One Minute Apology: A Powerful Way to Make Things Better » (FIRST)

Ken Blanchard is an international bestselling author and motivational speaker whose books, including The One Minute Manager^®, The One Minute Entrepreneur^™, and Leading at a Higher Level, have sold more than eighteen million copies in thirty languages. He lives in San Diego, California.

With his phenomenal bestsellers The One Minute Manager and Raving Fans, Ken Blanchard changed the way we approach management, leadership, and customer service. Now Blanchard, along with coauthor Margret McBride, presents a concept that, when implemented properly, is one of the most powerful actions for improving company and employee morale. This is also a book that can extend well beyond the business realm and can repair relationships that we thought were broken forever.

Using Blanchard's signature breezy style, The One Minute Apology tells the story of a Young Man who wants to help his mentor, a company president, face and deal with some crucial mistakes he has made. For advice, the Young Man turns to a family friend, the One Minute Manager. What begins as a beautiful country weekend turns into an enlightening few days when he discovers what it truly means to apologize effectively when we have done something wrong. Through this engaging parable, Blanchard and McBride teach readers step-by-step how to accept responsibility for their errors and deal with the cause of the damage while maintaining a genuine sense of integrity.

Destined to join Ken Blanchard's other groundbreaking classics, The One Minute Apology offers businesspeople — and just about anyone — a cogent and clear-headed way of approaching one of life's most perplexing dilemmas: how to accept that we have made a wrong decision and how to correct it by making a meaningful apology. The techniques described in this simple but profound story will have significant results at work and at home.

Publishers Weekly

Blanchard, bestselling author and "Chief Spiritual Officer" of the Ken Blanchard Companies, and literary agent McBride have created a simple parable designed to demonstrate Blanchard's fourth essential management secret-the apology (which follows goal-setting, praising and reprimanding). Immediately before a long holiday weekend, there's a corporate board meeting, and the president of the company learns of the board's disappointment with the company's failing performance. A meeting is scheduled for the following Tuesday to discuss what action to take. The president asks his assistant to meet with him on Monday. The assistant, a bright and loyal young fellow, goes to see the One Minute Manager for the weekend, seeking advice. There, amidst golf, dining and long conversation, the assistant learns that the president must apologize and take responsibility for the company's performance, even if this action costs him his job. The assistant learns about the value of apologies, as well, and impresses the One Minute Manager. This breezy book can be read quickly and its point is almost too obvious. The story is simple to the point of clich , but the message will undoubtedly resonate in today's uncertain economy burdened by numerous instances of corporate greed and scandal where executives were unwilling to admit any wrongdoing. (Feb.) Forecast: The well-established One Minute Manager brand may be enough to push this book onto bestseller lists. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.