I recently reread the One Minute Manager, the early 1980s classic. I first read the book in the late 1980s on recommendation from my dearest mother, bless her. In those days I did not deliver much in one minute save a fried egg sandwich. It is a classic regarding effective management and leadership no doubt, but is it still relevant today?

Don’t procrastinate the reprimand, it is a critical learning process

Unacceptable behavior, be it relation to performance or conduct, needs to be called early by the manager. Keyword here is early. The employee or subordinate needs to FEEL how you, the manager, FEEL about the situation. This is far more powerful than, as the manager, transmitting what you THINK about the behavior. Feelings power change.

Blanchard and Johnson come at it from such a common sense angle. That is the beauty, it is pure SENSE. Yes it needs tact, pitch and practice, but why would you leave festering behaviors unaddressed? Makes as much sense as washing the daughters horse in the kitchen sink. So swallow the chilli and do it.

Relevant today : oh yes.

Segway  : How many minutes does Roy have?

Above we have a very nice man. For non soccer aficionados he is Mr Roy Hodgson, head coach of England’s soccer team. I am curious as to Roy’s management style aside from media inferences and tittle-tattle. Will he be a one minute man in Rio at the soccer World Cup later this year? Football can change in a minute for sure. Good luck Roy.

It is only business, not you

The revelation of the one minute approach at the time was that the method was rapid, confrontational but at the heart was positive and respectful. The employee is OK, as a person, you are addressing the behaviour, not the individual. Some find this difficult to dissociate in the dark world of the ego and personality. As the Don says, it’s only business.

Relevant today : oh yes.

So there we have it folks, in my humble opinion the principles are as valid as they were back in the 1980s when microwaves were an accessory of the new rich, Rubik was in his purple patch and Duran Duran were carving it up.

Over and out folks.

Synopsis c/o Amazon.com, The One Minute Manager, Kenneth Blanchard & Spencer Johnson:

For more than twenty years, millions of managers in Fortune 500 companies and small businesses nationwide have followed The One Minute Manager’s techniques, thus increasing their productivity, job satisfaction, and personal prosperity. These very real results were achieved through learning the management techniques that spell profitability for the organization and its employees.
The One Minute Manager is a concise, easily read story that reveals three very practical secrets: One Minute Goals, One Minute Praisings, and One Minute Reprimands. The book also presents several studies in medicine and the behavioral sciences that clearly explain why these apparently simple methods work so well with so many people.