Book: The one minute manager

I just read the book, the One minute manager by Ken Blanchard. I was pleasantly surprised by how simple it was and how it applies most areas of management. Normally as a manager, you could spend your time making plans, reviewing schedules and preventing problems. At least in IT, the problem with programming becoming managers is the lack of soft skills. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an easy and clean 3-step process to become a better a manager. Soft skills are extremely important and as the PMI says a PM spends 55-60% time in communications, that is quite a lot.

So lets break it down

1. One minute goal setting: Set a goal that the direct reports know what is expected and what they are aspiring to get done
2. One minute praising: If you see something you like, praise it right away. I have personally seen that praisings given in public help a lot
3. One minute reprimands: Again, if you see something that you do not like, reprimand, pause for a couple of seconds, and then explain why. Close with mentioning that this is not personal and its because the person in question has done such good work in the past but this time she/he slipped.

Another point was that there is close contact with new direct-reports, but the contact becomes less as time goes on since the direct reports become independent but they know whats expected of them. And of course "one minute" is a metaphor for a short period of time.

One point to note is how relevant this book is even now, considering that it was published in 1982!! I guess this goes to show that the longer a book is in circulation, there is a good chance that it might be good.

Recommendation: Do read!