The One Minute Manager

Just as you would not permit a fellow employee to steal a piece of office equipment, you

should not let anyone walk away with the time of his fellow managers.

A manager’s job has always been considered a very hard job that is time taking and

attention demanding to accomplish but this book claims it can be done in and around 1

minute. The book is titled THE ONE MINUTE MANAGER and it states to have the

trademark of: 01 symbol as seen in the cover.

"The One Minute Manager" is a book for finding a balance between being an autocratic

manager, who cares only about the results, and a democratic manager, who cares only

about the people. The lessons are imparted in the form of an interesting parable about a

young man who has set out looking for excellent management skills. In his search, he meets

the One Minute Manager, a willing mentor who seems to have things well in control and

plenty of time on his hands.

 

The book is inked by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. Blanchard is the president of

Blanchard training and development Inc (BTD). Dr. John Spencer is the chairman of Candle

Communications Corporations. There remains no doubt that the dynamic duo is incapable

of writing a book on management. It is well justified as the cover depicts that it is more

than a million copy bestseller.

About the authors1 | P a g e

Ken Blanchard

Kenneth Hartley Blanchard is an American author and management

expert. His book The One Minute Manager (co-authored with Spencer Johnson) has sold

over 13 million copies and has been translated into 37 languages. He has coauthored over

30 other best-selling books. [...] Blanchard is the “chief spiritual officer” of The Ken

Blanchard Companies, an international management training and consulting firm that he

and his wife, Marjorie Blanchard, co-founded in 1979 in San Diego, California. Among many

accolades, Blanchard has been honored as one of the top 10 Leadership professionals in the

international Leadership Gurus survey for 2007 and 2008. The “Leadership Gurus survey”

award, by Global Gurus International identifies the top and most influential Leadership

professionals in the world by merit and public voting. Blanchard is a Cornell University

trustee emeritus and visiting professor at the Cornell University School of Hotel

Administration.  He and his wife were named Cornell Entrepreneurs of the Year in 1991.”

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Spencer Johnson

Spencer Johnson is known for his 1998 motivational book, titled

Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your

Life. It has stayed on the New York Times Bestseller list, and has remained on the

Publishers Weekly Hardcover nonfiction list. Johnson received a B.A. degree in psychology

from the University of Southern California in 1963, and his M.D. from the Royal College of

Surgeons in Ireland. Johnson also wrote the book “Yes” or “No”: The Guide to Better

Decisions (1992), which has been translated into a number of languages including Spanish,

Korean and German. He co-authored the One Minute Manager series of books with

management writer Ken Blanchard. His latest book, which can make you happy and

successful, is The Present.

Book Summary13 | P a g e

1. Introduction

The book unfolds a journey of a young man with a quest to find an effective manager.

Because he wanted to work for one and work for one.

His search had taken him over many years to the far corners of the world. He spoke with

many managers: with government administrators and military officers, construction

superintendents and corporate executives, university presidents and shop foremen, utility

supervisors and foundation directors, with the managers of shops and stores, of

restaurants, banks and hotels, with men and women—young and old.

But he was never pleased with what he saw. Either their company sinks or their people.

The managers who were interested in results often seemed to be labeled “autocratic,” while

the managers interested in people were often labeled “democratic.” The young man

thought each of these managers—the “tough” autocrat and the “nice” democrats—were

only partially effective. It was just being half a manger.

He returned home tired and discouraged. He thought of an effective manager being one

capable to balancing both. He has to manage himself as well as the people he works

with so that both the organization and the people profit from his presence.

His list of effective managers consisted of only few, but no one willing to share their secrets

with him.

Then he heard of a special manager in a nearby town with whom people loved to work and

produce quality results for the organization. He arranged a meeting with the manager with

a curiousity to know about him.

2. The One Minute Manager

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The young man went at the special manager's office. The man questioned the manager

about the way he deals with managing people with his consent of sharing. The manger told

him that he holds regularly scheduled meetings with his subordinates where the weekly

organization's performance is discussed along with the next weeks planning. He told that

he listen while his people review and analyze what they accomplished last week, the

problems they had, and what still needs to be accomplished. Then they develop plans and

strategies for the next week.

The young man then referred the manager as a participative one but the manager replied

negatively that he does not believe in taking decisions for his people.

The manager talked about getting the organization's efficiency that an organized manner

raises the productivity level. The confused young man then referred the manager as more

results oriented than people oriented as he felt about the two categories of managers he

met earlier.

However, the special manager being able to cope well between the organization and his

people talked about a behavioral factor that people feeling good about themselves produce

good results. He was special because he cares about people and results. He described

himself as a "One Minute Manager".

The confused young man could not digest the fact of getting good results without taking

more than a minute. The manager seeing the stunned face of the man suggested him to

have a talk with any of his sub ordinates to further know his management techniques. He

gave him a list of his employees with their details so that he can arrange meetings with

them individually.

The manager also invited the man to come back and see him in case he has any questions

after talking to his employees.

The manager appreciated the young man's interest and desire to learn how to manage. He

warmly told him to present his One Minute Manager as a gift to him just as he got it from

somebody that changed his life. He wanted the man to understand it fully.

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He decided to meet Mr. Trenell, Mr. Levy and Ms. Brown to have the details.

3. The First Secret: One-Minute Goals

Mr. Trenell, a middle-aged man welcomed the young man with a warm smile and referred

his boss as a Guy. He told the man that he hardly ever sees him.

Now the confusions of the man are getting denser than before. Mr. Trenell talked about the

three secrets of One Minute Manager. He started with the first secret of One Minute Goal

Setting. He told the man that their manager spends time with them at the beginning of a

new task or a new responsibility.

One Minute Goal setting is clearing the difference in the answers to what people do and

what the managers wanted them to do. The difference results in people doing their job

quite different from what was expected from them. Hence the result of prioritizing people

or organization. It is like the foundation for One Minute Management.

Once the One-minute manager told him, what needs to be done or they have agreed on

what needs to be done, then each goal is recorded on no more than a single page. The One

Minute Manager feels that a goal, and its performance standard, should take no more

than 250 words to express. The manager insists that anyone be able to read it within a

minute. Both of them keep a copy so everything is clear and so they can both periodically

check the progress. It is as if everybody knows what is expected from him. So no difference

in answers of people and their manager.

Mr. Trenell shared his personal incident when the manager spent time with him at the

beginning of a new task when he was unable to decide for himself what to do. The manger

helped him to take a decision by asking him questions that he was able to ask himself but

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did not at that time. He was helped how to solve a problem when he gets one and that too

without wasting the manager's time.

One Minute Goal Setting is simply:

1. Agree on your goals.

2. See what good behavior looks like.

3. Write out each of your goals on a single sheet of paper using less than 250 words.

4. Read and re-read each goal, this requires only a minute or so each time you do it.

5. Take a minute every once in a while out of your day to look at your performance, and

6. See whether your behavior matches your goal.

The young man thanked Mr. Trenell for his support and asked about the other the other

two secrets of One Minute Management. Mr. Trenell told him to ask Mr. Levy about that.

3. The Second Secret: One Minute Praising

The young man was quite impressed by the philosophy of the manger by which he was able

to get best of his employees. Now he moved on to meet up Mr. Levy who was probably in

his 20's or early 30's. Mr. Levy too talked about his manager being a Guy just as was

referred by Mr. Trenell. Mr. Levy too talked about spending time with his manager just in

the beginnings of new tasks and responsibilities.

Mr. Levy was also done with a One Minute Goal setting to make the goals clear and what

was supposed to be done.

One Minute Praising deal with the employee getting a crystal-clear feedback from

the manager on how the employee was doing. The employee would be told directly

when he was doing well, and when he was doing poorly.

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This process was accomplished by two ways. Firstly, the manager observes activities of

their employees after their session of One Minute Goal setting. Secondly, he made them

keep detailed records of their progress, which he insisted them to send to him.

Mr. Levy told the young man about his experience that at first this process used to be

uncomfortable for him as this doubts the employee if their manager was spying and did not

trust them. However, he felt all right only when he saw other employees doing the same.

Mr. Levy told him about their organization's motto of catching people doing something

right. Moreover, after being caught something right the manger gives them One Minute

Praising, which consists of making direct contact with the employee and an appraisal of

one's work. The other things that annoy the manager play no role when he is giving a

praising. Or even if the manager is busy, he give the praising to the deserving person at

every cost.

This instills a feeling in the employer's mind to work harder to again have a One Minute

Praising from the manager.

The One Minute Praising works well when you:

1. Tell people up front that you are going to let them know how they are doing.

2. Praise people immediately.

3. Tell people what they did right—be specific.

4. Tell people how good you feel about what they did right, and how it helps the

organization and the other people who work there.

5. Stop for a moment of silence to let them “feel” how good you feel.

6. Encourage them to do more of the same.

7. Shake hands or touch people in a way that makes it clear that you support their success

in the organization.

The young man was anxious to know the third secret now as well. Levy laughed and

referred him to see Ms. Brown to whom he was to schedule next.

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The man was so struck by the simplicity of the special manager's philosophy that not only

strengthened employee boss relationships but also making their employees as One Minute

Manager themselves. He was wondering that how these simple concepts are actually

working.

The man rescheduled his appointment to be the following morning. In addition, a new

appointment with Ms.Gomez, an official in the headquarters office. The headquarter is

equipped with information about all the different plants and location in total company.

4. The Appraisal

The young man met Ms. Gomez, a competent looking woman in her early 40's. He wanted

to compare the organization's effective and efficient operations to that to Mr. One Minute

Manager.

The man was puzzled to know that the most efficient operation was at this special

manager's place only and that with some of the oldest equipment. The man was amazed

when Ms. Gomez told him that the manager does have a lot of people turnover, not because

they don’t like the manager's working philosophy but because after two years they

become capable themselves to be a manager. The man was told that the manager was

an expert in training people. Ms .Gomez expressed her wish of knowing the secrets of One

Minute Management for herself, the man agreed to gift her after he is done with it.

The man was excited for knowing the third secret for being an effective manager that he

was going to get from Ms. Brown.

5. The Third Secret: One Minute Reprimands

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The man met Ms. Brown, a very smartly dressed woman in her late 50's in her office and

experienced the same relationship between an employer and the manager.

But he was shocked to know that the manager see the lady when she did something wrong.

He asked the woman that he was told the other day that their company's motto was to

catch people doing something right, and how this contradictory statement applies for the

woman.

The woman explained to him that she has been working for the organization for a quite few

years. Therefore, she does the One Minute Goal Setting, sends the page to her manager, and

does the One-minute praising herself, as she loves her work. Even her manager does the

praising sometimes but not very often. The third secret of One Minute Management is One

Minute Reprimand. Whenever the woman does a significant mistake, she invariably

gets a One Minute Reprimand.

The man was stunned to figure out its working. The woman explained her that whenever a

mistake is done by her the manager responds quickly by telling precisely what was wrong

and where and then he expresses his feelings of being annoyed, angry, frustrated in a 30

seconds session. However, the session is enough to make the employer know his mistake

and his unwillingness to repeat it the second time.

The woman made it clear that they get reprimands consistently to them not as a

person but only their behavior. The other part of reprimand consists of making the

employer know how competent he thinks they are. The manager is doing well with his

people because he is not imposing work to them but helping them grow on their own.

The man was impressed to see a valuable manager for an organization. The woman told

him that their manager is good at humor that creates a positive effect on everyone around

them. This makes it easy for them to recover from reprimand and be motivated enough to

give their best at their work.

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The One Minute Reprimand works well when you:

1. Tell people beforehand that you are going to let them know how they are doing and

clearly.

The first half of the reprimand:

2. Reprimand people immediately.

3. Tell people what they did wrong—be specific.

4. Tell people how you feel about what they did wrong—and clearly.

5. Stop for a few seconds of uncomfortable silence to let them feel how you feel.

The second half of the reprimand:

6. Shake hands, or touch them in a way that lets them know you are honestly on their

side.

7. Remind them how much you value them.

8. Reaffirm that you think well of them but not of their performance in this situation.

9. Realize that when the reprimand is over, it is over.

The young man was astonished to see the simplicity of the idea of One Minute Management

with its three secrets – One Minute Goal setting, One Minute Praising, and One Minute

Reprimand. However, he was wondering about how the things actually work out so well.

6. The One Minute Manager Explains

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He went to see the manager again after he met his employees to discuss the working. He

was clear now with the idea that why that manager calls himself a One Minute Manager. He

set One Minute Goals with his people to make sure they know what they are being held

accountable for and what good performance looks like. He then tries to catch them doing

something right so he can give them a One Minute Praising. Then, finally, if they have all the

skills to do something right and they do not; he gives them a One Minute Reprimand.

The manager explained him that most of the company's large amount of money is spent in

people's salaries and not even 1 % of it is spent in their training. The employer at such

organizations could not figure out about their performance because they are not aware of

what they are supposed to do and so a drop in the organization's efficiency as well as

morale of the employer.

7. Why One Minute Goals Work

He explained how One Minute Goal setting is important by taking an analogy of bowling.

He told that people are motivated after work when they know what they need to do.

As if one can see the pins and can see his rolling ball has knocked out how many pins. They

feel happy and excited about hitting the pins.

But the situation at most of the organizations is other way round. Most managers know

what they want their people to do. They just do not bother to tell their people in a way they

would understand. They assume they should know. This creates an effective form of

bowling. The pins are there and the bowler is ready to bowl. And when he bowls, there is a

sheet across the pins, the ball rolls and slips under the sheet. The sound of pins being hit

are audible but the bowler does not get to know how many pins he hit. So the excitement of

bowling finishes off. It is the reason why they feel unmotivated to do their work. It is

because feedback of the results keeps the employers motivated.

Some of the managers at such organization do believe in feedback system but even that

does not raises the people's motivation to do work. This feedback is of the form that creates

a third form of bowling.

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When the bowler goes to the line to roll the ball, the pins are still up and the sheet is in

place but now there is another ingredient in the game—a supervisor standing behind the

sheet. When the bowler rolls the ball, he hears the crash of the falling pins, the supervisor

instead of telling him that he hit two pins tells that he missed eight.

Those managers do not allow the sheet to be raised so that both he and his employees can

clearly see where to hit. This happens because of the presence of normal- distribution-

curve mentality. He explained that in order to look good as a manager in most

organizations, the manager has to catch some of his people doing things wrong. He has to

have a few winners, a few losers, and everyone else somewhere in the middle.

The special manager told the young man that being a manager has precisely three options.

First is to hire winners, but it is hard to find and also costs much. The second option is if

not hiring a winner then hire somebody with a potential of being one. This includes the

training of people. And most of the organizations unwilling to do this go with the third

approach of just hoping that their employer will work out well.

The man compared the first approach of hiring winners with Ms. Brown who was capable

enough of working on her own with just one session of goal setting. She handles her

responsibility so well being a trained employer.

The manager insisted the importance of One Minute Goal setting to be a productive tool

and that too an a piece of a paper because it helps people review their performance

frequently with the goals set. It helps in comparing their behavioral issues matching to that

of the goals.

The young man now requested the manager to know about his One Minute Praising's

working.

8. Why One Minute Praising Work

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The manager explained the working by taking an analogous example of pigeon's training.

In addition he referred the people as being more complicated and their want of not being

manipulated by someone else. He urged the man to remember this and respect it in order

to be successful in managing people.

He started with the pigeon example where one want an untrained pigeon that you want to

enter a box in the lower left-hand corner and run across the box to the upper right-hand

corner and push a lever with his right foot. The box has a pellet machine to give reward to

the pigeon when he does exactly what is expected, pushing the lever. but this would starve

the pigeon to death. This is related to the philosophy of holding an annual performance

review once a year. The manager believe that the employer should be praised every

time he does something right.

The results can be verified by the process of training the pigeon. This is done by drawing a

line to a place from where the pigeon has to start, when it reaches there successfully, the

pigeon gets its food. When the pigeon has been trained to reach that spot, another line is

drawn to the next spot and again feeding the pigeon at that spot instead of earlier one

when it successfully reaches there. In this way in terms of short-term goals planned for the

pigeon, it is trained to reach the upper right hand corner and pushing the lever.

In the simple example, the manager told the man that the key to training someone to do

a new task is, in the beginning, to catch them doing something approximately right until

they can eventually learn to do it exactly right.

Another case of whale jumping over the rope that is high above the water. This is referred

to second case of hiring people and training them to be a winner themselves. The whale

was first trained to jump over the rope at the bottom of the pool. It was fed each time it

jumps over the rope. And then successively the level of rope was increased.

The philosophy of helping a beginner and rewarding it when the beginner is

successful at the smaller goals, then the goals are taken to another level. This helps a

toddler to walk and run on his own, a baby's cry to speak fluently to express himself.

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Most managers wait until their people do something exactly right before they praise them.

As a result, many people never get to become high performers because their managers

concentrate on catching them doing things wrong—that is, anything that falls short of the

final desired performance. In the pigeon example, it would be like putting the pigeon in the

box and not only waiting until he hits the lever to give him any food but putting some

electric grills around the box to punish him periodically just to keep him motivated.

It would ultimately result in a hostile environment for the employer to work in. the new

and inexperienced people are left alone in such organizations where the managers

periodically zap them to keep them moving. Those people result into a variation of

efficiency levels of their working as well as the organizations. So resulting into a poor

business performance.

The inexperienced person should be made understand of what the organization expects

them to do and holding a One Minute Goal setting with them. And giving them a One Minute

Praising of making them feel motivated enough to maintain their good performance.

Being clear with the concept of goal setting and praising, the young man was wondering

about the necessity of third secret of One Minute Management- One Minute Reprimands

and its working.

9. Why One Minute Reprimands Work

The manager made it clear about the effectiveness of reprimands because the employer is

informed immediately where he went wrong instead of accumulating the negative

energy about someone's poor performance to be told later at any stage that will weaken

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the employee boss relationship causing stress at work. In such scenario not even the

employer is interested in listening about his failures.

The manager told the man about the need of intervening early about someone's

performance to have a regular performance review better for both the organization and the

individual as well. Another thing to keep in mind is not to hurt someone as a person but

just evaluation of their last wrong job done. The reprimand should be to rectify their

specific behavior that resulted into a wrong job in spite of the feelings about themselves as

a person.

The main motive of One Minute Reprimand should be the elimination of the behavior

and keeping the person.

Such a philosophy is implemented by giving a reprimand in two parts. The first part

deals with informing the employer about his poor performance and the manager's

reaction to it being frustrated and annoyed. The other part involves raising the morale of

the employer by making him believe in his capabilities of dealing with such situations

without repeating the mistakes he did earlier. The manager told that motivating the

employer honestly makes the person work with his full efficiency to improve his

performance.

The manager told the man about this philosophy of being tough and nice holds its roots

back to that in ancient China. The fable is about an emperor who thought of dividing his

tack of rewarding and punishing with his prime minister. The emperor lost his kingship

because he worked as being Nice and Tough where as the prime minister worked as being

Tough and Nice. The people accepted the person who is first tough on behavior and then

supportive of the people.

The manager also referred to the current day implementation of the same philosophy

dealing with disciplining children and severe adult behavior problems referring to

alcoholics in particular.

The young man was amazed at the simple concept that clears the complicated problems in

a simple manner.

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This not only eliminates the ill feelings in relationships between the two parties but

also invokes a feeling of caring and respect behind such a reprimand.

The manager also explained that touch being such a great emotional attitude can help the

employer recover from the reprimand and feel motivated enough to start again with a

greater zeal. The young man was impressed about the idea of being honest to people was

the manager's power.

The young man liked the One Minute Manager and he was haapy to know the reason why

people liked to work with him.

Seeing the man's dedication and enthusiasm the manager offered him job to help him

realize the winner in himself.

And the young eventually became a One Minute Manager himself.

He set One Minute Goals.

He gave One Minute Praisings.

He gave One Minute Reprimands.

And he encouraged the people he worked to do the same.

10. A Gift To Yourself

The man helped other people too become a One Minute Manger by giving copies of the

notes he prepared when he met that special manager.

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The new manager was also happy that he could take the knowledge one step further. By

giving copies to many other people in the organization, he had solved several practical

problems.

Everyone who worked with him felt secure. No one felt manipulated or threatened because

everyone knew “up front” what he was doing and why.

Sharing the knowledge in this simple and honest way had, of course, saved him a good deal

of time. And it had certainly made his job easier.

Many of the people reporting to him had become One Minute Managers themselves. And

they, in turn, had done the same for many of the people who reported to them.

The entire organization had become more effective. He felt good about himself—as a

person and as a manager. His caring about people had paid off handsomely. He had risen in

the organization, gaining more responsibilities and more rewards.

And he knew he had become an effective manager, because both his organization and the

people in it had clearly benefited from his presence.

My critical analysis/review

“Take a minute: 

Look at your goals —

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Look at your performance —

See if your behavior matches your goals”

The One Minute Manager has sold over 13 million copies and has been translated into 37

languages, which proves that a good and interesting book doesn’t have to be thick. With

just 110 pages it provides a lot of information and examples to think about, and compare

those with real-life situations.

This little book isn’t a multimillion bestseller for nothing. It contains techniques and step-

by-step plans which are highly effective in everyday life, both for managers and everyone

working with other people. The book is very easy to read, well written, has good examples

to elaborate on the important key points, and leaves you with a lot of things to think about.

During the course of the story, the young man finds that a good manager is an honest

man, who leads by example and who genuinely cares for his people. He learns that the

original One-Minute Manager has established certain precepts to ensure that a work group

is individually more responsible.

 

These are:

Set One-Minute Goals to ensure that your people understand perfectly what their

duties are, what is expected of them and that there are no surprises.

Give One-Minute Praise. Let the people know when they are doing the right thing

or when they are doing something right.

Give One-Minute Reprimands. Do it immediately and talk only about the incorrect

behavior only, not the people personally.

These concepts have been further propounded in the book. The parable finally ends in the

young man adopting and exploiting the one-minute policies and gradually attaining great

success and fame, like his tutor.

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The best quote that I liked from the book is:

Not only about effective goal setting, but also about social behavior and the

psychological consequences of actions.

The book is not only about managing people at work. It creates an enthusiastic feeling of

being a winner oneself. In our daily life we need to have such a temperament as explained

by the authors in a story.

In addition, the book has taught me that the quickest way to increase my productivity,

profits, satisfaction, and/or personal prosperity is by providing consistent predictable

positive reinforcement for desirable work behavior.

The secrets of one-minute management will help a manager boost profits and productivity

immediately through increases employee morale and job satisfaction.

I can advise this book to everyone, and want to thank the writers Blanchard and Johnson

for the great way they have written down their story.

For any person who is currently manager striving to get the most from people, or who is

planning to become one in the near future, "The One Minute Manager" is an indispensable

success tool.

It was a great learning experience, reading this book and I am sure I would cherish it for

the rest of my life.

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