Bookomania

I am a management student and since my inception in this field, I have been asked to read management books. I have been more into Harry Potter, Chetan Bhagat novels, but I realized that’s not enough. Each interviewer asked me about the books I have read and it was enough for me to be rejected and a reminder to start reading books. So I decided to start with something small yet readable. Given below are the first few books I read along with their summary in short which helped me and will surely help you all too.

One Minute Manager, by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, cost Rs 124, is a remarkable book about management. It is about a young man who is in search of an effective manager and is willing to work for one. Then the young man comes across a manager who calls himself “the one minute manager” as it took very little time for him to get big results from people. The one minute manager shares the secrets of his success with the young man, which are as follows:

• ·         FIRST SECRET: One Minute Goals: Take out 1 minute to set goals for the day. One minute goal setting is about being aware of what is expected from the beginning. When deciding upon the desired goal and the performance standards, it is recorded on a single sheet of paper. One minute goal setting is so called because it should take only one minute to be able to read it.

• ·         SECOND SECRET: One Minute Praisings: After the one minute goal setting, the second step in one minute management is to catch people doing something right. This is when the one minute praisings are given. One minute praisings are so called because it hardly takes a minute for you to tell someone that he or she did a good job. There is no need to elaborate when you can simply say that he or she he did something good and you noticed it. One minute praisings include praising the people immediately, telling them what they did right, how you feel about it and encourage them to do more of the same.

• ·         THIRD SECRET: One Minute Reprimands: One minute reprimands are given as soon as an employee does something wrong. One minute reprimand has two parts. The first half includes telling the people that what they did wrong, how you feel about it and then let it sink in with a few seconds of uncomfortable silence. Then in the second half you tell the people how much you think they are capable of and how much you value them. One important aspect of one minute reprimands is that it criticizes the work not the doer. The employee is not blamed as a person, only his work is accused of not being up to the desired level. And once it's over, it's over.

Now that you know all the three secrets of one minute management, implement them in your work style and be a one minute manager for yourself!

The Secret

This book is my personal favourite. It has motivated me whenever I have been upset. Unknowingly I have been using The Secret since the time I was in SSC, but got to know about it only in my management class. I am a very imaginative person who always sees things before they can happen. Hence this is a book for all those who believe that you get what you want.

The Secret costs Rs 324 is a self-help book about the power of positive thinking by Rhonda Byrne. Each thought sends out a signal, which is turn gathers similar frequencies – due to the law of attraction – before returning back to you. In this fashion, your mind can bring you anything you desire – dream of a new house, and somehow, someway, it will come to you. The book has various chapters such as The Secret Revealed, The Secret Made Simple, How to Use The Secret,  Powerful Processes, The Secret to Money,  The Secret to Relationships,  The Secret to Health, The Secret to the World,  The Secret to You, The Secret to Life.  

 Byrne even proposes that too much negative thinking can put you in the path of a natural disaster or terrorist attack. The rest of the book explores different methods of using the law of attraction to your advantage. The primary technique is “ask, believe, receive.” This process involves imagining what you desire and pretending that you already have it. Byrne argues that everything is controlled by your thoughts, even your health. Food, she writes, only makes you gain weight because you believe it should. In the end, the book is a hymn to the power of the mind. Whether you know it or not, your thoughts, Byrne warns, will eventually come true.