The One-Minute Manager

Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

I got a task to review this book during induction program as a part of my assignment. I delayed
reading it expecting it to be too philosophical and thought book doesn’t turn out interesting but I
was proven wrong. This book is completely different from another book. Opening of book made
me curious to jump straight into it and I couldn’t keep it down unless I had gobbled it up all.
The story begins with a young man searching out for an effective manager. His search lead him
across managers who categorizes themselves into two type: Autocratic who define themselves as
realistic, profit oriented who likes to win on every situation. And democratic who define
themselves as participative and supportive. Also, he thinks of why autocratic ones have high
turnover but unhappy employees and democratic have vice versa.
He interviewed many managers but finally stumble across one who is willing to share his secret
and calls himself as “the one minute manager” and he was quite character. The one minute
manager listens while his people review and analyze what they have accomplished, the problems
they had and what still needs to be accomplished. He doesn’t believe in participating in any of
his peoples decision making , neither he is result oriented nor people oriented. He cares about
people and result equally. The man is an admired leader that is highly spoken by his employees
and his three secrets being the key to his success. The secrets to be productive and efficient
managers are revealed to young man by his three different employees.
For the first secret, young man visited at Trenell’s office who was middle aged man and asked
him about one minute manager where he responded about first secret of one minute goal setting.
The basic philosophy of one minute goal setting says :
1) Agree on your goals
2) See what good behavior looks like
3) Write down your goals on a single page using less than 250 words
4) Read and re read each goals which takes only a minute or so each time
5) Take a minute every once in a while to look at your performance
6) See whether or not your behavior matches your goal

The young man was struck by the simplicity of what he had heard and thought it certainly makes
sense. The young man wrote briefly on a notebook and leaned forward to ask about two other
secrets where Trenelly advised him to see levy for second secret. The young man got to levy’s
office and was supervised to see young man in his late 20s. The young man wondered if he get a
different answer and young man was surprised to hear about one minute praising as a second
secret. Here he shared about the one minute manager praising his people reach their full potential
and ccatch them to praise while doing something right. The secret who works when you:
 1) Tell people right from the start that you are going to let them know how they have been
doing
2) Praise them immediately
3) Tell people what exactly they did right specifically
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, pat on shoulders or touch them in a way that makes it clear that you support
their success in the organization
The young man finds interesting about managers and enjoys learning the secret of becoming one
minute managers and also appreciate behaviour of one minute praising. He wanted to reflect
what he was learning and curiously asked about the third secret and levys advised him to meet
MS Brown. He was restless and found himself excited about the next day about learning third
secret to become one minute manager.
Next day he met MS Brown, a very smartly dressed women in her late 50s. The young man was
curious to know about the third motto of being one minute manager. He got one minute
reprimand as third secret and young man wondered how it worked. Here she explained about
eliminating behavior and keeping people which showed both reprimand and the reassurance
being equally important.
1) Tell people before hand that you are going to let them know how they are doing and in no
uncertain terms
2) Reprimand people immediately
3) Tell people what they did wrong in a specific manner
4) Tell people how you feel about what they did wrong and in no uncertain times
5) Stop for few seconds of uncomfortable silence to let them feel how you feel
6) Shake hand 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 on this situation
9) Realize that when reprimand is over, its over
The author writes that, as a manager while choosing successful employees, there are some
choices you need to consider out of an employee:
1) Hire a winner (can be hard to find and expensive to hire and keep )
2) Hire someone with potential to be a winner and then systematically train them
3) If not willing to do either, then the third choice left is pray to god for the people, whom
are hired to perform.
The writer also clearly explains how these three one manager tools work. The author clearly
suggests that the manager should concentrate on developing the full potential of their people, as
it is the best way to improve the company performance by using three time saving one minute
managers tools to encourage and motivate them to try even harder next time. The writing style
and story is incredible and fun to read. I recommend this book for everyone who works with
others in a team as it will definitely improve your employee relationship and I personally feel
motivated and start using these principles in my life.