Book Review #14: The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey, written by Ken Blanchard, and co-authors - William Onken Jr., Hal Burrows

Book review written by Aleksandr E Kheyson

This is another excellent book written by Ken Blanchard and is part of the One Minute Manager series of books. Once you read One Minute Manager, you can't stop until you read all books written by Ken Blanchard. I was introduced to One Minute Manager at the very beginning of my professional career, and through reading the books I've learned a great deal about leadership and different types of leadership, team management, and personal development. This is not the type of the book that you read once and you forget about the book, this is the type of the book that you read and re-read many times over, because the leadership concepts discussed never get old and are always relevant year after year.

At first when I saw the title of the book, I was not sure if it was something that I would be interested to read about, since I did not see how term 'monkey' was applicable in relation to the leadership and management. However, after I've read first few paragraphs, the title started to make sense. The book is not talking about monkeys as animals, which is what I thought initially, but about responsibilities and ownership that many of us carry on our shoulders every day. Whether it is a new project that was assigned to you, or new expectation that was added to your list of already significant list of tasks and objectives, then you had dealt with the practice of monkey management without realizing it, until now.

This is how monkey management is explained in the book: "Every time we take on the problem of another person, we take their monkey and make it our own (problem), basically saying: "You're not capable of handling this problem so I had better take care of it myself."" Once you understand that concept then the next step is to learn the process and purpose of the rules of monkey management, this is where the understanding of "Oncken's Rules of Monkey Management" explained in great detail in the book come to play. 

Another interesting topic that is reviewed in the book is the "Paradox in Management," and how understanding this paradox can help leaders to practice an effective team management and employee empowerment.

You can read more about the book and, if interested, purchase a hardcover copy or audiobook on Amazon by clicking here.