Book Review - The One Minute Manager

THE ONE MINUTE MANAGER - Kenneth H. Blanchard, Ph.D. - Spencer Johnson, M.D. Review Done By: KAMALAKKANNAN G, DMS, Pondicherry University Published by: The Berkley Publishing Group Description about Authors: Dr. Kenneth Blanchard, Chairman of Blanchard Training and Development, Inc. (BTD), is an internationally known author, educator and consultant/trainer. He is the co-author of the highly acclaimed and most widely used text on leadership and organization behavior, Management of Organization Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources. Dr. Blanchard received his B. A. from Cornell University in Government and Philosophy, an M.A. from Colgate University in Sociology and Counselling and a Ph.D. from Cornell in Administration and Management. He presently serves as a professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In addition, he is a member of the National Training Laboratories (NTL). Dr. Spencer Johnson is the Chairman of Candle Communications Corporation, and an active author, publisher, lecturer and communications consultant. He has written more than a dozen books dealing with medicine and psychology. Dr. Johnson’s education includes a degree in psychology from the University of Southern California, an M.D. degree from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and medical clerkships at Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic. THE ONE MINUTE FATHER, THE ONE MINUTE MOTHER, THE PRECIOUS PRESENT, THE VALUETALE SERIES are some of his books. Abstract of the Book: The One Minute Manager provides Managers, an insight on how to be more effective in communication within their teams and with external interests. It also helps getting past the pattern of delivering an unpleasant message, and, giving encouragement in delivering the good news. This book establishes that productivity (Quantity + Quality) of each individual as well as that of the organization increases multi folds if we make an organization people oriented rather than result oriented. People will feel good in ‘People Oriented Organizations’ and ensure the involvement in the product / services they provide. To achieve this, we need setting of participatory goals, clear responsibility and accountability. Praising subordinates for right job done immediately rather than punishing any one for wrong job done can enable them to attain their full potential to perform well.

It has a great impact on morale of a team when you appreciate some one’s good work spontaneously and do reprimanding for mistakes committed in private. Description of Chapters: 3 choices as a manager in recruiting are: 1. First, hire winners. They are hard to find and they cost money. 2. Or, second, if can't find a winner, you can hire someone with the potential to be a winner. Then by systematic training, tend person to become a winner. 3. If not willing to do either of the first two, then the third choice left is prayer (pray to god for the people, whom are hired, to perform). The 3 secrets of one minute manager are:   

Set 1-minute goals with subordinates Use 1-minute praising when goals are achieved Use 1-minute reprimands when goals are not achieved

a) One Minute Goals: Pareto Principle: 80% of employee’s important results will come from 20% of your goals. So the systematic functioning of work is done by goals and goals alone. Goal setting starts with agreeing the goal after discussion of an employee with his manager. A goal, and its performance standard, should take no more than 250 words to express. That goal can be read within a minute. The Manager and his subordinate both keep a copy so everything is clear and so they can both periodically check the progress and aligning the Behaviour of the employee to the colinearity of Goals if needed. b) One Minute Praising: In most organizations the managers spend most of their time catching people doing something wrong. The One Minute Manager would try to catch while doing something right. Conveying the people that the performance will be monitored and it will made known to them, is the initial step of ‘One Minute Praising’. It becomes a lot easier for us to do well, if we got crystal-clear feedback from the manager on how we were doing. Praising the people immediately and specifically appreciation for the work done motivates employee. Coming over and making contact, putting his hand on employee’s shoulder or briefly touching in a friendly way and making the eye-contact and telling how he feels about the thing, which employee did, right motivates for employee performance without even monitoring. Shake hands or touch people in a way that makes it clear that support their success in the organization. c) One Minute Reprimand: Whenever an Employee does something wrong, which is well below his potential then a reprimand is necessary to avoid mistakes in the future. There are two half in reprimanding an Employee.

i) First Half: When a mistake is observed an immediate reprimanding is necessary, telling people what they did wrong very specific and mentioning the feeling which they felt bad about that mistake to the employee by Manager will directly attack the behaviour of the employee not the employee as a human. ii) Second Half: Coming over and making contact, putting his hand on employee’s shoulder or briefly touching in a friendly way and making the eye-contact and telling that how much he values the employee and reaffirming that he thinks bad about the Behaviour not as a person will tempt the employee to work very careful in the future when he does the same work. Reprimand before praise. Not the other way round. Praising is reminding people they are valuable and worthwhile. Conclusion: This is the basic foundation for good leadership and being a good manager. Goals begin Behaviours, consequences maintain Behaviours. Using the above said steps one can have a work, which can be enjoyed. Job Satisfaction can be made guaranteed. Everyone is a potential winner. Some people are disguised as losers. Don't let their appearances fool you. I suggest this book should be read by all Managers: The difficulties mentioned in this book when the above mentioned steps are not followed are practically seen by me upon me as an employee. Without proper discussion of job responsibilities with my Manager had given me difficulties in completion of work well before the time. The awareness of the freedom in work, tackling the crisis and refraining the employee from future happening of that crisis in a way that wouldn’t hurt the feelings is well said in this book. I would say that this is a good starting point for us in the classroom to become good one minute managers. This interpretation of every expectation of an employee from the Manager and the Manager upon employee is well said and complied in line with the productivity of an organization. So I recommend this book to be read by future Managers so that they can provide comfort zone for the peoples under them and that would be reflected in the productivity of the firm.