their general thinking about managing your social campaigns. The key word many fail to incorporate is social. If answers are not somewhat geared towards a social dynamic, then they have missed the point completely.

20. Could you tell us a story?

These type of answers are commonly used in interview processes to see how someone reacts to a random question. In this instance, it’s actually a well-thought out question for two reasons. Firstly, if a social media manager has the ability to tell a compelling story, that will give you a huge advantage in all levels of your social marketing activities. Secondly, it puts them under pressure and you are able to gauge how they handle something unexpected.

21. Why should we hire you?

I honestly don’t like this question but I think it is fair to ask a social media manager this directly before hiring in order to see how they can sell themselves. This could have strong implications if your campaigns are tuned towards sales and lead generation. A social media manager should demonstrate how valuable they can be to you and what makes them different or valuable in your situation.

There are definitely more questions that could be asked. Some will no doubt be specific to your business or industry. Hopefully, asking questions like these will help you determine the right social media manager for your business.

What questions would you add to this list?

One final thought though… I don’t think this is a position that should be taken lightly, or seen as an entry-level position. A social media manager will speak the lifeblood of your business to an indefinite amount of customers. The skills needed to fulfill the diverse tasks of varying social marketing campaigns means both expertise and experience is crucial. Would you trust an unproven CEO to run your business in a new direction? Would you trust an unskilled social media manager to guide your brand online?

Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager is authored by Ken Blanchard, Susan Fowler, and Lawrence Hawkins. It completes the trilogy that started with Leadership and the One Minute Manager and was followed by The One Minute Manager Builds High Performing Teams.

Unlike most business text books, the One Minute Manager series are told through parables, so they are much more like reading a story. Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager follows Steve, a young account executive who is on the brink of losing a large company account, and likely his job. This book is a quick easy read and the lessons are presented in front of you in large bold text, so they are sure not to be missed.

Essentially Steve is promoted to an account executive from a position in budget and financing. In his first project on his own he is dealing with one of the company’s larger accounts, and his initial proposal to them fails miserably. While writing the rough draft of his resignation letter at a coffee shop, Steve meets Cayla, the understudy of the famed “One Minute Manager” guru. Through speaking with Cayla, Steve decides to follow her self leadership guidance in an attempt to save the account and his job. Ultimately, there are five lessons to be learned:

1: Accept Responsibility for Getting What You Need

When Steve initially failed with his proposal, he immediately started assigning blame. His manager gave him too much responsibility too soon with too little guidance and his creative advertising team didn’t support him at the level he expected. But upon reflection, Steve realized that he didn’t ask for any help from his manager nor did he give his creative team the direction and guidance they required from him, their manager. People are not mind readers and they can’t be expected to know what you want or need if you don’t explain it to them. You need to take responsibility for creating the situation you are in (whether it be good or bad).

2: Challenge Assumed Constraints

An assumed contraint is a belief you have, based on past experience, that limits your current and future experiences. In the book, this is also referred to as “elephant thinking”.

When a circus first receives a baby elephant, they clamp a chain around its leg and secure it to a large peg deep in the ground. The baby elephant will pull and tug and try to escape, but won’t be strong enough to lift the peg or break the chain. The elephant learns this lesson and it becomes an assumed contraint. Years later, the elephant has grown and yet fails to escape. This 6 ton beast has learned from past experience that he cannot escape and thus does not even attempt to do so. Circus handlers state a mature elephant could be restrained with a piece of string once this lesson had been learned.

This lesson is quite evident. There is a quote that says something like “Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re probably right”.

3: Points of Power

Steve initially believed that the only form of power that existed in the business world was “Position Power”; his manager had power over him and he had power over those beneath him. What he failed to understand was the other forms of power that surrounded him within his organization. The book identifies four other forms of power: knowledge, task, relationship, and personal, but assuredly there are more.

Let’s examine the structure of many of today’s organizations. Fifteen years ago managers would manage anywhere from 4 to 10 individuals and thus it was possible for them to stay in touch with the majority of events and operations that occurred within the workplace. But with the streamlining of organizations and with the empowerment of teams, there are managers that now oversee literally hundreds of employees. These managers still have position power, but they lack any form of organizational power.

These individuals will generally have very little knowledge about the workings of many specific projects. Thus there is somebody else who holds the knowledge power. They will also have little understanding of who the suppliers, distibutors and support personel are. Thus somebody else will have the relationship power. The manager will also unlikely know what has to be done, in what order and when. Thus somebody else will have the task power.

Steve had to learn that although he had position power he still lacked many of the pieces required to put the entire puzzle together. He had to work as part of a team and maximize the different powers each and every individual had to offer.

4: The Development Continuum

Ken Blanchard has developed a continuum he believes most individuals travel through whenever they begin a new initiative. I believe this continuum holds true in both business and personal undertakings. There are four stages to this continuum and each stage is factored by a level of competence and commitment. Ken goes even further by stating that there are different types of support required for each stage.

Instead of using an example from the book, let me use my own example of learning how to play the guitar. Where do I start?

At D1. This stage is defined by high level of commitment but a low level of competence. I hear somebody playing the guitar around the campfire and I tell myself, “I’m going to learn to do that”. I’m all excited and fired up and I go an buy myself a guitar. But then I sit down with my guitar and chord book and immediately jump into:

D2. This stage is defined by low competence and low commitment. When I strum that first chord on the instrument all that comes out is noise. There’s no music there. So I try again with the same results. Playing the guitar is going to be a lot harder than I thought. I might never get any good at this!

It is at this stage that many people give up and quit. This is when it’s important to have somebody there that is highly directive and highly supportive. I not only need somebody who can teach me how to play the guitar, but somebody who will motivate me to keep going. At the D1 stage, I didn’t need anybody to motivate me (I had enough motivation on my own), but it may have helped to have had some strong direction. It would have been nice to know what to expect and to know which chord was the easiest to start out with.

If I’m able to endure and stick with my lessons I’ll move into D3. At this stage I’ll have increased to a moderate level of competence and I’ll have a variable level of commitment. There will be days when I can see myself playing the guitar in front of a rapt campfire audience, but on other days I’ll realize I’m still not as good as the person I heard play the previous summer. Maybe I’m not cut out to play the guitar and perhaps I should focus on another goal instead?

At this stage I won’t need quite as much direction. I’ll be good enough at the guitar that I am quite capable of teaching myself most things, but I will require high support. Somebody needs to convince me that I’m not that far from the light at the end of the tunnel. I just need to hang in there and the rewards will soon come.

If I’m able to stick it out, I’ll move into D4. I’ll have a high level of competence and a high level of commitment. I’ll be learning new songs on my own, easier than I’ve ever learned them before and as soon as the sun sets people will be requesting I pull my guitar out for a song. I will require very little directive or supportive coaching and will be in a position myself to provide that coaching to somebody else.

5: The Power of Collaboration and “I Need”

Steve needed to stop making excuses, identify what points of power he possessed, where he was lacking and where he was on the Development Continuum. From there he was able to assess his needs and admit them to those around him. Steve recognized he was at the D2 level of account managing. He needed a lot of direction AND support. By admitting these needs to his manager and his team, he found everyone was more than willing to help. They were all working towards the same goal and everybody wanted to succeed. Steve simply needed to collaborate and fill the gaps for his needs.

Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager is a fun, quick read with some poignant lessons that can assist people in many aspects of their lives. In a nutshell Blanchard states Self Leaders “Challenge assumed constraints. Celebrate their points of power. And Collaborate for Success” and that a “leader is anyone who can give you the support and direction you need to achieve your goal”.

When you open up your small business, one of the questions you need to ask yourself is do you want to be a working manager or a managing manager? A lot of people start thinking, what does that mean? What and how do I benefit from this? Which way should I go? The real question is, what direction do I take the function of my managing business?

A working manager is someone who gets his or her hands in every area of the business and does everything. From meeting people, marketing, to even throwing out the trash. A managing manager is some who tell people what to do where to go and how to do it.

At the beginning of all small business, the working manager is the way to go but as your company grows a managing manager is what you end up doing. Now it depends on your business and what direction you want it to go with your small business.

I’ve seen a lot of one-person businesses grow and thrive by one person and the business is about 5 to 10 years old and that is good. But I’ve also seen small business going into a 10 person operations and that is good also.

You must and see all aspects of your business. You must look at the future of your business and see where it is going. Or you also have to think, do I keep it as a one-person operations or do I start hiring people to cover all areas of my business. Again, it depends on the nature of your business.

Example: I’ve seen a one-bake shop person go into a 15 person operations. I’ve seen a one assistance type of business stay at a one-person operation. I’ve seen a one-person business card dealer stay as a one-person operation and I’ve seen a basket making business going to a 5-person operation.

The list goes on and on, I’ve spoken to all of these business owners and they made a business decision when they had to, from going to a one-person operation to a 20 person operations.

But all of them have told me, that they started as a working manager and they let the nature of their company grow to what ever operations they needed to go.

Benefits of being a working manager, is that you control everything and you see what is going to happen and you are responsible for all of it. The benefit of a managing manager, you have staff that does it all for you and they take charge of the duty and job and you just over see what is going on.

No matter what direction you take, there is no mistake here. Only that you let the nature of business go in the direction it needs to go. When you allow that, it will flow easily and you will get it right.

The decision is yours, working manager or managing manager. Which one is your method of working with business?

Title: The One Minute Manager

Author: Kenneth Blanchard, Ph.D. And Spencer Johnson, M.D.

– are the authors of Who Moved My Cheese?

Chapters: 16

Pages: 111

The Symbol: Modern Digital Watch that indicates 1 minute as a reminder to take time to look at the people you manage and know that they are your best resource.

Characters:

1. Bright Young Man

2. The One Minute Manager

3. Mr. Trenell – One Minute Goal Setting

4. Mr. Levy – One Minute Praising

5. Ms. Brown – One Minute Reprimand

6. Ms. Metcalfe – Secretary

Introduction:

Almost everything that you do with the people you manage should take a maximum of One Minute. That would be the first thought you would have reading the book. But once you’re done of course it does not mean literally One Minute. It just means that you should not take more time in getting things done when you are efficient enough. Matters that requires more than a minute should still be dealt with accordingly. Its the little time you spent with your people in the right moment that makes a difference. This is well laid out with the three guides of the One Minute Management explained in the book: One Minute Goal Setting, One Minute Praising and One Minute Reprimand. It is quite important that you do these guidelines straight when it is needed to obtain the right output to secure better people management skills. Most managers as cited in the beginning of the book do not apply these and tend to go overboard. Let’s take One Minute Goal Setting… if a leader takes time in preparing each member and the entire team with this then all will be on the same page and need not to be misguided along the production. It would be an easy reference to what they are expected to produce since it would be straight to the point. Following the explanation below by the character Mr. Trenell. Same with One Minute Praising, highlighting the action needed to strengthen or emphasize the desired output and maintenance of it, explained by the character Mr. Levy. And most importantly, ensuring that behavior in the work environment that should not be tolerated will be explained on how you should manage this by the character Ms Brown.

Mr. Trenell – One Minute Goal Setting

a. Agree on your goals

b. See what good behavior looks like

c. Write out each of your goals on a single sheet of paper using less than 250 words.

d. Read and re-read each goal, which requires only a minute or so each time you do it.

e. Take a minute every once in a while out of your day to look at your performance and

f. See whether or not your behavior matches your goal.

Mr. Levy – One Minute Praising

a. Tell people up front that you are going to let them know how they are doing.

b. Praise people immediately.

c. Tell people what they did right – be specific.

d. Tell people how good you feel about what they did right, and how it helps the organization and the other people who work there.

e. Stop for a moment of silence to let them “feel” how good you feel.

f. Encourage them to do more of the same.

g. Shake hands or touch people in a way that makes it clear that you support their success in the organization.

Ms. Brown – One Minute Reprimand

a. Tell people beforehand that you are going to let them know how they are doing and in no uncertain terms. (the first half of the reprimand)

b. Reprimand people immediately.

c. Tell people what they did wrong – be specific.

d. Tell people how you feel about what they did wrong – and in no uncertain terms.

e. Stop for a few seconds of uncomfortable silence to let them feel how you feel.

f. Shake hands, or touch them in a way that lets them know you are honestly on their side.

g. Remind them how much you value them.

h. Reaffirm that you think well of them but not of their performance in this situation.

I. Realize that when the reprimand is over, it’s over.

Conclusion:

The book was written by authors who also wrote “Who Moved My Cheese?”, same as with the book that has enough pages on it to explain its objective which is on management of people and value of people as well. It keeps the reader on the edge of his/her seat which almost makes the reader feel that it only takes just a minute to read the book. It could be highly recommended for managers to read the book to lessen time spent in managing people and more on getting results the correct way without increasing pressure too much rather increasing the employee’s initiative in getting things right.

There is a big difference between a career as a restaurant owner and a career as a restaurant manager. Restaurant managers sometimes go on to own their own restaurants, restaurant owners often do a great deal of managerial work and both are heavily invested in the success of the restaurant and involved in its daily operations, but the general similarities end there. The specific roles and responsibilities of a restaurant owner vs. a restaurant manager will be explained in further detail below.

A Career as a Restaurant Owner

Restaurant owners are responsible for overseeing the entire operations of a restaurant, even when they hire someone else to manage it. They make an initial investment and either buys the restaurant from someone else or starts his or her own restaurant. Owners must make additional investments down the line when the restaurant needs new equipment and supplies, or when the business has outgrown its location and needs to move or expand, and they will also be responsible for cleaning up the mess if the business fails. The owner has a vested interest in the success of the restaurant, not just because it’s his or her job, but because it’s his or her investment, brainchild and often a dream come true. The owner takes the most financial risk, but he or she also gets the biggest payoff if the restaurant is a success.

They vary in their level of responsibility in the kitchen and on the floor. Some owners hire other people to do everything and trust they will make the right decisions, while others are there every day, interacting with customers and staff and taking on managerial duties. Many of them must work long hours every day of the week as they get their business off the ground, but if it becomes a success, they get the opportunity to sit back and relax a bit.

A Career as a Restaurant Manager

They work closely with restaurant owners to ensure that the business runs smoothly. They also have a vested interest in making sure the restaurant is operating at a profit; in fact, this is their primary concern. The manager has pay increases, bonuses and profit shares to entice him or her to succeed, and the fear of losing his or her job to entice him or her to avoid failure. This career requires skills in budgeting, leadership, communication, analysis and planning, as well as a knowledge and appreciation of the culinary arts and customer service.