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Ken Blanchard's phenomenal bestselling classic The One Minute Manager explores the skills needed to become an effective self leader. Now, Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager clearly and thoroughly reveals how power, freedom, and autonomy come from having the right mind-set and the skills needed to take personal responsibility for success.

In this captivating business parable, number one New York Times bestselling author Ken Blanchard, with coauthors Susan Fowler and Laurence Hawkins, tells the story of Steve, a young advertising executive who is about to lose his job. During a series of talks with a gifted magician named Cayla, Steve comes to realize the power of taking responsibility for his situation and not playing the victim. Passing along the knowledge she has learned from the One Minute Manager, Cayla teaches Steve the three skills of self leadership. These three techniques not only empower him to keep his job but show him what he needs to know in order to keep growing, learning, and achieving.

For twenty-five years, millions of managers in Fortune 500 companies and small businesses nationwide have followed Ken Blanchard's management method, thus increasing their productivity, job satisfaction, and personal prosperity. Now, discover Ken Blanchard's newest techniques in Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager and experience the profitability that has been achieved by applying his management lessons.

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Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Chapter One

Do You Believe in Magic?

"Before I present you with the television commercials, print ads, and radio scripts that we have prepared for you, let me explain the underlying thinking that went into your advertising campaign."

After months of work, this was the moment Steve had been working so hard for -- his first campaign proposal. And he was scared to death.

Steve distributed the spiral-bound proposal to the eleven vice presidents, and then handed one to Roger, the President of United Bank. The ten men and two women sitting in the semicircle in front of him were his clients, and they would decide if his advertising campaign was acceptable for the upcoming year.

Steve directed them to the budget section of the proposal, forwarding his PowerPoint slides to support his presentation. He detailed the percentages of the budget allocated to the creative design, production expenses, and media buys. He outlined the media recommendations and the rationale behind each one.

No one asked any questions, and Steve sensed they were just waiting to see the creative approach. The energy in the room seemed to shift as he pulled several large foam-core posters from his oversized presentation case and declared, "Since there seem to be no questions regarding the budget, let me move on to the creative approach we're recommending for television, print, radio, and direct mail."

Steve held up the storyboards depicting important frames from the television commercials and the handsketched layouts for the print ads. He projected the accompanying scripts and ad copy onto the screen.

After reading the radio scripts aloud, Steve sat down, took a deep breath, and waited to hear what they thought. There was an awkward pause until one of the VPs said, "You took a much lighter approach than I thought you would, but maybe that's good -- it projects a friendly bank."

Another VP spoke up. "You've obviously put a lot of time and effort into this campaign."

After another awkward silence, all heads turned to the center of the semicircle as Roger announced, "This is garbage."

Everyone was stunned. No one looked at Steve, who went blank. He didn't know how to respond. He nodded his head up and down as though he were trying to shake out a thought. Realizing he had to say something, he mindlessly began gathering the boards.

"I guess we've missed the mark," he said. "I'll go back and talk to the creative team. I'll be back in touch next week."

Steve didn't remember how he got to his car. He found himself driving -- but not back to the agency. There was no way he could face his creative team. Thank heaven his boss, Rhonda, was out of town. He needed to find a place where he could be alone and think. He also needed a good cup of coffee. Driving through an unfamiliar neighborhood, he happened upon a place called Cayla's Café. He went in, hoping to find relief.

Excerpted from Self Leadership and the One Minute Managerby Ken Blanchard Copyright © 2005 by Ken Blanchard. Excerpted by permission.
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