Basic HTML Version
The Lion King | 51
Book review
The One Minute
Manager
AuthorS:
Kenneth Blanchard, Ph.D. & Spencer Johnson, M.D.
Publisher:
William Morrow & Company, Inc. New York
Reviewer:
Michael Nwanolue
“
The One Minute Manager”
is a 100-page book that
highlights very simple, and
yet powerful people manage-
ment strategies. In the book, a
man was in search of an effec-
tive management approach,
that he had to travel far and
wide over several years. He
spoke with all kinds of managers
in different types of organiza-
tions across various works of life.
During his search, he observed
a wide spectrum of how peo-
ple are managed. He met
“very tough” managers, whose
organizations were winners at
the expense of their people
and those, whose people were
winners, while the organization
lost. He also met some manag-
ers, whose superiors thought
were good managers, but their
subordinates thought otherwise.
At various instances, he had
asked these managers what sort
of managers they were and he
got various responses like; “I am
an autocratic manager”; “I am
a democratic manager, I am
considerate and supportive”.
In the end, he met a man, whom
when asked the kind of man-
ager he was said “I’m a One
Minute Manager. I call myself
that because it takes very little
time to get very big results from
people”. In his interactions with
the manager, he eventually
discovered how managers can
actually make people produce
valuable results, whilst they feel
good about themselves, the
organization and the other peo-
ple with whom they work and
interact.
The one minute manager made
him discuss with his colleagues
on his management approach
and he learned many lessons
that were summarized into three
secrets; One Minute Goal Set-
ting; One Minute Praising; and
One Minute Reprimand.
ONE MINUTE GOAL SETTING
This is the first secret and the
foundation for One Minute Man-
agement. Goal setting is be-
lieved to follow the 80-20 Pareto
Principle: that 80% of your really
important results will come from
20% of your goals. To get people
truly excited about their work,
you need to clearly state what is
expected of them.
ONE MINUTE PRAISING
This is the second secret. Effec-
tive managers can help peo-
ple reach their full potential by
catching when doing something
right. This is because “People
who feel good about themselves
produce good results.”
ONE MINUTE REPRIMAND
This is the third and final secret of
effective management. “Clear-
ly, the number one motivator of
people is feedback on results.
The authors highlight three op-
tions a manager may choose
from in trying to get the most out
of employee:
1. Hire winners (often difficult to
achieve, because it is expen-
sive to hire and keep winners)
2. Hire people with the potential
of becoming winners and
then systematically train them
3. Pray HARD
They suggest that option 2 is the
best. Alas, it is ironic that most
organizations commit over 50%
of their spending budget on
staff salaries, while less than 1% is
spent on training their people.
As a manager, the best minute
you spend is the one you invest
in people. Effective managers
manage themselves and the
people they work with so that
both the organization and the
people profit from their pres-
ence.
You give yourself and others “the
gift” of getting greater results
in less time by 1) Setting goals;
2) Praising and reprimanding
behaviours; 3) Encouraging
people; 4) Speaking the truth; 5)
Laughing, working and enjoying!
As a parting shot, “Everyone is a
potential winner. Some people
are disguised as losers...don’t let
their appearance deceive you.”