The One Minute Manager
For more than twenty years, millions of managers in Fortune 500 companies and small businesses nationwide have followed The One Minute Manager's techniques, thus increasing their productivity, job satisfaction, and personal prosperity. These very real results were achieved through learning the management techniques that spell profitability for the organization and its employees.
The One Minute Manager is a concise, easily read story that reveals three very practical secrets: One Minute Goals, One Minute Praisings, and One Minute Reprimands.
The book also presents several studies in medicine and the behavioral sciences that clearly explain why these apparently simple methods work so well with so many people. By the book's end you will know how to apply them to your own situation and enjoy the benefits.
That's why The One Minute Manager has continued to appear on business bestseller lists for more than two decades, and has become an international sensation.
Product Details
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Ken Blanchard lives in San Diego, California, and is the Chief Spiritual Officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies.He is the coauthor of The One Minute Manager and eleven other bestselling books.His books have combined sales of more than twelve million copies in more than twenty-five languages.Blanchard was recently seen in the PBS special Gung Ho! Succedding in a Changing World.
From AudioFile
After a heartfelt introduction by the authors, Eric Conger reads the now famous parable with perfect tempo and emotional pitch. The basic lesson is on how to concisely communicate goals, praise, and correction. Though focused on method, the underlying message is that people want to be managed and tend to flounder when their efforts are not directed and nurtured. The program is a reminder that quality work doesn't happen without organized and disciplined leadership. People need challenging and worthwhile goals, respect, emotional security, and a sense of being part of a community that makes them feel connected and invested. That this shouldn't take huge amounts of time is the key contribution of this audio, which ought to be on everyone's "top 10" list of management guides. T.W. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
Customer Reviews
Readers confuse "simple" with "profound"
This book is definitely simple, but definitely not profound, timeless OR classic.
This is a rather short book -- readable in a single sitting -- and yet it is still mostly fluff. It could easily be condensed to 1/3 of its original length or less without losing any meaning.
My biggest gripe with the book is the format: it is written as a fictional narrative, with a contrived storyline that reads like it was translated from some other language. I really can't stand this style of writing. Why introduce these characters at all in a non-fiction book? Especially if they aren't based on real-world events, aren't developed at all, and don't serve any allegorical purpose?
I, on the other hand, believe that the word is a very large and complex place. Real knowledge can be condensed down to some set of first principles, but over time you only gain understanding by understanding the subtle complexity that underlies everything inside and around us.
The principles in this book are valid -- but almost to the point of obviousness.
1) Set goals with your employees (to communicate expectations and set evaluation criteria).
2) Reward your employees when they do something right.
3) Reprimand your employees when they do something wrong.
Sure, this is a jumping off point for some extremely clueless managers, but it also glosses over a lot of subtle complexity involved in motivating people.
To my mind, one of the single most obvious things you can do to motivate people is to flip the question around: ask your employees what motivates *them*. This is going to be different for everybody. Money is an important motivator, but some people are also interested in job security; some employees want to be challenged; others want to work on something meaningful, and so on. You really need to understand these various sources of motivation in order to have any hope of keeping them productive.
This book, however, presents a binary view of motivation: either you encourage, or else you reprimand. (I suppose there's a third state suggested, but not explicitly described: not communicating at all.)
As a final nit to pick: for some reason, the unenlightened managers in this book are characterized as having messy offices and calendars that are booked up heavily. The one minute manager, on the other hand, has a perfectly tidy office, and is rarely too busy to take walk-in appointments. This distinction isn't explained in the book at all, but it seems to me to be a subconscious message that one minute managers are also magically transformed into tidy, efficient workers who have a lot of free time to philosophize. Indeed, the student in this book evolves into this one minute manager mold and magically his office is cleaned up, too. I'd love to read a "one minute office organizer" book. Let me know when they write that one.
Should be on all Manager's must read lists.
An excellent must read for all managers. Easy to read once a year to keep on track.
Wise Old Man Advises Wide-Eyed Young Man - Enough Already!
Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson birthed a monster writing style when they published THE ONE MINUTE MANAGER, "The Runaway #1 National Bestseller!" -- and that style is surrounding a hideously boring topic with clichés, adverbs, adjectives, redundancies, dull characters, and exclamation points. The book is then called a nonfiction fable. Hunh?
When this book came out in 1981 it used a new, perhaps fresh, approach to teaching management skills, but since then it has been copied and copied and copied ... when it should be put in a cage. It's time to stop dumbing down and start smartening up books for managers. Enough already!
Note: You'll only need 1 minute to get what's useful out of this book.
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