A guide to become a good and effective leader | The One Minute Manager

The One Minute Manager

About Author:

Ken Blanchard

Kenneth Hartley Blanchard (born May 6, 1939) is an American author. His extensive writing career includes over 60 published books, most of which are co-authored books. His most successful book, The One Minute Manager, has sold over 13 million copies and been translated into many languages.

Spencer Johnson (writer)

Patrick Spencer Johnson (November 24, 1938 – July 3, 2017) was an American physician and author, known for the ValueTales series of children's books, and for his 1998 self-help book Who Moved My Cheese?, which recurred on the New York Times Bestseller list, on the Publishers Weekly Hardcover nonfiction list. Johnson was chairman of Spencer Johnson Partners.

Summary of Book:

Many years ago a man was searching an effective manager for his company so that he can work with him and become an effective manager like him in future, so he decided that he will travel all over the world and will meet manager of every big and small companies in order to know the quality of an effective manager. Whenever he meet the manager of any company he asked them only one question WHAT KIND OF MANAGER WOULD YOU SAY YOU ARE? He always used to get 2 types of answer for this question 1) AUTOCRATIC MANAGER who only think about result and profit of the company 2) DEMOCRATIC MANAGER who first thing about the company employees and always help them in their work. That man found this both answer as partially effective, he didn't found that quality in any manager which he was looking for. One day he came to know about a special manager, he was surprised to know that everyone was happy to work under that SPECIAL MANAGER so he decided that he will meet that special manager and immediately fixed an appointment with him. When he met the special manager for the first time he asked him the same question WHAT KIND OF MANAGER WOULD YOU SAY YOU ARE? Manager replied "I AM A ONE MINUTE MANAGER" that man asked, "Why One Minute Manager?" Special manager said that he needs very less time to achieve big result from his people. That man gave him a shocking reaction and asked "But how it is possible?" Special manager told him to meet his 3 employees who will tell him the 3 secrets to become a special manager. 

Firstly, he met Mr.Trenell who was a middle aged person Mr.Trenell told him that one minute manager set one minute goal of every new task and project. Along with him many time in a company, employees goals and organization goals are different due to which they don't get expected result and output through one minute goal. Mr.Trenell has explained that in a group task, the goal of group leader and group member should be clear and uniform and everyone should agree on that goal. Goal should be assigned to the person according to their behaviour, goal should be written on a single sheet of paper which should be less than 250 words so that it can be read again and again within 1 minute and lastly, take out sometime from your busy schedule to analyse your behaviour and performance, whether they are matching your goals or not. After that Mr.Trenell told him to him to meet Mr.Levy. 

He was going to tell him second secret of one minute manager. Mr.Levy said that one minute manager keep an eye on whatever right work he do and every time he do one minute praise for doing right thing, whenever we praise someone for their good job their self-confidence get boosted for example: When I use to play basketball representing my collage, we were in finals of the tournament and opposite team were champions and two of our team mates were injured and not able to play that match. We had two fresher in our team who were not so good at this sport and that’s why they were too nervous to play. Our coach called us just before the match and told us you guys are the best team and it doesn’t mater if you loose of win you will the best team, because of this motivation talk we win that tournament and guess what those two fresher played really well and now they are dragging medals and trophies for our collage. Similarly instead of taking out mistake of our new employees if we praise them daily for 1 minute for their good work then they will become more productive and sincere for their job through 1 minute praising. Mr.Levy has explained that we should praise our group member immediately, we should specify the right thing that they have done shake hand in order to show that you support their success and lastly, encourage them to do more such work. After that Mr.Levy told him to meet Ms.Brown.

Ms. Brown was going to tell him the last secret of one minute manager Ms.Brown age was around 50 and she was one of the most experienced employee in the company. Ms.Brown said that one minute manager meet her whenever she do some mistake so that he can make her realize about that mistake which should not be repeated again. Every company invest lots of their time and money in order to make their employee skillful that is why they expect that their employee should not make any mistake and if they have done any mistake, they should rectify it and don't repeat that mistake again for example after growing up also, if that toddler called water with the same name that he was calling when he was toddler only then in that case you correct him because from childhood you are trying to make him speak right word through one minute reprimand, Ms.Brown has explained that we should immediately specify the mistake to our senior employees. You should express that you are always with them and lastly, you should remind them about their value in the company So, to conclude from this whole story, we can learn the actual game plan of one minute manager which can be used to achieve greater result in less time start any task with a one minute goal which should be written on a sheet and can be read within 1 minute if the goal is achieved then praise your employees for 1 minute and proceed ahead towards success if the goal has not been achieved then analyse your mistake in order to rectify it and start it again. These principals we have go from the book "THE ONE MINUTE MANAGER" if you want to become an effective and good leader then you should definitely read this book. Happy reading!