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One Minute Manager

The New One Minute Manager

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For decades, The One Minute Manager® has helped millions achieve more successful professional and personal lives. While the principles it lays out are timeless, our world has changed drastically since the book’s publication. The exponential rise of technology, global flattening of markets, instant communication, and pressures on corporate workforces to do more with less—including resources, funding, and staff—have all revolutionized the world in which we live and work.

Now, Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson have written The New One Minute Manager to introduce the book’s powerful, important lessons to a new generation. In their concise, easy-to-read story, they teach readers three very practical secrets about leading others—and explain why these techniques continue to work so well.

As compelling today as the original was thirty years ago, this classic parable of a young man looking for an effective manager is more relevant and useful than ever.

112 pages, Hardcover

First published May 7, 2015

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About the author

Kenneth H. Blanchard

179 books1,764 followers
Ken Blanchard, one of the most influential leadership experts in the world, is the coauthor of the iconic bestseller, The One Minute Manager, and 60 other books whose combined sales total more than 21 million copies. His groundbreaking works have been translated into more than 27 languages and in 2005 he was inducted into Amazon’s Hall of Fame as one of the top 25 bestselling authors of all time.

Ken is also the cofounder and chief spiritual officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies®, an international management training and consulting firm that he and his wife, Margie Blanchard, began in 1979 in San Diego, California.

When he’s not writing or speaking, Ken also spends time teaching students in the Master of Science in Executive Leadership Program at the University of San Diego. Ken can be found at www.kenblanchard.com.

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5 stars
3,994 (31%)
4 stars
4,577 (35%)
3 stars
3,014 (23%)
2 stars
945 (7%)
1 star
305 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,135 reviews
Profile Image for Spencer Richard.
Author 3 books11 followers
July 20, 2015
This was a parable that probably works for a lot of people. The original version has like 50,000 ratings on goodreads. It's clear that it has value. I recognize that it has value, there are some great tools in here. Three to be exact. The thing is, it's incredibly cult-like and as far as literature goes--it was beyond awful. I earmarked three pages, each had maybe four sentences. They have the summaries of each holy Secret. They are my takeaways.

I guess you could say that I very much disliked it. However, my manager employs these methods and I think she's fantastic. She swears by it. She is a mentor to me which I adore and I've learned every lesson in this book already from her. So in that sense, I am very thankful to the book. Good show, Authors. Thank you for writing it.

I just... *Sigh*. I just can't give it more than two stars. When someone asks me, "Hey, what's that book about?", In saying what it's about I will no doubt give the entire thesis and its supporting examples, nullifying the need to even read it.
5 reviews
November 2, 2015
got the book from library and skimmed it.

One Minute GOAL:
-written in under 250 words (FITS one 1 page) with clear measurements of what winning is.
-review goals frequently
-monitor and try to notice if people are matching with goal or urge them to change
-Closely monitor: look over trying to find something to praise - not something to criticize.

One Minute PRAISING:
-One minute praising: if the goal is achieved spend 60 seconds praising the behavior that led to the win. Be genuine and not cheesy.
-Say how you feel about it.
-encourage them to keep up the good work

One Minute RE-DIRECTS
-Re-clarify and agree on goal
-Confirm what happened.
-describe mistake and say how you feel
-PAUSE - let it sink in
-tell them they are better and you VALUE them
-ITS OVER FOREVER

-One minute reprimand: if the goal is missed immediately and specifically call out the bad behavior - but with a goal to show you care, don't just rant.
-Be tough/nice: The key to not be taken advantage of is to be tough first then nice afterwards in rewarding success. That formula, in that order, works best. Not nice and then tough. Reverse the order to tough first.
Profile Image for Geoff.
987 reviews116 followers
February 17, 2017
God save me from business parables. The core tips were good, but at 112 pages this was about ten times longer than it needed to be, and the padding was vague, vacuous, and simplistic.
Profile Image for John Smith.
47 reviews16 followers
May 5, 2015
I read the first version of this book in 1984, as I transitioned from one job and state to another. I remember thinking that this is how I want to work with people - using short interactions to clarify and motivate. My work has always included an emphasis on brief and direct discussions with those I hope to lead, using Blanchard and Johnson's model.

When I heard that they were updating and releasing a new version, I expected to be re-inspired and I have not been disappointed.

The 21st Century version of the The One-Minute Manager seems more humble and open, and I think this resonates nicely with how the most effective leaders are approaching interactions these days. The style of the book is much the same, but the details have been subtly reworked to make this a modern leadership fable.

Here's a thought ... grab a copy of the original, if you do not already have one, and read it first. Then dive into the new version. Both are relatively short, ready to read, and crammed with solid leadership coaching advice.

I can't wait to see what Blanchard and Johnson do for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the original edition:).
Profile Image for Andrej Karpathy.
110 reviews3,988 followers
June 18, 2018
A very short book that employs clever writing to turn otherwise bland material into both fun and insightful reading.
Profile Image for Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship.
1,231 reviews1,388 followers
August 25, 2020
I’m not entirely sure how to rate this book. The text is incredibly short: about the length of a magazine article. The takeaways are even shorter; much of that short text is a parable about a young man learning the ways of the one-minute manager. That said, I got this book from the library so I’m inclined to be generous regarding the amount of actual content, and there is something to be said for expanding on a simple idea at a little more length in order to fix it in readers’ minds.

The takeaways are basically this:

Goals: Employees need to know what their goals in their positions are, so that they can figure out for themselves whether or not they’re succeeding without having to wait for infrequent performance reviews. The manager and employee should figure out together the employee’s goals, which should be written down with timelines in a short form that’s easy for the employee to review regularly. (I’m having trouble figuring out how to implement this one in my workplace due to the nature of our work.)

Praising: Managers should try to “catch people doing something right” and offer specific praise when they see it to make employees feel good about themselves. People with confidence and who like their jobs do better work, so focusing on people and focusing on results shouldn’t be a choice between two different goals. Also, you shouldn’t wait until people are doing something perfectly before praising them any more than you’d wait until a kid has learned to talk before praising their attempts. (I need to work on this but at least the how-to is obvious.)

Redirects: When people do something wrong, the authors suggest that you discuss it with the person as soon as possible; confirm the facts and review the mistake together; tell the employee how you feel about the mistake and pause for a moment for them to be concerned; and then express that you know their work is better than this, have confidence in them and think well of them as a person. Then, let it go. (All this seems challenging to do, but probably a good idea. I haven’t tried it yet.)

Overall this seems to me to pack some good advice that goes beyond what you’d expect from the brief page count, though yeah, it is really short. Hopefully I’ll be able to figure out how to use it.
Profile Image for Ebony.
Author 7 books174 followers
Read
December 19, 2016
[SPOILER ALERT]
The New One Minute Manager came highly recommended to me. I added it to this list and a student graciously gifted it. (Note to self: invite all students to my Goodreads). I read it quickly and thought, I’m one of those results managers. How do I shift the balance to results and people mid-stream? Then my programmer messaged about a show-stopping bug that he found after an upgrade. He said he stopped his current milestone to fix it, and we were back on track. I tried the one-minute praise. I told him how panicked I felt about the show stopping bug and praised him for finding and fixing it expeditiously. Then he responded with a list of his goals for the week. And I decided this book is magic.
It starts by outlining the importance of one minute goals with deadlines that team members should ultimately be able to make themselves once their responsibilities are clear. The fact that my programmer did this without my having to ask after (I confess) a rare bit of praise from me is the buy-in the book suggests that team members need. And by team, I mean managers and employees without the hierarchy. The book also talks about team members solving problems independently which makes me feel like I’m not such a bad manager after all. The final third of the book—post the one minute goals and praise is the redirect where you describe mistakes, express your feelings about them, and praise the person as separate from the problem they contributed to. The feeling part is hard for me. I’m a business is business type, but I learned today that expressing my feelings about our work humanizes me and humanizes the work. We’re not machines after all. We’re humans pursuing goals via problem-solving which means concern and praise are always legitimate parts of our people and results driven conversations.
Profile Image for Maddi Crezee.
1 review
April 3, 2018
This book is very obnoxious. It has good points which could (and are) summarized on three pages. This leads me to my first problem. The only important information is found on 3 pages, yet it has been dragged into a 92 page book. Reading this book reminded me of a student trying to hit a word count quota set by their teacher.

My second problem is that the authors decided to write it in the form of a story, in which a young man searches the world far and wide for a good manager only to find that the best manager was in a small town next to his home. (That took 6 pages to explain) Then instead of the manager telling him his "three secrets" the young man meets with three employees to learn the secrets (This took 40 pages) Then the young man meets with the manger again to 'summarize' everything for FORTY-SIX more pages....The story is very cringe worthy, and reminds me of something Michael Scott could have wrote.

These are the two reasons I cannot give this book, which should have been a one page paper, more than one star.
Profile Image for Stella Hu.
96 reviews5 followers
March 8, 2022
TLDR.

Focus on
• 1 min goals: make it clear what the goals are and show what good behavior looks like. Redirect people to come up with solutions to problems otherwise you’re just complaining.
• 1 min praisings: praise the behavior; be specific and do it soon.
• 1 min re-directs: confirm what happened, describe the mistake but let them know you value them.

Overall, concise book but somewhat overly simplistic about being a manager.
Profile Image for Joaquin Garza.
580 reviews691 followers
January 22, 2018
Aunque quisiera haber leído este libro desde que me
empezaron a reportar (y pese a que tomé muchas y muy útiles notas), el libro peca de lo que pecan la
mayoría de los libros que son fads del management: hacer muuucho dinero con poco contenido y/o por decir obviedades.
Al final el anuncio es valioso, pero dénmelo en un abstract y no me vendan un libro para saberlo.
Profile Image for Shahrazad.
79 reviews41 followers
September 2, 2019
Someone recommended the original ‘one minute manager’ in a training and I thought I’d try this version. I found it too simplistic , the parable used was irritating. It can probably be summarized in a paragraph. Other than the ‘3 secrets’ I came out of it with a couple of new things . Namely , it names a type of leadership I’ve seen in the Middle East ‘leave alone and zap’ now I have a nickname for it :) and it articulates a learning concept applicable for students, employees and even kids ‘ punishing someone who is learning is not effective’ .
Profile Image for Greg Swierad.
44 reviews241 followers
August 11, 2015
5 Stars, because book is very short and has very interesting management theory. I did not try it yet, but looks very interesting and knowing psychology of humans it has solution for many problems while management of group of people.

I do recommend this book, but only for team leaders. Only then you will make a use of it, and understand philosophy of it.
Profile Image for Steff Fox.
1,304 reviews157 followers
April 19, 2022
$20 for the 98 pages it takes the book to say something that could’ve been said in 5. The majority of this book is just painful filler whose only purpose is to make it so they can sell it as a book instead of passing it out as a brochure.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some great takeaways from this. But no one needs 98 pages to impart those messages.
Profile Image for Aloe Belascuain.
40 reviews11 followers
May 5, 2023
Short but on point!

Easy to remember: one minute goal setting, one minute praising and one minute re-directing. I was able to apply the teachings the day I read them. The story plotting is so real and I can even imagine the people. Highly recommended to those who are having difficulty managing people. Thanks to my client who recommended reading this!💫
Profile Image for Chinmayee Bhamburkar .
13 reviews7 followers
May 23, 2017
I'd planned to give it only as many stars as the secrets they shared. Eventually, even though the book speaks nothing new; you feel you have discovered something worth a lifelong practice. If you're very lazy just read the capitalised mantras throughout the book!
Profile Image for Andrius Zygmanta.
12 reviews1 follower
October 12, 2019
Simple but powerful book about overlooked basics of people management.

“I believe in facilitating, but not in participating in making other people’s decisions. We’re here to get results. By drawing on the talents of everyone, we’re a lot more productive”
Profile Image for Stephanie.
171 reviews2 followers
October 4, 2020
A simple and concise guide to help you learn how to manage yourself and others. Anyone could implement these basic steps into their professional and/or personal lives and experience a significant improvement. EXCELLENT!!!
Profile Image for Chandler Alexander.
Author 1 book48 followers
March 1, 2017
Great book

This book was amazing! It has served as a blessing for me in both my personal and profession life! A must read.
Profile Image for Liwia || moonbookish.
325 reviews51 followers
December 4, 2023
Nie lubię takiej formy przypowieści, ale przyznaję, że są to proste porady w łatwo przyswajalnej formie - dobre na sam początek w zarządzaniu ludźmi.
Profile Image for Giorgos.
54 reviews
April 14, 2023
This is a great book 📚 there are some secrets to become a manager; they seem to correlate, at least for me, with the skills of a leader! Try to clarify the goals, give praisings and feedback. When the people manage to manage themselves, you are a good manager
35 reviews
July 10, 2021
Now finally a management book written in the form of a story. Humans remember concepts that flow in a logical sense like a story which is what this 100 pg book does perfectly. Amazing management doesn't have to be conceptually hard or involve some hidden strategy that only a select few can master. It is usually the painful obvious that no one notices or takes time to acknowledge because of how easy it can sound. But this less than 1 hr read states the key obvious ideas you should focus on, and that its really just 3 easy steps! It also offers perfectly simple summaries and explanation with the right amount of reiteration to burn it into your brain. There are too many management or self help books out there that take 100 pages to explain one aspect with anecdotal evidence and proof of years of research but lets cut to the chase, we just need to know what works and is it effective. This book does just that. I urge everyone to take 1 hour out of your life to read this book as I believe everyone can benefit in its 'secrets.

This book could not have come at a better time. Since I had just switched jobs, I have already talked through these concepts with my new manager to express how I'd like to be managed and I am already reaping the benefits. He's going to read the book this weekend now :).
Profile Image for Michelle Sauvageau.
370 reviews4 followers
July 19, 2020
When I first started reading this I thought I wasn’t going to get a single thing out of it, but it was short, so I thought I’d keep reading. Turns out, I was completely wrong! There were several great nuggets in this one that I am excited to work on and share with my team:

1. Catch people doing something right - giving positive feedback is something I really enjoy, but I especially love the concept of looking for someone succeeding and immediately pointing it out to them as it happens to reinforce the behavior and build trust.
2. In a re-direct situation (giving negative feedback) end with the reminder that you have confidence and trust in their ability, and support their success. And after you give the re-directing feedback it’s in the past, everyone moves on.
3. “The best minute I spend is the one I invest in people”
4. Be tough and nice (in that order)
38 reviews
September 8, 2021
Great simple system and an easy read

I loved what an easy read this book was. The concept is simple and effective, so I am glad the author didn’t try to approach it with a 500 page book. This is something I could read in an evening and apply in my life the very next day.
I would recommend this to anyone who has to manage people. It could be good for self help, but definitely useful to those who may have had a management or leadership role thrust upon them.
I rated it so high because it was written simply and to the point. It make sense and includes enough examples to be clear without being rambling or overly repetitive. I think the concept is sound and useful as well.
Profile Image for Cullen Haynes.
277 reviews11 followers
October 8, 2017
Once again, Blanchard delivers his 3 highly distilled practices in the reboot to his original One Minute Manager:-

- One Minute Goal Setting
- One Minute Praisings
- One Minute Redirects (nee Reprimands)

These precepts now directed at anyone in the Jungle Gym of the corporate world, from Clerk to CEO; as most World Class companies today are moving towards a more flatter collaborative structure.

May come across as quaint and overly simple, but usually it's the most effective things in life that are.

C
Profile Image for Georgi Nenov.
130 reviews269 followers
August 27, 2020
I have heard a lot about Ken Blanchard's books but never actually got one until an event that my friend and fellow author Ivailo Kunev hosts - Book Talks, where inspiring people share insights from great books. The New One Minute Manager was the host's pick and I immediately added it to my "to read" list. Today, I have listened to the book once more because you can rarely find something as short and as spot-on as TNOMM. It is a must-read both for managers and employees. Highly recommended!
Profile Image for Justin Rosales.
24 reviews7 followers
July 8, 2015
Love that this book was so simple, yet so profound. 3 easy steps to quickly and effectively add value to others. Definitely recommend to anyone who wants to invest in the lives of others.

Awesome Quotes:

The best minute I spend is the one I invest in people.
Feedback is the breakfast to results.

We are not just our behavior. We are the person managing our behavior.
Profile Image for Nick.
6 reviews6 followers
July 18, 2020
A very quick read and a helpful how-to guide for anyone getting started managing people. Its helpful to have some specific tools and ways to do things when dealing with direct reports if you’ve never had that responsibility before. I doubt it’s enough to last any manager more than a few months before needing to handle more complex issues that arise with staff but it’s certainly a helpful start.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,135 reviews

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