The One Minute Manager provides a positive role model for those who have not yet seen one, and good reinforcement for those who have not seen one lately.

If organizations try to operate on the assumption that only the manager has ideas worth acting on, then very little will be accomplished. The One Minute Manager provides a useful model for opening up and stimulating the minds of everyone in the organization to accomplish more.

Not only is this advice worth following from an effectiveness point of view, it will also make you feel better about yourself as a manager and as a person when you follow it. And you will certainly make those who report to you feel a lot better, as well.

I like the use of a parable to help each of us reexamine ourselves, because it makes the reader feel less defensive. But be sure to remember what you gut instincts would have been in the same situations the One Minute Manager describes. Otherwise, you may miss the point of how much your behavior needs to change.

This is one of a handful of books well worth rereading annually.

Unlike most business books, this one is short and easy to read. The academic language has been banished, and it is well written.

If you want to go beyond The One Minute Manager to get even better results, you will have to learn and use other beneficial habits as well. But you can have all the great ideas in the world, and if you annoy and stifle everyone around you, not much will happen. So think of this book as necessary for more success, but not sufficient in and of itself for getting the utmost benefits in working with others.

43 of 49 found the following review helpful:

Good Advice, but 59 Minutes Too Long  Mar 14, 2004
By Nate Johnson
Kenneth Blanchard's "The One Minute Manager" is a short book that should have either been much shorter or much longer. The longer version would have been supported with research and case studies to back up Blanchard's claims that the techniques are effective. For readers who don't need or want the supporting evidence, here is what the shorter version would look like:

1) Good managers are not micromanagers; they expect employees to take initiative and solve their own problems.

2) Good managers set goals for their employees that are brief and have clear performance standards and expectations.

3) Good managers look for opportunities to praise their employees because self-confident employees are happier and more productive. Employees learn to internalize praise.

4) Good managers are also quick and clear in providing feedback when something goes wrong. Reprimands are more effective when it is understood that managers think highly of their employees. (Presumably, if the "One-Minute Reprimands" happen too often, the employee will no longer work for the One-Minute Manager, so that ending reprimands with statements of the employee's value, as suggested, will always be sincere.)

That's about it.

All this is probably good advice. One of the bosses whose management style I most admired and who inspired me to a high level of performance was very much like the One Minute Manager in the book. I rarely saw him, but when I did, it was clear that he had been paying attention and that he valued my work.

But the storytelling format of the book--it's told by a naive young narrator who interviews the one-minute manager and his employees--draws a couple of pages of material out into a hundred page book. That's much less than many management self-help books, to be sure, and one gets the impression the author is trying to walk his talk. To Blanchard, management is more common sense than rocket science, and a long book would be a waste of time.

I like the idea that, in management as as in writing, less is often more. In many workplaces, memos, meetings, and manuals are about ten times as long as they need to be. We are bombarded with so much information that, what my bosses often want and what I appreciate most from my own employees, are good two-paragraph summaries of a week's worth of research. If they are done well, these summaries will take longer to research and write than a ten page report would have, but they save their readers time and actually produce a net gain in information.

But if Blanchard's book wants to be the Strunk and White guide to the boardroom--brevity, brevity, brevity--the book falls short. It took me almost an hour to read, which is 59 more than it should have.

54 of 63 found the following review helpful:

The One minute Manager  Mar 06, 2000
By Joe Ruszczyk
A measurement of a good leader is ability to develop other leaders, not followers. In today's world, many new supervisors are thrust into a "baptism by fire" management environment. I found this book to be an easy to read guide that arms newcomers to management with the basic tools for building worker relationships and getting the best out of their staffs. As a result, their efforts are guided into decisions that generate increasingly positive outcomes in uncomfortable situations. Self confidence builds and leadership/management styles improve.

I have made it a habit during my welcome interviews to provide each new management employee with a copy of "The One Minute Manager". We all enjoy the benefits!

20 of 21 found the following review helpful:

Must Reading for all Leaders  Apr 29, 1999

This book has influenced me for many years. It's wonderful. Some people may consider it too simple and common sense...unfortunately common sense isn't always common practice. It's quick and easy reading and on my personal "Top 10 List of Great Book." I refer to it in nearly every Seminar I present, because it's basic philosophy motivates people...catch them doing something right and tell them about it. This book is simple, yet very powerful. I'm still amazed how few people raise their hands when I ask in my Seminars, "How many people have read `The One Minute Manager.'" This is must reading for all leaders.

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