Some things I learned:

• Be specific and compact in the goals you set for others.
• Learn how to delegate correctly.
• Take a step back, see if your behavior matches your goals.
• Let people know up front that you are going to evaluate their work.
• If you have to reprimand someone, finish with an encouragement.
• If you have to reprimand someone, reprimand the behavior not the person.
• If someone does something good, praise it, do it soon.

The book is a short story about a man who wants to learn about becoming a manager, you read about how he learns these lessons from a successful manager known as “The One Minute Manager” who does all sorts of things in one minute. It’s easy to look past the story and that’s the point of the way the book is written. The advice the book dispenses is really good. On the back it says …

… a powerful recipe for getting big results from people …

… and that’s true.

There are a lot of good one-liners and lists taking up a full page making the book even shorter than 112 pages, it really takes a very short time to read but it’s powerful stuff.

My score: 8.5/10

There’s no sense starting an argument against a

wall of emotions.

Arguing just doesn’t work at that moment. It’s easy at times to go into offensive mode yourself before the storm goes down, just don’t. If someone is very very mad about something they almost certainly didn’t chose to feel like that.

Here are a few thing to remember that will help you to stay calm yourself:

• Everybody has the right to their emotions, even the angry person in front of you.
• Get yourself some time and give the angry person time, wait until the anger fades, only then a real discussion is possible.
• The more compassionate you are toward an angry person the higher the chances are on a positive outcome for you if there’s a discussion.
• It is always possible to be compassionate without yielding to an argument by confirming that it is an argument.
• Venting anger doesn’t relieve it.

OK, I just got angry myself, now what?

• Apologize for the angry moment, explain how you felt.
• Realize it’s a matter of emotional discipline, learn from it.
• It’s a natural thing, don’t be too ashamed.

Same advice goes for people who go into drama mode or start to cry. Having a strong emotion is not a choice. Deal with it in the best way you can.