One Minute ManagerBy - Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

Book review

Submitted to : Submitted by :

Dr. R.L Raina Group 1 , Section -A

Prof. Mahima Thakur Padma Devi (19)

Saurabh Pandey (21)

Gaurang Sahlot (79)

Isha Vashist (83)

Nihareika Sinha (91)

Siraj Siddiqui (151)

Date of Submission:

September 9, 2009TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Acknowledgement………………………………………....... 3

2. Executive Summary…………………………………………..4

3. Objective……………………………………………………...5

4. Background…………………………………………………...6

5. Introduction…………………………………………………...7

6. The Book Review…………………………………………….8

7. Review of Literature…………………………………………10

8. Recommendations……………………………………………13

9. Bibliography …………………………………………………14

10. References…………………………………………………….16

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We express a deep sense of gratitude towards our teachers, Prof. R.L. Raina and

Prof. Mahima Thakur, for giving us an opportunity to work on this project. We

also thank them for their valued guidance throughout the completion of the

project.

We are thankful to the staff of the library of our institute for helping us collect the

adequate resources for secondary information, pertaining to our project. We would

finally like to thank all those people, without whose help and support, it would not

have been possible for us to give justice to the project.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

"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 world-class

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.

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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OBJECTIVE

The objective of the book ‘The One Minute Manager’ by Kenneth Blanchard and

Spencer Johnson is to define the effective managers in this dynamic world of

business where various external and internal factors influence their performance.

The author does it through a search mission of a young man whose quest is to find

managers who make both- their organization and people win with their managerial

skills. The author talks about a continuum, where tough or autocratic managers

who make their organization win occupy one end but their people loose; while the

other end is reserved for nice or democratic ones who make their people win but

their organizations loose. Effective managers are ‘the one minute managers’ who

adopt principles of one-minute goals, one minute praising and one minute

reprimands.

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BACKGROUND

Kenneth Blanchard graduated from Cornell University and went on to complete

his PhD in Administration and Management. In the early 1980s he was Professor

of Leadership and Organizational behavior at the University of Massachusetts,

Amherst. He wrote and researched extensively in the fields of leadership,

motivation and the management of change and his “Management of

Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources” (co-authored with Paul

Hersey) is now in its 7th edition and has become a classic text.

Blanchard and his co-author of the One-Minute Manager (OMM), Spencer

Johnson MD, describe the book as an allegory, a simple compilation of what

'many wise people have taught us and what we have learned ourselves'

(Introduction to OMM).

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INTRODUCTION

The One Minute Manager, was written in1982, has sold millions of copies but still

makes appearances in Amazon’s list of best-selling business books. With very

busy people as its target audience, it is designed to be read very quickly. In fact,

the 96 pages of large type can be completed in little over an hour of concentrated

reading.

Being a manager of an organization is a very strenuous task. Learning how to be a

more effective manager and using tools to make your work load easier is a sought

after exercise. Drawing a line between being a tough and a nice manager is a

complicated task and can define whether a managers employees work to their full

potential. The One Minute Manager, written by Ken Blanchard and Spencer

Johnson, gives a very detailed way of managing that can do wonders for an

organization. The authors tell a story of a young man looking to find the best way

to be a productive manager and through his journeys learns a lot about how many

companies managers fail until he comes to hear about a manager who has a unique

way of doing things that has positive impacts on his company. The book begins

with a young man who wants to learn the best way to manage a company. He goes

from company to company and begins to pile up a list of what the manager has

done wrong and then comes to the conclusion that their way of managing is not

the best for him.

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THE BOOK REVIEW

The One Minute Manager reveals three secrets to productive and efficient

managing as told through a young man's search for the perfect managing and

leading skills. The One Minute Manager is focused on, not surprisingly, a one

minute manager. The man is a venerable leader that is highly spoken of by his

employees, his three secrets being the key to his success.

The principle of one minute goals is to set a direction of every single person in the

organization. There should be allocation of clear responsibilities and

accountability. Goal and performance should be written in less than 250 words on

one piece of paper which is followed by assessment of difference between

performance and goals. Our behavior should be in conformity with our goals.

The second principle of praising consists of an attempt to catch people doing

something right and praising them instantly. There should be genuine effort to

make people feel good about their strengths because the author suggests that ‘only

those people who feel good about themselves perform’. The principle of one

minute reprimand includes reprimanding people when they do not perform well.

But a Manager should know the specific use of praise. Moreover, only the wrong

behavior by an individual needs to be reprimanded; not the individual himself.

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This book is full of implications for managers. But the focus has been on one

minute.

When every process is reduced to one minute, it leads to over simplification of the

process which a manager has to undertake. It has ignored the dual role that a

manager performs in structured organization where there are both subordinates

and seniors. This book has teachings for seniors only. But this book talks of

empowering people and giving them onus of their lives through applications of

various principles of human relations and

Communications.

The book is deceptively simple. It is an inspiration to thousands of leaders and is a

business book that should be read and reread as often as possible. Ever since the

first edition came out in 1992, the book has been acting as a practical business

guide for managers who want to get the most from their employees.

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

productivity immediately through increases employee morale and job satisfaction.

Some people are inclined to be condescending about a book like The One-Minute

Manager, partly due to its style but also on the grounds that its messages are so

basic that they don’t apply to experienced managers such as themselves. In many

aspects of business and personal life there’s no such thing as a given. It’s a given

that organizations should be helpful when dealing with customers, but they don’t

always do it. It’s a given that employees should be adequately trained to do their

job, but it doesn’t always happen. Of course it’s a really basic management

principle that employees’ desirable behavior should be re-enforced through

recognition and praise whereas work or attitudes less helpful to the organization

should be pointed out and corrected. Basic yes. Universally implemented? No!

By Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson Published by Harper Collins

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S

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Putting the One Minute Manager to work was a follow-up in 1984 by Blanchard

and co-author Richard Lorber (an expert in performance improvement) to flesh out

some of the basic ideas which had met initial success in the One Minute Manager.

Sub-titled How to Turn the Three Secrets Into Skills, the 1984 follow-up focuses

on the 'ABCs' of management, 'effective reprimanding', and the 'PRICE' system.

The ABCs

Activators--those things which a manager has to do before anyone else can be

expected to achieve anything, such as goal-setting, laying down areas of

accountability, issuing instructions and setting performance standards.

Behavior--or performance--what a person says or does, such as filing, writing,

selling, ordering, buying etc.

Consequence--what a manager does after performance, such as sharing feelings,

praising, reprimanding, supporting etc.

Effective reprimanding

As a consequence of performance, the manager has to distinguish between when

an employee can't do Something--which implies a need for training and signals a

return to the activator of goal-setting, and when an employee won't do something--

which implies an attitude problem and a case for reprimanding. Reprimands do not

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teach skills, they can only change attitudes. Positive consequences on the other

hand can influence future performance to the good, so it is important to end a

reprimand with a praising. This has the effect of making the employee think about

their own behaviour and not that of the reprimander.

The PRICE system

PRICE takes the three basic secrets of one-minute management and turns them

into the five steps of:

Pinpointing--defining key performance areas in measurable terms--part of one-

minute goal-setting

Recording--gathering data to measure actual performance and keep track of

progress

Involving--sharing the information recorded with whomsoever is responsible

Coaching--providing constructive feedback on improving performance

Evaluating--part of coaching, also part of reprimanding or praising.

Leadership and the One-Minute Manager stresses that there is no single, best

method of leadership, but are in fact four styles: directing, delegating, coaching

and support. Whichever style is employed depends on the situation to be managed.

'Situational leadership is not something you do to people, but something you do

with people'. Blanchard turns conventional leadership thinking on its head, using

the analogy of turning the organisational pyramid upside down; instead of staff

working for their boss, the boss should work for the staff.

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The One-Minute Manager Builds High-Performing Teams can be seen as a

companion to Leadership and concentrates on integrating the simplicity of the one-

minute techniques into understanding group dynamics and adjusting leadership

style to meet the developing circumstances.

The One-Minute Manager Meets the Monkey deals with the problems of time

management and overload. Paying tribute to Bill Oncken, Blanchard's co-author

who created the monkey analogy, Blanchard points the finger at the manager as

the 'hero with all the answers' by stressing that bosses are not there to try and

tackle every problem themselves, rather to get others to come up with solutions.

The monkey is the problem--or the next move--being passed from subordinate to

superior, making the superior rapidly ineffective; the one-minute manager is not a

collector of monkeys, rather a facilitator and coach helping others to solve their

own problems.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

The One Minute Manager is a quick read that emphasizes key points throughout.

The message is clear, and implementing the ideas is straight-forward and laid out

in the book. This makes it simple to utilize the knowledge and techniques that the

one minute manager style offers. Due to these factors, I find The One Minute

Manager an effective tool for developing leadership.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Who Killed Change?: Solving the Mystery of Leading People Through

Change (with John Britt, Pat Zigarmi, and Judd Hoekstra, 2009) ISBN

9780061778933

Helping People Win at Work: A Business Philosophy Called Don't Mark

My Paper, Help Me Get an A (with Garry Ridge, 2009) ISBN

9780137011711

The One Minute Entrepreneur (with Don Hutson and Ethan Willis,

2008) ISBN 9780385526029

4th Secret of the One Minute Manager: A Powerful Way to Make Things

Better (with Margret Mcbride, 2008) ISBN 9780061470318

The Mulligan: A Parable of Second Chances (with Wally Armstrong)

(Thomas Nelson, 2007) ISBN 9780849903236

Know Can Do!: Put Your Know-How Into Action (with Paul J Meyer

and Dick Ruhe) (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2007) ISBN

9781576754689

Leading at a Higher Level: Blanchard on Leadership and Creating

High Performing Organizations (FT Press, 2006) ISBN 9780132347723

Lead Like Jesus: Lessons from the Greatest Leadership Role Model of

All Time (with Phil Hodges) (Thomas Nelson, 2006) ISBN

9780849900402

The Simple Truths of Service (with Barbara Glanz) (Blanchard Family

Partnership, 2005)

Kingdomality : An Ingenious New Way to Triumph in Management

(foreward; Sheldon Bowles) (Hyperion, 2005) ISBN 1401301355

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The On-time, On-target Manager (One Minute Manager) (with Steve

Gottry) (HarperCollins Entertainment, 2004) ISBN 9780007190355

0060574593

Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness

Through Situational Self Leadership (with Susan Fowler and Laurence

Hawkins) (William Morrow, 2005) ISBN 9780060799120

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REFERENCES

1. The Ken Blanchard Companies

2. Amazon.com: Profile for Ken Blanchard

3. http://kenblanchard.com/img/pub/ken_blanchard.pdf

4. Change Management Speakers

5. Ken Blanchard from HarperCollins Publishers

6. Blanchard offers tips for success to students

7. Entrepreneurship@Cornell Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year Award

8. http://www.successmagazine.com/article.php?article_id=203

9. Kenneth Blanchard

10. Ken Blanchard professional speaker

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