The One Minute Manager – by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

Background:

Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson have written heaps of books, both together and individually. The most famous are probably Who Moved My Cheese? and The One Minute Manager, which now has around 15 different spin offs of other “One Minute” titles.

Ken Blanchard, PHD, is one of the world’s most renowned leadership experts. He has sold over 21 million books, was inducted into Amazon’s Hall of Fame as one of the top 25 best selling authors of all time, and has worked with companies all around the world to improve leadership characteristics and qualities.

Spencer John, MD, has become a world thought leader for presenting simple solutions to complex problems. Known as the “King of Parables”, Johnson is a highly qualified psychologist with over 50 million books in print worldwide.

 

Quick Summary:

The One Minute Manager is a parable about a young man who is studying leadership and management within companies. He has interviewed many managers but has never really been inspired until he meets the “One Minute Manager”. Subtitled ‘The world’s most popular way to manage your life and work’, this is a short and simple book that provides you with a short a simple way to manage yourself and others. There are Three Secrets to One Minute Management: One Minute Goals, One Minute Praisings, and One Minute Re-Directs (in the original publication, this was termed “Reprimands”, but was updated and rebranded was more positive connotations in the updated version called The New One Minute Manager as leaderships and management has progressed over the decades).

It is only about 80 pages long. As it’s a parable, it presents all of the ideas but allows you to interpret and internalise how you can best apply these in your life. I read this 12 months ago when I was still studying full time and thought it was a good read, but having re-read it as a full time employee with some more experience with managers, I think it’s now a GREAT read.

 

Who should read this:

This book is predominantly for managers, but I think it’s a good read for any employee (because we all have managers), and especially those with management aspirations of their own. These lessons can even be extrapolated to help you manage your personal life, not just your working life. I would love it if every one of my managers from now on read this book and applied its principles, and I hope when I’m a manager I can be as effective as the One Minute Manager.

 

Favourite Chapters:

 

Note: I’ll be referring to The New One Minute Manager version. It’s slightly updated from the original book, The One Minute Manager, but not drastically.

The New One Minute Manager

On the young man’s search for a world-leading manager, he finds a person who others call ‘the one minute manager’. (Or in the case of the updated version, ‘the new one minute manager’). As I said, this book is a parable, which is I guess a fictional story that has a moral or a non-fictional takeaway. I’m sure you can find a better definition but that’s how I think of it. In our first meeting with the One Minute Manager (from here on known as ‘OMM’), we learn that managing should be about facilitation of ideas. It should definitely NOT be about participating in the decision making of others. The OMM is about helping others come to their own decisions, not about making decision on their behalf.

We learn that some manager’s see themselves as “results oriented” while others are “people oriented”. Results oriented managers may refer to themselves as “bottom line managers”, “hard nosed”, “realistic”, or “profit-minded”, but generally they are seen by their subordinates as “tough”. People oriented managers may call themselves “supportive”, “considerate”, “humanistic” or “participative”, but at the end of the day may been seen as too “nice” or “soft” to produce financial results. Neither of these extremes are good, so the be a OMM, you need to be a combination of both.

My biggest takeaway from this section is the fact that “people who feel good about themselves produce good results”, and it is up to the manager to ensure that people are feeling good about themselves. This is the “key to productivity”, keeping in mind that productivity isn’t just the quantity or sheer volume of work output, but a big part of it is also the quality of the work. A major, major part of being a successful OMM is coaching your employees and training them to be better – you don’t need to be doing their job for them, so the better they become, the easier life is for you. By constantly coaching people, they will learn these Three Secrets for themselves and begi to deliver their own Goals, Praisings and Re-Directs without you.

 

The First Secret: One Minute Goals

This is a great way to help coach new employees or to help set people up for success in a new role or responsibility. The manager will be very present in the early stages of a new task to ensure things are progressing on the right path. The best way to do this is to set “One Minute Goals”. This is where the OMM and the employee work TOGETHER to set goals.

In a lot of situations, if you ask an employee what they do and you ask their boss what their employee does, you’ll get two very different answers. If this process is followed, all parties will be on the same page. This way, the employee won’t get in trouble for not doing something they never knew they were supposed to be doing! The key to this is that the manager doesn’t set the goals and give them to the employee. The OMM is there to facilitate discussion and help the employee set their own goals.

The most important goals are then written on one page. They are to be regularly reviewed in less than one minute so everyone can stay focused. If you’ve read about the “Pareto Principle” or the 80/20 rule, you’ll realise that 80% of the results come from 20% of the goals, so the manager and employee both keep a copy of the top 3 to 5 most important goals. Ideally, as the employee becomes more familiar with the process, they can begin to take on more responsibility and will eventually completely set their own goals autonomously and simply send their manager a copy.

As a side note, another book I liked a lot that emphasised goal setting was Life in Half a Second by Matthew Michalewicz.

 

Summary of One Minute Goals (from the end of the chapter):

1. Plan the goals together and describe them briefly and clearly. Show people what good performance looks like.
2. Have people write out each of their goals, with due dates, on a single page.
3. Ask them to review their most important goals each day, which takes only a few minutes to do.
4. Encourage people to take a minute to look at what they’re doing, and see if their behaviour matches their goals.
5. If it doesn’t, encourage them to re-think what they’re doing so they can realize their goals sooner.

 

The Second Secret: One Minute Praisings

As I previously mentioned, a manager’s job should be to help people feel good. Most managers are quick to point out when you’ve done something wrong. But a major key to being a OMM is to try and “catch people doing something right”. Especially in the beginning. It’s vitally important to give “crystal-clear feedback”. Feedback can be an “invaluable tool”, but only is it is done in specific terms.

Praising someone helps him or her feel good, but it must be sincere. By highlighting a specific incident and giving the feedback immediately, the praise becomes genuine. In the really early days of a new employee or a new responsibility, a OMM will even try to catch you doing something that’s ALMOST right. This way they can encourage positive behaviours. Again, as an employee settles in, these Praisings can become less frequent. The manager can step back and monitor the employee less and less as they earn trust. By coaching the employee on exactly when to give Praise and how these are to be delivered, the employee will learn to identify positive behaviours and start to Praise themselves!

 

Summary of One Minute Praisings (from the end of the chapter):

The first half-minute

1. Praise people as soon as possible.
2. Let people know what they did right – be specific.
3. Tell people how good you feel about what they did right, and how it helps.

Pause

4. Pause for a moment to allow people time to feel good about what they’ve done

The second half-minute

5. Encourage them to do more of the same.
6. Make it clear you have confidence in them and support their success.

 

The Third Secrets: One Minute Re-Directs

In the first version, this was termed “One Minute Reprimands”. It definite has more a positive spin on it now. These Re-Directs are important when an employee does something that doesn’t align with their goals. These are used for more established employees, once they are comfortable and have learned to set Goals and get Praisings.

Ultimately, Praise isn’t as effective in encouraging positive behaviours unless there are Reprimands or Re-Directs to eliminate negative ones. It helps people learn quicker and achieve their goals easier. Again, it is important that these are delivered very soon after the fact, rather than being saved up for semi-annual ‘performance reviews’. These need to be specific, and when it’s over, it’s over. You shouldn’t constantly dwell on the incident. Just take it on board and move on. Perhaps the most important aspect of the Re-Direct is the emphasise the fact that the issue relates to the specific incident or mistake, not to the person as a whole. The individual is still a great employee, they just made a one off mistake.

 

Summary of One Minute Re-Directs (from the end of the chapter):

The first half-minute

1. Re-Direct people as soon as possible.
2. Confirm the facts first, and review the mistake together – be specific.
3. Express how you feel about the mistake and its impact on results.

Pause

4. Be quiet for a moment to allow people time to feel concerned about what they’ve done.

The second half-minute

5. Remember to let them know that they’re better than their mistake, and that you think well of them as a person.
6. Remind them that you have confidence and trust in the, and support their success.
7. Realise that when the Re-Direct is over, it’s over.

Favourite Quotes:

“People look for more fulfilment in their work and their lives. They want to feel engaged and make a meaningful contribution. They’re less willing to trade time on the job to satisfy needs outside of work.”

“The most effective managers manage themselves and the people they work for so that both the people and the organisation profit from their presence”

“I believe in facilitating, but not participating in making other people’s decisions”

“To succeed sooner, managers must be both results-oriented and people-oriented”

“People who feel good about themselves produce good results”

“Productivity is more than just the quantity of work done – it is also the quality””

“Without giving people a quality product and the service they want, you won’t stay in business for long”

“In most organisations when you ask people what they do and then ask their boss, all too often you get two different answers”

“Managers [should] work with us to make it clear what our responsibilities are and what we are being held accountable for”

“If you can’t tell me what you’d like to be happening, you don’t have a problem yet – you’re just complaining”

“A problem only exists if there is a difference between what is actually happening and what you desire to be happening”

“My manager shows me how to do it so I can understand it and do it myself”

“Help people reach their full potential – catch them doing something right”

“Laugh at [yourself] when [you] make a mistake, and get over it by doing better work”

“The best minute I spend is the one I invest in people”

“Most companies spend so much of the money on people’s salaries, and yet they spend only a small fraction of their budget to develop people”

“The number one motivator of people is feedback on results”

“Everyone is a potential winner. Some people are disguised as losers. Don’t let their appearances fool you”

“Take a minute to look at your goals, then look at what you’re doing and see if it matches your goals”

“Punishment doesn’t work when you use it with someone who’s learning”

“We are not just our behaviour – we are the person managing our behaviour”

“Your job is to show people how to manage themselves and enjoy it”

“You want [people] to succeed when you’re not around”

“Goals begin behaviours, consequences influence future behaviours”

“Deep down, people like to work for themselves”