The book “The One Minute Manager” is written by Kenneth Blanchard and co-authorized by physician Spencer Johnson. K. Albrecht (2002) writes the following about it: “Originally self-published in 1984, and only sold to a commercial publisher after it had achieved significant sales numbers, it eventually sold over 5 million copies in many languages” (p. 77).
The striking success and unflagging interest in the book are caused by the authors’ throwing light upon vital problems of successful management presented in a very simple and understandable form that reminds of a fairy-tale: “Once there was a bright young man…” (Blanchard & Spencer, 1982, p.11).
The book contains not more than ninety pages and presents “several simple and timeless principles of leadership in the form of a parable”, thus managing to find a new way of presentation of management methods in a book form (Albrecht, 2002, p.77).
The title of the book is rather optimistic. It suggests that management is a simple process, thus creating a favorable ground for the reader’s perception of the main ideas of the book and inspires an optimistic disposition.
A young man is looking for an effective manager everywhere because he wants to work for him and to become one eventually. Blanchard and Spencer (1982) formulate the definition of effective managers: “Effective managers… manage themselves and the people they work with so that both the organization and the people profit from their presence” (p.15). The definition is very clear and accessible even to a non-specialist.
The book consists of three chapters; each of them reveals a certain secret of successful management. Each chapter presents a simple technique and explains the mechanism of its work: One Minute Goal-setting, One Minute Praising, and One Minute Reprimands. Moreover, the book explains the ways how these techniques must be applied in practice. The authors use the words “one minute” in figurative meaning. They do not want to say directly that this or that operation should be performed within sixty seconds, they just want to stress their simplicity and to teach the reader to understand that praise and reprimand may be made directly, without long moralizing and lectures.
The first section of the book suggests agreement on the goals with the staff. This technique makes the staff aware of what is expected on their part and this will make the working process efficient. They should constantly keep their vision of goals fresh and make reports illustrating their success in the achievement of goals. The second section of the book teaches the manager to find every opportunity to praise the person for the slightest success in order to maintain positive feedback. T. Butler-Bowdon (2004) says that “praise is the fuel that can drive the whole enterprise” (p.32). An in case, if a member of the staff is qualified and skilled, but because of some reason, has done something wrong, the manager’s duty is to make a reproach, but this should be an objective reproach directed at the action, nothing personal should be involved. And the manager should not forget to remind the person that he is a valuable worker.
In the second part of the book, the authors explain why the abovementioned techniques work. The key ideas here are “motivation” in goal-setting and praising and “fairness” of reprimands that ensure successful work of all techniques. As a result, the manager gets the respect of the workers and they get support and confidence.
In conclusion, it must be said that after “decades of weighty tomes on management science … The One Minute Manager came as a breath of fresh air for managers” (Butler-Bowdon, 2004, p.33). Moreover, the principles described in the book may be also applied by common people in everyday life. Though some authors (Butler-Bowdon, 2004, p.34) say that in contemporary organizational structure the ideas of the book may seem old-fashioned, the fact remains that every leader should possess management skills.
Reference List
Albrecht, K. (2002). The Power of Minds at Work: Organizational Intelligence in Action. NY: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn.
Blanchrad, K.H. & Johnson S. (1982) The One Minute Manager. NY: Morrow.
Butler-Bowdon, T. (2004). 50 Success Classics: Winning Wisdom for Work and Life from 50 Landmark Books. Boston: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.