Ken Blanchard - One Minute Manager

Kenneth Hartley Blanchard (born May 6, 1939) is an American author and management expert. His book The One Minute Manager (co-authored with Spencer Johnson) has sold over 13 million copies and has been translated into 37 languages. He has coauthored over 30 other best-selling books, including Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach To Customer Service (1993), Leadership and the One Minute Manager: Increasing Effectiveness Through Situational Leadership (1985) (in which he coined the term seagull manager), Gung Ho! Turn On the People in Any Organization (1997), Whale Done! The Power of Positive Relationships (2002) and Leading at a Higher Level: Blanchard on Leadership and Creating High Performing Organizations (2006).

One Minute Manager can be found at: http://www.kenblanchard.com/Store/Books_Audios/The_One_Minute_Manager_Essentials/One_Minute_Manager_The/

The One Minute Manager is a 100 page story that have some of the best gems that can be used in life and management there are One Minute Goal Setting, One Minute Praisings, One Minute Reprimand. Despite the title, The One Minute Manager is not a book simply for managers.  Certainly, it has brilliant strategy on how to effectively (and efficiently) work with employees.  However, the reason for this book’s tremendous global success is the universally applicable nature of the message.  This is a book for managers and employees, parents with children, co-workers, housemates, classmates and married couples.  And I mean that quite sincerely.

One Minute Goal Setting:

One Minute Goal Setting: outlining, with the employee specific goals, benchmarks and consequences (good and bad). One Minute Goal Setting is the first secret and the foundation for One Minute Management. The authors advocate the 80-20 goal-setting rule: that 80% of your really important results will come from 20% of your goals. How do you get people truly excited about their work? Make it clear what is expected of them. One Minute Goal Setting is simply:

1. Agree on your goals.
2. See what good behavior looks like.
3. Write out each of your goals on a single sheet of paper using less than 250 words.
4. Read and re-read each goal, which requires only a minute or so each time you do it.
5. Take a minute every once in a while out of your day to look at your performance, and
6. See whether or not your behavior matches your goal.

Those Who Feel Good, Do Good

“People Who Feel Good About Themselves Produce Good Results”

“He looks you straight in the eye and tells you precisely what you did right. Then he shares with you how good he feels about what you did.”

One Minute Praisings:

One Minute Praisings: Catching someone doing something right, and recognizing them for it. One Minute Praisings is the second secret. The authors suggest that effective managers help people reach their full potential by catching them doing something right. "People who feel good about themselves produce good results." The One Minute Praising works well when you:

1. Tell people up front that you are going to let them know how they are doing.
2. Praise people immediately.
3. Tell people what they did right - be specific.
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 or touch people in a way that makes it clear that you support their success in the organization.

Feedback is the Breakfast of Champions

“Most managers wait until their people do something exactly right before they praise them.  As a result, many people never get to become high performers because their managers concentrate on catching them doing things wrong – that is, anything that falls short of the final desired performance.”

One Minute Reprimand:

One Minute Reprimands: Catching unproductive or negative behavior immediately, and explaining to the employee what the consequences have been. One Minute Reprimand is the third and final secret to effective managing. "Clearly the number one motivator of people is feedback on results." Feedback is the breakfast of champions. The One Minute Reprimand works well when you:

1. Tell people beforehand that you are going to let them know how they are doing and in no uncertain terms. 

• The first half of the reprimand:

1. Reprimand them immediately. [reprimand the behavior only, not the person or their worth]
2. Tell people what they did wrong - be specific.
3. Tell people how you feel about what they did wrong - and in no uncertain terms.
4. Stop for a few seconds of uncomfortable silence to let them feel how you feel.

• the second half of the reprimand:

1. Shake hands, or touch them in a way that lets them know you are honestly on their side.
2. Remind them how much you value them.
3. Reaffirm that you think well of them but not of their performance in this situation.
4. Realize that when the reprimand is over, it's over.

The Nature of Complaint

“If you can’t tell me what you’d like to be happening, he said, 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.”

The authors write that, as a manager, there are three choices when it comes to getting the most 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. Prayer

They suggest that option 2 is best. However, isn't it ironic that most companies spend 50-70% of their money on people's salaries and yet they spend less than 1% of their budget to train their people?

It has been said that "The best minute I spend is the one I invest in people." Effective managers manage themselves and the people they work with so that both the organization and the people profit from their presence. So, in summary, how can you give yourself and others "the gift" of getting greater results in less time? 1) Set goals; 2) Praise and reprimand behaviors; 3) Encourage people; 4) Speak the truth; 5) Laugh, work, enjoy!

"Everyone is a potential winner. Some people are disguised as losers...don't let their appearance fool you."