The One Minute Manager takes about 20 minutes to read through.
And I can save you 19 minutes by summarizing the three things that the managerial protagonist in the book learns from the One Minute Manager (OMM):
- Set goals
- Give positive feedback
- Give constructive feedback
The one-minute gimmick aside, this is good advice on management — a good reminder on the importance of setting and meeting expectations along with immediate and relevant feedback. Just getting out of the way is an important skill to hone.
Then again, the OMM doesn’t have to worry about all those other issues, like career development and underperformance and deadlines and company politics and attrition. I doubt the authors were meaning to address the entirety of people management in a half-hour of reading, so it’s more of a complement to other management classics; High Output Management and Creativity, Inc. come to mind as pieces that take the time to elaborate on both strategy and tactics.
Though it would be fun to see someone try to implement just the one-minute system in their management style.
