Book Review: One Minute Manager

The book emphasises on the point that human resources is an important asset. And how to manage them is what “One Minute Manager” is all about. The book reveals three techniques to become a “One Minute Manager”, they are:

One Minute Goal Setting:

Usually in an organisation, what employees want to do and what employer wanted employees to do is quite different. So that is where goal setting helps in defining individual’s responsibilities and accountability, let it be for a manager or a subordinate. It is one minute, because the goal should not exceed 250 words when written on a sheet of paper, so that it can be read in a minute. Periodically checked, it should assist the individual to know how far he/she has reached the goal and to help him/her keep track of it. Once the goal is clear, solutions to the problem would be clear. When the goal is not clear and if you ask anybody whether he/she was doing a good job, obviously the reply would be “I don’t know”. So set your goals first.

One Minute Praising:

It says catch people doing right and give a clear feedback of what he/she has done great. And praise sincerely, which in future should act as a motivational factor to carry out similar kind of performances. One minute of praising is, to look straight into the eyes of the performer, and say how it contributed to growth of the organization. One minute because, if you keep on praising, at some point of time he/she would stop performing, thinking he/she is the best. So one minute praising is more than sufficient.

One Minute Reprimand:

When an employer finds out that an employee has committed a mistake, first the employer should confirm the facts. Then tell the employee precisely what went wrong. How it acted as an obstacle in the rise of the organisation. Employer should express whatever they feel and can be angry with work carried out but not on the employee as a person.

The authors feel that most of the companies spend 50-70% of their money on salaries, but only 1% of the budget on training. Instead of spending on maintenance of the building and equipment, if they concentrated on maintaining and developing people, it would result in the betterment of both the individuals as well as the organisation.

If all three techniques utilized effectively, then anyone can become a One Minute Manager. In addition to this, the authors speak about crisis intervention, 80/20 principle, how practically one minute manager works along with suitable examples and quotations throughout the book, making it livelier. It is authored by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. And they define one minute manager as, “One who takes very little time to achieve big results from people”. The lucid language and the “message through story format” are the specialties of the book. Read the “One Minute Manager” and become one. All the Best