Little Inspirational & Self Help Books

After a few days of assuming the post as the Restaurant Manager in a small resort, the Resident Manager gave me this book called ,THE ONE MINUTE MANAGER. He told me to read it and to put into practice the Management Methods written in this book if I wanted to be successful manager. And he was right. I have been using these methods till now and have reread these books to refresh my mind. I have also recommended this book to my junior managers to read for them to grasp handling employee issues.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The One Minute Manager comes in a very simple story of a young man looking for the best way to manage staff. He was looking for an effective manager to work for and later to become one. He found one and called him. The manager said that the young man could see him anytime but not on Wednesday. After reading this book you will find out why. The manager then informed the young man about the One Minute Manager's methods and gave him a few names for the young man to meet to learn more about the One Minute Manager method.

ONE MINUTE GOAL SETTING

The young man went to see the first manager and there he learnt the One Minute Goal Setting , which was one of three secrets of the One Minute Method. The One Minute Goal Setting is used to set goals and to make clear performance standards, so both you and your employee are clear on what is expected.
When used in real life
It's the same as football, without a goal post how are we to know which team is better. Without clear set goals, how are we to know how our performance is judged. By writing it down then you and your employee will have something to refer to later.

ONE MINUTE PRAISING

Later on he went to see Mr.Levy, a manager in his late 20s or early 30s. Mr.Levy thought him the One Minute Praising, where you catch employees doing something right and praise them. After a few praising, you will not need to have to catch them doing good. They will catch themselves doing good and feel good without you praising them.
When used in real life
Well everyone loves being praised. The first quote I learnt upon assuming a leadership role was praise in public, criticize in private. I have found that when you praise employees on a job well done. They will go the extra mile to improve themselves to get more compliments. If you always criticize, they will think what's the use of working hard. Similarly with your spouse if you always tell her she fat, then she will just continue to be fat. Same goes with kids, words of encouragement builds a person.

ONE MINUTE REPRIMAND

The last secret is One Minute Reprimand. Its goes like this, when someone makes a mistake reprimand him immediately. Make sure the person knows that you are reprimanding him on what the was the mistake, not the person himself. Show the employee that you are criticizing the mistake not the person and it's for his improvement.
When used in real life
It is better to receive feedback for the mistakes we make straight away. This is so we can immediately take action to improve it. Most managers wait until the appraisal time, then only they inform the employee what they did wrong. This is too late and the mistakes will build up as the employee doesn't know what he did wrong and will always assume he is doing the job well.

After this he goes and meets up with the One Minute Manager who then summarize why the One Minute Methods works. Read the book to find out the more.

To download the audiobook, click here The One Minute Manager Audio Book

Audio books are a great way to listen to books.You can actually listen to an audio book on the go! I like to listen to audio books while I work in my office and also when I'm working out in the gym. Audio books on the One Minute Manager are now available online for immediate download here.

The One Minute Manager Audio Book

The On-Time, On-Target Manager

I came across this book in my sister's book rental shop. But didn't pay much attention to it cause the title and the cover looks like a kids story book. I admit I am guilty of judging this book by its cover. After hearing about it from some friends, I went to look for it. Read it in one day as it was very interesting.
This book explores the different ways people approach change through a story using mice and "little people," hobbit like people. The mice are called Sniff and Scurry and the little people are Hem and Haw. The four live in a maze and look for cheese to make them happy. However, one day their cheese is gone. The cheese is a metaphor of what we want in life (money, possession, love and so on) and the maze is our surrounding. You will learn by reading how the four characters face the unexpected loss of the "cheese". And also how they deal with change, where three of them are successful. He writes his finding on the wall so others can learn. You too can use the handwriting on the wall for ways to deal with change. It's a book for everyone. Enjoy!
When used in real life
Most people myself included tend to get comfortable in a job when we work for a good company, good boss and good working environment. We should always be like the two mice in the book, constantly keeping ourselves abreast with new things happening around us. So when things are not going to well, we will be ready. We should also be more aware of our surroundings. This will then make us ready to adapt to bigger changes that are to come. This reminds me what Zig Ziglar wrote in his book See You at the Top . It's about the frog who sits in water that gets warmed up. The frog continues to sit there enjoying the warmth until the water gets to hot that he gets boiled in it.

To know more about this book, you can go to the website
whomovedmyheese.com