Solving problems (or as Blanchard refers to them... monkeys) is something everyone must get better at throughout life. Regardless if you are in the field of business, medical, or even in parenting, solving problems is a big part of being successful every day. That's why I think this book is for everyone. I personally took away valuable knowledge on how to delegate properly and keep a team of people moving in the same direction. One of the great arts of management is delegation and the principles in this book are simply fantastic ideas that when applied, do work. This book cost me $12 and it's helped to make companies I've worked for millions. Pretty good value!

all of us take on monkeys inadverntly, trick is getting rid of them & recognizing their presence. this is a manual 2 help

It's an easy read with great information that any manager can implement immediately. The step by step approach with anecdotal stories on how to apply each step were helpful.The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey (One Minute Manager)

by Paul Edward, author of Moving Forward: Turning Good Intentions Into Great Results by Discovering Yourself, Your Place, & Your Path.

Ken's book is required reading for all of my leadership students and clients who have trouble with taking on everyone else's problems.

Using conversational language, Ken gives the reader simple techniques for reuniting monkeys with their rightful owners.

A must read for everyone in leadership roles.

Don't let subordinates dump their problems/responsibilities on you. That's the ENTIRE book. Stretched out just long enough, to rook people out of money. VERY little, for the money.

I would read another 100 books in this series!

There are so many business books out there that offer complex theories and require a PHD to read.

Kenneth Blanchard created yet another easy to read classic that will help me not only grow my business and help my clients, it gave me some great lessons to share with my grandchildren too.

Full of practical, simple advice and stories that can help you identify the monkey business in your life, and get the monkeys off your back!

AA++ mate! Looking forward to more! See you in Austin!

20/20 Ex Hostage - Professional Visionary
Formerly known as John Wingert

I would read another 100 books in this series!

There are so many business books out there that offer complex theories and require a PHD to read.

Kenneth Blanchard created yet another easy to read classic that will help me not only grow my business and help my clients, it gave me some great lessons to share with my grandchildren too.

Full of practical, simple advice and stories that can help you identify the monkey business in your life, and get the monkeys off your back!

AA++ mate! Looking forward to more! See you in Austin!

20/20 Ex Hostage - Professional Visionary
Formerly known as John Wingert

If your a mid-level manager and you need some basic supervisory skills training, this is the book for you. Excellent overview--it helped my work productivity from day 1, and a good entree into the rest of the One Minute Manager series.

This book is a very quick read that describes some simple rules for managing better by not taking on other people's work. The authors explain that by doing things for your people you are not only making life harder on yourself, but also not actually doing an important part of your job, which is helping people develop. Anyone who manages (or who has a manager and needs to manage up) will benefit from the simple lessons, concisely presented. There are even lessons you can apply to the informal leadership roles many of us have such as parent, or someone involved in a community activity.

Since my first purchase of this book last year, I have recommended it to half a dozen people and received a promotion myself. It's so clear after reading and applying the teachings from this book, that so often as managers, we tend to do a lot of things well but unfortunately we are doing the wrong things at the wrong time. Being free to delegate and ensure that what we let go of is completed with the same level of expectation as we would put on it, is liberating to say the least. A must read if you are feeling too busy to do the things that are important to you outside your work a day world. Best management book I have read.

I literally read this book in a 40 minute ride to the airport. I used it as a topic for one of my meetings with the 9 apartment managers I oversee as a regional portfolio manager with a national Reit. The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey gives a humorous but truthful look at mistakes we all make as leaders.
My managers loved it and we all now have boxes of plastic monkey's on our desk as a reminder of when to give the problem or "Monkey" back to the associate that gave it to us. This works well in your personal life too!

This is a great coaching tool to create a conversational strategy for learning to effectively delegate and build trust and empower indiviudals. It is an easy read and when used with graphics and other creative tools it has a dramatic impact on individuals behaviors.

I literally read this book in a 40 minute ride to the airport. I used it as a topic for one of my meetings with the 9 apartment managers I oversee as a regional portfolio manager with a national Reit. The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey gives a humorous but truthful look at mistakes we all make as leaders.
My managers loved it and we all now have boxes of plastic monkey's on our desk as a reminder of when to give the problem or "Monkey" back to the associate that gave it to us. This works well in your personal life too!

This is a great coaching tool to create a conversational strategy for learning to effectively delegate and build trust and empower indiviudals. It is an easy read and when used with graphics and other creative tools it has a dramatic impact on individuals behaviors.

Learning to delegate is hard and many people learn it the hard way. I can't count how many times I've heard famous leaders stress the importance of delegation without really explaining what it is. Doing it right takes practice and that practice can be very expensive in terms of failed projects, demotivated co-workers, lost time, and re-work.

The author describes in detail how to coach people into taking the next step instead of taking it for them. This is the essence of delegation. As Pascal is reputed to have said, "To foresee is to rule". Coaching people to the level where they can do this on their own, without or with minimal help, is what managing people is all about.

Save yourself from the painful trial-and-error learning method. Read this book first!

The monkey in this case is in reference to the phrase, "getting the monkey off your back." A monkey is a work unit that needs to be done, and the manager in question is someone who takes on the monkeys of his underlings. Instead of delegating the responsibility to people under him, he does the job. The consequence is that he is putting in a full day on Saturday while his underlings are out playing golf. Finally fed up with this situation, he decides to truly take charge and keep the monkeys where they belong.
The question then passes from the what to do to the how to do it and that is the point of the book. The harried manager attends a seminar and learns how inefficient it is to avoid the delegation of authority. It also takes a change in ego and attitude to do it. We all want to feel needed, so it is necessary to overcome the feelings of personal indispensability before the delegation can occur. Written by the author of the classic. "The One Minute Manager", this is another book that is indispensable to the manager who is overworked due to an unwillingness to take the risk of letting others do what is their work.

As the Office Manager, I was so stressed out at work due to my feeling like I HAD to take care of, more or less babysit, the other administrative employees. All of their questions and concerns I took upon myself to find the answers to. Because of this wonderful book, I realized that I was in fact holding them back and not doing them any favors by taking on the responsibility of their 'monkeys.' I also realized that the reason why my work was not getting done was because I was busy doing theirs. I put 'The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey' to use that Monday and my work is now getting caught up and I see the silver lining. I've learned that I do not have to have my hand in everything and I can now be more productive, thus making the other adminstrative employees more productive and confident in their duties. What's also extremely helpful is that I am able to use these guidelines in my personal life as well. Thank you so much!!!

Marina Kushner
Author
The Truth About Caffeine: How Companies That Promote It Deceive Us and What We Can Do about It

Just as when parents allow a child to get a pet, then end up changing the hamster papers, walking the dog at midnight in a thunderstorm, and taking out the kitty litter; so do some managers spend all their time taking care of their employee's "monkeys". This book uses humor to teach managers the art of delegation, handing the monkeys back to their owners and giving them the responsibility of caring and feeding. But that is not all. Most managers will profit greatly by reading the techniques of monkey hand-off. This is especially true if you've ever been accused of micro-management. However some managers are great at the handing off the monkeys and then forget to followup on their condition. This book also talks about follow-up check-ups and insurance policies to make sure that monkeys are healthy. As employees become better and better monkey tenders, then less follow-up and insurance is needed. However a manager does need to continue periodic check-ups because he is ultimately responsible for the project.

Great advise to new managers. I really could relate to the story. Both helpful and validating.

Take a "humourous" title, take one sentence (in this case : Don't take too much responsibility for things) and write an entire book about it - don't forget to include quotable phrases that mean nothing. This is the perfect recipe for getting money out of the easiest (and most populous) demographic in America : the incompetent middle manager.

Buy the book or better yet listen to the tape then watch the change in your attitude Monday morning.

A good meter for a manager to know if he has too many monkeys is by comparing e-mail inbaskets, since that is where so many of us spend much of our time nowadays. My own is usually over 300 items while my staff's is usually under 20. I thought about each of these as a monkey and then also thought back over all the one-on-one conversations I had had with each of them (7 people). In most cases, it was usually left that I would do something next, and that fits in perfectly with this book. True to the book and the tape, I spend countless hours to catch up, only to fall further behind.

The book is pretty good, but the tape is far superior. There are two tapes; the first one is a speech by Bill Oncken Jr, and he is just a fantastic story-teller. He really brings to life the story of the manager whose staff is all waiting on him, the stress he feels, and the revelation that hits him when he sees them golfing when he goes in on the weekend. Of course this is all written before the days of e-mail, but it still works. You can feel the energy in his voice rising as he turns his life around and puts all the monkeys back where they belong, and the final line where he gets the whole audience to shout "HOW'S IT GOING?!" to the new monkey-owner is a great ending.

The second tape is Ken Blanchard delivering the rest of the material, and while he's entertaining, it's not nearly as good as Oncken's "day-in-the-life" tale. He ties the material back to the One-Minute Manager, and touches on some psychological issues.

They also stress that this isn't just an exercise in delegating and taking work off the manager's hand, it is just as important as a developmental process for the subordinate.

As a side-note, it's interesting that there is no mention anywhere in the book of Spencer Johnson, the co-author of the original book The One Minute Manager, who invented the system. In all the author biographies and Thank-You's, he is never mentioned, I wonder if he and Blanchard had a parting of company. And the book itself makes almost no mention at all about what One-Minute Manager is all about, it seems just a way to put a popular title to a book about monkey management,
although I think this monkey manual is the better book.

Give them this book. I have read it four times and given away about 20 copies to bosses, colleagues, employees, or clients who were having trouble delegating, and it has helped in most cases. It is a thin book that is easy to read and somewhat inspiring.

I laught while reading this very instructive book. I strongly recommend it to you.

Based on the reviews here I think I was expecting more than I got. A previous reviewer mentioned that this was one of the funniest books he had ever read... I didn't find it funny or enlightening. I think it was a good book and worth what I paid for it, that's it.

This book does a great job of helping people focus on their own work.

Many people in an organization focus on managing the boss rather than doing their own job. What better way to manage the boss than to constantly seek her/his guidance on everything? Then, the boss can be flattered that you want his/her help, and will also take the blame if anything goes wrong. Insecure bosses like to be involved, so that fewer "errors" occur.

This wonderful book points out that no one can learn without making errors. Also, if you and your subordinate are doing the same job, one of you is superfluous. A common source of stalled thinking in this area is focusing on the fact that you, as manager, can do the job better and faster than you can teach the task or job to someone. What managers fail to realize is that someone closer to the source of the problem should be able to come up with a better solution. Also, the time taken to teach someone else to do the task is usually much less over a year or two than the time taken to help someone learn the task.

The key problem is that we all like to fall back on doing what we are comfortable with and are good at rather than new challenges where we are not so competent. Banish that feeling!

This book gives you lots of practical ideas for how to respond to efforts by your subordinates and colleagues to delegate their work and responsibility to you. You will learn how to see them coming and to keep the monkey where it belongs: with them.

If you find that you are pressed for time, this book is an important source of ideas to free up your life to have less stress while you and your organization both accomplish more.

Good luck with taking care of your monkey business! It's an important step toward developing an irresistible growth enterprise.

I laughed so hard reading this book...and then I straightened up and flew right. I know my staff thought, "what got into her?" as I tossed the monkeys back to their rightful owners. If you are a too-helpful business owner, this book is for you! I wish I had read it ten years ago, and my profound thanks to the authors.

Mary Baechler, CEO, The Baby Jogger Company

why don't you tell us if we can get this book in spanish, I would love to gift the entire one minute library to my father who only reads spanish and you don't have it available, why ? It's money you are refusing to accept, money going elsewhere when it could go to you. Please let me know if it is available in spanish ??

Many people in an organization focus on managing the boss rather than doing their own job. What better way to manage the boss than to constantly seek her/his guidance on everything? Then, the boss can be flattered that you want his/her help, and will also take the blame if anything goes wrong. Insecure bosses like to be involved, so that fewer "errors" occur.

This wonderful book points out that no one can learn without making errors. Also, if you and your subordinate are doing the same job, one of you is superfluous. A common source of stalled thinking in this area is focusing on the fact that you, as manager, can do the job better and faster than you can teach the task or job to someone. What managers fail to realize is that someone closer to the source of the problem should be able to come up with a better solution. Also, the time taken to teach someone else to do the task is usually much less over a year or two than the time taken to help someone learn the task.

The key problem is that we all like to fall back on doing what we are comfortable with and are good at rather than new challenges where we are not so competent. Banish that feeling!

This book gives you lots of practical ideas for how to respond to efforts by your subordinates and colleagues to delegate their work and responsibility to you. You will learn how to see them coming and to keep the monkey where it belongs: with them.

If you find that you are pressed for time, this book is an important source of ideas to free up your life to have less stress while you and your organization both accomplish more.

Good luck with taking care of your monkey business! It's an important step toward developing an irresistible growth enterprise.

The one minute manager's symbol, a one-minute readout from the face of a modern digital watch, is intended to remind each of us to take a minute out of our day to look into the faces of the people we manage. The monkey manger's symbol a stressed manager overwhelmed by a desk full of problems, is intended to remind us to constantly discipline ourselves to invest our time on the most vital aspects of management rather than dilute our effectiveness by "doing more efficiently those things that shouldn't be done in the first place." What follows, is a story of a manger who worked long hours and never seemed to get caught up with all the work he had to do. He learned about monkey management and how not to take initiative away from his people so they can care for and feed their own monkeys. In the process, he learned to be more effective in dealing with his own manager and the demands of his organization. The performance of his department drastically improved, as did the prospects for his career. The authors hope is that you will use what you learn in this book to make a difference in your life and the lives of the people you interact with at work and at home.

In my role as advisor to CEOs, I find one of their major problems is taking on all of the decision-making in their companies. This is a waste of time for them and their organizations. Many of the CEOs know that they need to change in this area, but do not know what to do . "The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey " is just the advice they need. By taking on too much, one person can become a worse stranglehold on an organization's progress than a whole bureaucracy is. For great advice on how to find your other bad habits as a manager or executive, and how to improve them to get more done in less time, and with less strain, you should read "The 2,000 Percent Solution". That book shows you how to overcome the 7 most common bad habits that executives and organizations have, and shows you a master process to being much more effective in your most important activities.

The One Minute Manager's symbol- a one-minute readout from the face of a modern digital watch- is intended to remind each of us to take a minute out of our day to look into the faces of the people we manage. And to realize that they are our most important resources. The Monkey Manager's symbol- a harried manager overwhelmed by a deskful of problems- is intended to remind us to constantly discipline ourselves to invest our time on the most vital aspects of management rather than dilute our effectiveness by "doing more efficiently those things that shouldn't be done in the first place." What follows is a story about a harried manager who worked long, hard hours, yet never quite seemed to get caught up with all the work he had to do. He learned about monkey management and how not to take initiative away from his people so they can care for and feed their own "monkeys." In the process, he learned to be more effective in dealing with his own manager and the demands of his organization. The performance of his department drastically improved as did the prospects for his career. The authors hope is that you will use what you learn in this book to make a difference in your life and the lives of the people you interact with at work, and at home.

The One Minute manager is my hero! He has done it again. The book is helping me overcome the "tyranny of the urgent" so that I can give my best energy to the most important things in life.

I do leadership seminars for managers called "Survival Tactics for the 21st Century Jungle," and find that many of you are suffering from self inflicted wounds when it comes to taking on the "problems" of your team. Learn how to send those "help-me's" back to their rightful owner, increase productivity, and GET YOUR LIFE BACK with this wonderful hilarious book. (PS the tape is one of the best on the planet - very funny!)

Not just for managers! Read this if you're managed. Read this if you're a parent. Easy-to-read, quick read. Get this book. I gave a copy to my pastor, and he bought copies for the elders.

It will help you understand the different "monkeys" and the "owners" that many times we end taking care of...As a manager this book has open my eyes to see and be sure that every "monkey" stay with its "owner" and not in my back. It is a MUST READ BOOK.