Summary of "The One Minute Manager"

The One Minute Manager is one of the best selling business books of all time. Authors Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson use a parable style story to describe the plight of a young manager who is not having success; however, he hears about a successful manager who is so effective that he has time to spare. The young manager calls him up to find out what he can learn, and the successful One Minute Manager shares with him three secrets to his success. Every manager ought to be familiar with these three gems:

One minute goal setting: All good performance begins with a clear statement of what good behavior looks like, so here is where the One Minute Manager begins. He has his people write out their goals in 250 words or less and focus on good behavior. Then he encourages people to revisit their goals weekly and see how closely their behavior matches the goal.

One minute praisings: One minute praisings are the way that the One Minute Manager catches people doing things right or approximately right. Soon after he observes the behavior, he tells the person what they specifically did right and how it makes him feel. He encourages them to continue their good behavior and then shakes hands to reinforce the positive behavior and how good he feels about it.

One minute reprimands: One minute reprimands are used to correct and redirect behavior. When the One Minute Manager observes someone doing something wrong, he will tell them specifically what they are doing incorrectly. He will also tell them how it makes him feel, and then redirect them back to the one minute goal description of what good behavior looks like. Before ending the conversation, the One Minute Manager will encourage the person to do better by focusing on correcting their behavior in the future and letting them know that they can do it. Then they shake hands so that the One Minute Manager can reinforce the self-worth of the person receiving the reprimand. This puts the focus on the behavior and not the person.

These are simple and easy-to-use basic management skills; however, many managers don't use them. Like any other skill, it takes practice in the beginning. Once you use these skills, then they will become second nature. If you are not using the One Minute Manager's secrets, try them out and see how you can make them work for yourself and your team. If you do them well, you too can become an effective One Minute Manager.

The Blue Inc