Ken Blanchard's Page
http://www.kenblanchard.com/Leading-Research/Blog
Ken Blanchard is the founder and chief spiritual officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies. He is the coauthor of several best-selling books, including The One Minute Manager_and The New One Minute Manager, Raving Fans and Gung Ho! His books have combined sales of more than twenty million copies in... read more...
"What is impressive is not only how Winters builds a case for the urgency and need for bold, inclusive conversations but ...
This practical, accessible, nonjudgmental handbook is the first to help individuals and organizations recognize and preve...
This book is the first practical, hands-on guide that shows how leaders can build psychological safety in their organizat...
"La’Wana Harris has opened this coach’s eyes to the power of coaching practices to create new paths for diversity and inc...
Change is difficult but essential—Esther Derby offers seven guidelines for change by attraction, an approach that draws p...
Sought-after speaker and consultant Joan Kuhl arms young women with the tools they need to transform male-dominated corpo...
Islamist terrorism is not about religion, says Leena Al Olaimy, an Arab Muslim, Dalai Lama Fellow, and social entrepreneu...
Most books for people who would rather get a root canal than face a roomful of strangers tell readers how to fight agains...
“This is a must-read for bosses and subordinates alike, as it exposes our flaws but teaches us how we can work together t...
In forty-two succinct, surprising essays, legendary scholar Henry Mintzberg brings management down from the clouds and on...
Without a deep understanding of your company’s culture, any change effort you undertake will fail. Bestselling author Jon...
We are living in a time when dishonesty and duplicity are becoming commonplace. Each of us can fight this cultural corrup...
Tom Szaky sets out to do the impossible – eliminate all waste. This book paints a future of a “circular economy” that rel...
Top Cornell law professor Lynn Stout and her coauthors Tamara Belinfanti and Sergio Gramitto offer a visionary but practi...
Veteran project manager and University of California professor Zachary Wong identifies the eight most common people probl...
The new edition of a bestselling classic, Help Them or Grow Watch Them Grow offers advice on talent retention for the mod...
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
All the December holidays are a time of great joy, but they can also be a time of great stress as people try to balance work, family, and extra activities. I encourage you to focus on the celebration part of the season instead of the stress. You don’t have to do something outrageous to celebrat...
April 19, 2017
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
You’ve probably had your fill of articles and blogs about how New Year’s resolutions don’t work. So I want to give you a positive framework to begin the New Year. Creating your personal vision for the future is a different way to look at setting and achieving goals. A clear vision is made up o...
April 19, 2017
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Trust has taken a hit lately in all facets of our lives, but especially in organizations. A dwindling level of trust between workers and leaders is one of the unfortunate consequences of financial mismanagement and economic meltdown within the working sector. So, how can you tell whether or not...
April 19, 2017
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Building a High-Trust Work Environment
Building trusting relationships is one of the most important elements of being an effective leader. The good news is that turning around a low-trust environment isn’t rocket science. It starts with performance evaluation. If you are evaluating your people’s performance with a judgmental mindset...
April 19, 2017
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
When was the last time you received customer service that was so great you wanted to tell others about it? Okay, now what about the last time you had a really bad experience as a customer? My guess is that the bad experience will pop into your mind a lot more easily than the good one. People h...
April 19, 2017
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Coaching: The Key to Being an Effective Manager
Why is it important to use coaching skills if you want to be an effective manager? Because when people get the coaching they need, they perform better. Managers who provide day-to-day coaching have more effective teams, grow and retain their key people, and experience higher productivity overal...
April 19, 2017
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Coaching—the Most Essential Part of Performance Management
Performance management has three elements—planning, day-to-day coaching, and evaluation. When I ask managers which of these elements takes the most time, they almost always say evaluation. Sometimes I hear long statements full of frustration about the forms, activities, and deadlines involved i...
April 19, 2017
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Many years ago, I heard John Naisbitt give a speech on his book Reinventing the Corporation and was intrigued by a concept he called “Fortunate 500” companies. We all know about Fortune 500 companies that are ranked on revenue, profits, and market value. But John defined Fortunate 500 companies...
April 19, 2017
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Humility, Courage, and Vulnerability
People have studied the character traits of great leaders for years, and I believe humility is one of the most important qualities of a successful leader. I’ve always described humility in leaders like this—people with humility don’t think less of themselves, they just think of themselves less....
April 19, 2017
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
4 Business Practices for Government Leaders
Four years ago, I wrote a blog post about how disappointed Americans were with our political system and activities that were taking place during the months leading up to the presidential election. I followed that with a series of blogs offering advice to both political parties about how to lead...
September 30, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Don’t Just Sit There, Say Something!
Managers typically react to the performance of their direct reports with one of three responses: positive, negative, or no response at all. It isn’t hard to guess which one works best for increasing good performance—the positive response. A person who does something correctly and receives a pos...
September 30, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Leadership is not something you do to people. It’s something you do with people. I have believed this statement my entire career—and it might be even more important now than it was 35 years ago. Workforces are more diverse, workplaces are less centralized, and technology continues to revolution...
August 31, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Developing Your Leadership Point of View
One of the most important things you can do as a leader is to share information about yourself with your team. Communicating your purpose, values, and expectations is the best way to create an authentic relationship with your staff. Creating your Leadership Point of View is a great way to start...
August 31, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
The Way You Think Can Change Your Life
Lately, I’ve noticed a lot of people engaging in what I call “ain’t it awful” conversations. Believe me, I understand that with things going on like the terror attacks around the world, the controversial Presidential campaigns in the United States, and even the weather, it is easy to slip into ...
August 15, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
“Success is not forever and failure isn’t fatal” is one of my favorite quotes from my friend Don Shula, former head coach of the Miami Dolphins football team and my coauthor on the book Everyone’s a Coach. This philosophy drove a great deal of Coach Shula’s behavior during his long career as ...
July 27, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Why Isn’t Every Leader a Servant Leader?
My wish is that someday, every leader will be a servant leader. Unfortunately, the human ego can make it difficult. There are two ways we let our ego get in the way of leading with a serving heart and mindset. One is false pride—thinking more of yourself than you should. You push and shove for ...
July 11, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Hello, My Name is Ken—and I’m an Egomaniac
I want to share a method for getting your ego out of the way and clear your path to becoming a servant leader. There are two sides of the human ego that can cause trouble. One is false pride—when you think more of yourself than you should. When this occurs, you spend most of your time looking f...
July 11, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
If you want to be a great leader, you must make personal growth a conscious choice and a continuous journey. In the book I wrote with Mark Miller, Great Leaders Grow, we say that growing to a leader is like oxygen to a deep sea diver: without it, you die. Not a physical death, of course—but if ...
July 11, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Continuing with the servant leader theme, I want to share a real-life example that I experienced. To help you realize that servant leadership can occur in any organization, consider what happened when I visited the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). When you mention the DMV, most people would ...
May 25, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
The Visionary Role of the Servant Leader
I love the saying “A river without banks is a large puddle.” The banks permit the river to flow and give it direction. In my last post I explained that the visionary part of servant leadership is about providing clear direction. If people don’t have a compelling vision to serve, they can’t work...
May 20, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Understanding Servant Leadership
I’m spending a lot of time lately thinking and writing about servant leadership. Although much has been said and written about the topic, I still run into people who don’t quite understand the concept. They tend to think it is about the inmates running the prison, or a leader who tries to pleas...
May 4, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Getting Your Management Career off to a Great Start
For decades, I’ve been talking to new managers about their biggest challenges. One thing I still hear over and over is how hard it is to balance being the tough boss and being the nice boss. I think this feat is especially difficult for the new manager who started as a high performing individua...
April 22, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Meeting the Challenge of Being a First-Time Manager
Congratulations! You got that promotion you’ve been waiting for. You are a first-time manager! My guess is that you earned your promotion by being a high achiever—and that’s fabulous. Keep in mind, though, that the skills that helped you succeed as an individual contributor are not necessarily ...
April 12, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
First-Time Manager Challenge: Providing Feedback and Re-Direction
Today is a big day for our company—we are officially releasing our new First-time Manager program based on the essential secrets of The New One Minute Manager. It’s a great one-day program designed to address some of the key challenges people face when they step into a leadership role for the f...
April 12, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Listening: An Essential Skill for New Managers
Looking over the comments from my last post, I am reminded that the key to being an effective manager is building good relationships. And the key to good relationships is communication. Management takes place mostly through conversations. Several of you mentioned the challenge of having convers...
April 12, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
The Wrapping Up Conversation: A Great Idea for New Managers
I’ve written many times about the importance of managers working with each direct report to set smart goals, to praise progress and goal achievement, and to redirect when performance is falling short. In our new First-time Manager program, we train managers how to have conversations around thes...
April 12, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Let’s Talk: Tips for New Managers
A new manager faces important and sometimes jarring differences in their new role. They must focus on not only achieving their own work, but also managing the work of their team, managing the relationships of former colleagues who are now direct reports, and managing projects that have an impac...
April 12, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
2 Secrets to Keep on Track with Your New Year’s Resolutions
In my last blog I talked about three tips to help you stay on track to achieve your New Year’s resolutions. Now that you are a few weeks into the process, you might be struggling a little bit, so let me make another suggestion. Over the years, I’ve realized that the people who have the most tro...
January 29, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
3 Tips for Achieving Your 2016 New Year’s Resolutions
I read an article recently stating that 92 percent of New Year’s resolutions are not met. I wasn’t surprised by that figure because of two very common facts: Accomplishing the goal is usually more difficult than we think it will be We rarely ask for help from others who can support us That’s ...
January 6, 2016
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Ken Blanchard posted a blog post
Putting Servant Leadership into Action
Over the years, I’ve written a lot about servant leadership. I was recently reviewing Ken Jennings and John Stahl-Wert’s book The Serving Leader (Berrett-Koehler, 2003 and 2016) when I realized how much I like the term serving leader—it makes the point that leadership is about doing something, ...
December 26, 2015
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Ken Blanchard is now a member of Berrett-Koehler Community
