With The One Minute Manager Ken Blanchard and coauthor Spencer Johnson forever changed the way we approach management by introducing their Three Secrets: One Minute Goals, One Minute Praisings and One Minute Reprimands. The book became an international bestseller and remains a timeless classic. Blanchard, along with coauthor Margret McBride, presents the 4th Secret, a concept that, when implemented properly, is one of the most powerful actions for improving company and employee morale. This is a book that can extend well beyond the business realm and repair relationships that we thought were broken forever.
Using Blanchard's signature breezy style, The 4th Secret of the One Minute Manager tells the story of a bright young man, Matt Hawkins, who wants to help his mentor, the company president, face and deal with some crucial mistakes. For advice, Matt turns to family friend Jack Peterson, known by everyone as the One Minute Manager. What begins as a beautiful country weekend turns into an enlightening few days when Matt discovers how to take action effectively when we have done something wrong. Through this engaging parable, Blanchard and McBride teach readers step-by-step how to accept responsibility for their errors and deal with the cause of the damage while maintaining a genuine sense of integrity.
Destined to join Ken Blanchard's other groundbreaking classics, The 4th Secret of the One Minute Manager offers businesspeople—and just about anyone else—a cogent and clearheaded way of approaching one of life's most perplexing dilemmas: how to accept that we have made a wrong decision and how to correct it by making a meaningful apology. The techniques described in this simple but profound story will have significant results at work and at home.
Repositioning of The One Minute Apology This book was previously published as The One Minute Apology. I didn't read it under that title. I guess it didn't appeal to me to make apologies fast.
But with this new title, I immediately picked up the book. After all, the three lessons of the One Minute Manager have been very helpful to a generation of managers (one minute goals, one minute praisings, one minute reprimands).
If you as a manager never make mistakes, those three tools will be enough. But of course, we all make lots of mistakes. Too many people assume that forgiveness is automatically granted to those with power.
But all that's happening in many cases is that people are saying "yes" to your face and shaking their heads behind your back. If this goes on long enough, you have a problem. You won't know what's going on, and you'll make bigger and bigger mistakes. Pretty soon, your credibility will be so bad that only firing you can resolve the problem.
What's the alternative? Apologize in a way that re-creates trust. This book is an excellent primer on how to do that.
Why should we need such a primer? Well, I don't remember ever having a boss who ever apologized about anything. So we don't have many role models. And it's not enough just to say you are sorry. You also have to correct the causes of the mistake and re-establish trust.
I thought that the book was pretty good on the need to look at all three elements. The parable does seem a little Pollyannaish.
But when I was a mere lad, the CEO of my company got into trouble because of bad company performance and had his job on the line. He asked me to spend Christmas writing him a note on what he could do differently as preparation for a key board meeting (as occurs in this fable). I gave him lots of business ideas, but I didn't know enough to address these ideas on re-establishing trust. I wish I had. This is essential information that most managers never learn. That's too bad.
Read and apply this book. You need it more than you realize.
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