Kenneth Blanchard Ph.D. and Spencer Johnson M.D.wrote this classic, slim volume on business management made easy.

A summary:

One Minute Goal Setting
o Agree on your goals
o Compare them against “good behavior”.
o Write each of the goals down in less then 250 words.
o Read and re-read each goal, which requires only about a minute each time you do it.
o Take a minute every once in a while to ensure your performance matches the goal, and adjust yourself accordingly.

One Minute Praising
o Tell people up front that you are going to let them know how they are doing.
o Praise people immediately, specificially telling them what they did right. Tell them how pleased you are that they did right and how it positively affects the business.
o Give them a minute of silence to let it sink in, encourage them to do more of the same, and then shake hands or touch them in order to make it clear you support them.

The One Minute Reprimand
o As per the One Minute Praising, you’ve told people beforehand that you’re going to let them know how they’re doing. The reprimand is split into two parts:
1: Reprimand them immediately, tell them specificially what they did wrong and how you feel about it. Emphasise this with a few seconds of uncomfortable silence.
2: Shake hands or touch them to let them know you’re on their side, remind them how valuable they are and that you think well of them but not their performance in this specific situation. Then let them know when the reprimand is over, it’s over.

[From the Great Books Series. Also see The Success Manual - Encyclopedia of Advice, which contains summaries of 100+ Most useful books.]