The one minute manager - a book review by Kishore

Thee one minute manager
Author: Kenneth Blanchard & Spenser Johnson
Publishers: Berkley books – New York

The storey starts with a young mans quest to know “what takes to be an effective manager?” The authors slowly describe the concepts of man management and take us through the methods that can be effected practically. The man meets the one minute manager, learns the principles and techniques that make the one minute manager and joins the same organization where he gets a chance to practicing and teaches others about the one minute techniques.

The book attempts to explain about the types of the managers (in terms of approach) as per the management theory: Democratic, Participative, Supportive, considerate and humanistic.

Focuses on the bottom line:
“Only people who feel good about themselves produce good results.”
This establishes a betterment of the attitude of the individuals. Further clarifying the role of the managers, who come out with problems rather than the solutions.

The authors quote “If you can’t provide a solution to a problem then you are just complaining.”

The three basic golden principles of the one minute managing focuses on How to get the best out of the people and making them feel proud of what they have done.

“We Are Not Just Our Behavior We Are The Person Managing Our Behavior.”

The three basic principles are…

Ø One minute goals
Ø One minute praising and
Ø One minute reprimand

The book tells us to write all the goals in a piece of paper in 250 words and should not take more than a minute to read through. By continuous review of the goals would enhance the satisfaction level on fulfilling the targets and would also through light on the reasons for non fulfillment. Simply proving that asking questions can change the life not just in Crorepathi.

“The best minute I spend is the one I invest in people.”

One minute praising with real care and empathy would prove the readers that not just motivating other and more than that inspiration, when the subordinate is inspire the manager would be in a position to extract the best out of the employees.

“Help People Reach Their Full Potential Catch Them Doing Something Right.”

Its not always all the employees do things correctly, some times things may go wrong and at that time the managers should reprimand the employees and make them understand that they have failed in there responsibilities. The book also emphasises on starting the reprimands with a soft tone and rather start the reprimands with a good accomplishment and stating the way out for the problems would build trust within the employee relationships.

Take A Minute:
Look At Your Goals Look At Your Performance See If Your Behavior Matches Your Goals

Power of Silence:

The authors emphasis on leaving a small gap of silence at the time of appreciating / reprimanding the employees, which would enable the other person to feel what is going on in the minds of the employees.

Making others the one minute manager:

The basic essence of the book is not just to tech the concepts of the one minute managing, but also to teach others and make them the one minute manager. In the storey the young man after learning all the concepts and effectively executing them publishes a summary chart of the one minute managerial techniques. This also ensure continuous spread of the concepts about the one minute manager and also pushes the one who has become an expert in the ladder of growth.

Key highlights of the books:

Some of the key feature of the books that’s worth mentioning is as follows.

Ø The writers use the symbol of the digital clock to represent the “one minute” management concepts. They expect the readers to think of the one minute techniques when ever the readers happen to see the modern digital clock.

Ø Free flow of conversation between the characters in a simple storey telling way, which is common for all motivation books.

Ø There is no much of an emphasis on concepts and principles that draw us to the techniques, rather the author focuses on the practical techniques (one minute) that can be directly applied in the real life.

Ø A practical book written based on the behavioral science

Ø Summary of the approach at the appropriate places helping the reader’s to recaptuate the techniques that the author has discussed in the unit.

“Everyone Is
A Potential Winner, Some People Are Disguised As Losers,

Don’t Let Their Appearances Fool You.”

About the authors

Dr. Kenneth Blanchard, chairman of Blanchard training and development Inc, a renounced author of many of the best selling books and serves as a professor of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour in the University of Massachusetts, in addition to a member of National Training Laboratories.

Dr. Spencer Johnson, chairman of Candle communications Corporations, a author, publisher, lecturer and a communications consultant, has written over a dozen books on medicine and psychology, a MD from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. The author of some of the best selling books including “Who moved my cheese?”, The precious present, etc..