I finished reading The One Minute Manager last night. I enjoyed it, and I think it took about an hour to read (much like Who Moved My Cheese). On the surface, the book is a story about an aspiring business manager who is looking for an effective way of managing people. In his search he runs across "THE one minute manager" and then interviews the people he manages, as well as the manager himself.

I enjoyed it, and I think the most appropiate paragraph in the book is this:

As he looked back, he was glad he had not waited to use One Minute Management until he thought he could do it just right.

More then anything, I think that pratice makes perfect, and that the only way to really learn something and be able to do it "just right" is to pratice. If you tell people up front that you are going to make mistakes, and are honest about it when you do, then at least you are making progress, and can expect that eventually you will get it right.

Too often I've seen people, including myself, thrown into management with little or no training in management, and expected to get it right the first time. Sure there is some mentoring, but more often then not, you are searchng blindly for a way to make things work, and are just waiting for your boss to come in and rip you to pieces when you mess up. That's the primary reason I stepped out of that role and I'm now more into the technical expert role that I'm in, and not management.

Have managers read the One Minute Manager? I believe they have. Do they apply the principles in there? I'm not sure they do. Too often I think they either disagree without trying it, or they try it for a while, but then get distracted and fall back into old habits. So, that's the problem....The answer...I should be proactive and encourage them to treat me more like I would like to be treated...and therefore make them more like a One Minute Manager.