Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard et al

This is our seventh installment of our book reviews project designed to introduce you to books that Cydcor team members find especially valuable.  This review is by Gary Polson, Cydcor CEO, and is fourth Gary has written for us.  Gary has previously reviewed other books for us, including Wooden: A lifetime of observations and reflections on and off the court and The Effective Executive.

Title: Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager

Author: Ken Blanchard, Susan Fowler, and Laurence Hawkins

Description of the book: Ken Blanchard uses situational leadership to discuss building entry level people’s confidence in his One Minute Manager series. Briefly, if someone is new at a skill or goal, he or she needs to be patiently shown how to do it. The person needs direction and frequent follow-up for feedback.

Once the person has learned the skill fairly well, he or she needs little direction and more support. If they are frustrated, they may need to vent and hear another’s perspective for support.

Why should you read this? As managers, when someone is new at a skill we often do not give enough direction or appropriate follow up. We show them one time and expect them to know it. When they feel frustrated, we either shame them for not getting it right or give them support rather than more direction. We should observe them doing the skill and then show them how to do it better.