Leadership Lessons from 'The New One Minute Manager’ Every Tech Leader Needs'

3 One-Minute Practices Every Tech Leader Should Master

As technology leaders, we obsess over architecture, scalability, sprints, and system design. But there’s one challenge that consistently defines success or failure — people management.

Ever wondered why some engineering leaders consistently scale high-performing teams while others struggle to retain developers or meet business outcomes?

It’s not just about using the right stack or following Agile rituals. The true game-changer is this:

The best tech leaders know how to bring out the best in their people.

That’s the core philosophy of the book The New One Minute Manager — a timeless guide on leading people effectively, especially relevant in today’s fast-paced, outcome-driven tech world.

👨💻 From Coding to Coaching: The Shift Tech Leaders Must Make

Let’s face it:

• We can’t write every line of code
• We can’t review every PR
• We can’t be in every sprint planning

What we can do is build a culture where engineers are aligned, empowered, and trusted.

The New One Minute Manager gives us 3 tactical habits to build such a culture — and each one takes just a minute to apply.

Let’s translate these into the tech context:

⚙️ 1. One Minute Goals → Crystal Clear OKRs for Developers

In a fast-moving dev environment, ambiguity kills momentum. That’s why your engineers need clarity — not just Jira tickets, but true context.

Instead of micromanaging tasks, great leaders help engineers define clear, outcome-driven goals.

📌 "If a goal can’t be reviewed in under a minute, it’s too complicated."

🎯 Tech context:

• Align engineers to impact, not activity
• Encourage writing brief, measurable OKRs
• Review goals regularly to avoid drift
• Use the 80/20 rule: focus on the 20% of features/initiatives that will drive 80% of value

When goals are simple and visible, your team self-aligns. No more “What should I prioritise next?” confusion.

🌟 2. One Minute Praisings → Real-Time Recognition in Dev Culture

Tech culture often glorifies criticism (code reviews, post-mortems), but under-appreciates praise. That’s a mistake.

Great tech leaders make it a habit to recognize contributions early and often — especially for junior devs or new joiners.

🙌 "Catch developers doing something right — and tell them immediately."

🎯 Tech context:

• Praise not just big launches, but small wins: clean PRs, mentoring others, great debugging
• Be specific: “That edge case you caught saved us a prod incident. Great eye.”
• Don’t wait for annual reviews or All-Hands shoutouts
• Public Slack kudos, inline PR comments, or a quick DM can go a long way

Recognition is free, fast, and builds positive engineering culture where people want to show up and contribute.

🔁 3. One Minute Redirects → Instant, Constructive Feedback Loops

What happens when a developer ships buggy code, misses deadlines, or skips documentation?

Average managers wait until performance review season. Great leaders step in immediately, constructively, and respectfully.

⚠️ "Feedback delayed is feedback denied."

🎯 Tech context:

• Give feedback in the moment, not after the sprint
• Focus on the impact, not the person: “This missed test case caused downstream failures. Let’s talk about how to catch it earlier.”
• Follow with support: “I know you’re capable of better — I trust you’ll bounce back strong.”

And once the redirect is done — move on. No long-term blame. Just course-correct and grow.

🧠 Leadership in Tech = Multiplying Impact

These “one-minute” practices might sound simple, but they unlock exponential outcomes:

✅ Engineers take ownership ✅ Teams feel seen and valued ✅ Culture shifts from reactive to proactive ✅ Leaders stop being bottlenecks and start being multipliers

As a technology leader, your real product is the team itself — how they think, execute, collaborate, and grow.

If you master these three micro-habits from The New One Minute Manager:

1. 🎯 Set clear, outcome-aligned goals
2. 🙌 Praise early, praise often
3. 🔁 Redirect quickly and supportively

—you’ll not only ship better products, but also build a resilient, motivated, and self-managing tech org.

📚 Want to Read More?

I highly recommend The New One Minute Manager — especially for engineering leaders transitioning from IC to management, or for VPs/CTOs scaling fast-moving teams.

You can grab the book here.

👉 If this blog helped you, feel free to share it with fellow tech leaders, engineering managers, or anyone leading people in the product & tech world.

Let’s lead better, not harder.