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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17686 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Amazon.com
Amazon.com Exclusive
Leading at a Higher Level is Ken Blanchard's definitive statement on leadership excellence, collecting over 25 years of experience and time-tested management techniques. Check out Amazon.com's exclusive audio and video to begin your organization's journey on the path to customer loyalty, employee satisfaction, and sustained success.

Exclusive video from Ken Blanchard	Audio selections
	Ken Blanchard on: Leading for the greater good The Ken Blanchard Effect: Leadership is not about leaders Vision: Choosing the right targets 101%: Satisfied customers are not enough Treat your people right for the best results

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From Publishers Weekly
Blanchard (The One Minute Manager) and associates from his self-named management consulting and training firm present a greatest hits collection of tips, advice and techniques from 25 years of work on unleashing "the power and potential of people and organizations for the greater good." After initial sections on setting targets and creating a vision for one's company, plus delivering the best possible experience to the customer, the book delves into the manager-employee relationship. Blanchard and his co-authors recap their "Situational Leadership" technique, which calls for a flexible leadership style to match the setting and players involved. They also review the three elements of their "One Minute Manager" idea: setting goals, delivering praise and offering "reprimands or redirection" adds up to a small percentage of a manager's responsibility but will lead to desired results. The collection's closing chapters advise managers on how to identify their core values and set examples for staff. The scope of the book and its level of detail make for a dense read in its entirety, but a detailed table of contents will allow managers easy browsing.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the Back Cover

“Leading at a Higher Level translates decades of research and 25 years of global experience into simple, practical, and powerful strategies to equip leaders at every level to build organizations that produce bottom-line results. At Nissan, we have made these principles a core part of our leadership philosophy, better equipping our managers to bring out the great energies and talents of our employees.”

Jim Irvine, Vice President of Human Resources, Nissan North America

 

“At Southwest Airlines, we have always strived to lead at a higher level. We truly believe that profit is the applause you get for taking care of your internal and external customers. We have always insisted upon a happy, carefree, team-spirited—yes, even fun—working environment, which we think results in motivated employees who will do the right thing for their internal and external customers. Reading this book will make a positive difference in your organization.”

Colleen C. Barrett, President, Southwest Airlines

 

“If you want to have a great company, you don’t have a choice but to lead at a higher level. When you do that, you excite your people, they take care of your customers, and your cash register goes ca-ching.”

Horst Schulze, President and CEO, The West Paces Hotel Group, LLC; Founding and former President & COO, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC

 

“Leading at a higher level is a must today if leaders are to rebuild trust and credibility, as we are doing at Tyco. This book will teach you how.”

Eric Pillmore, Senior Vice President of Corporate Governance, Tyco International

 

The definitive “Blanchard on Leadership”

25 years of breakthrough leadership insights in one extraordinary book!

 

From The One Minute Manager® to Raving Fans, Ken Blanchard’s books have helped millions of people unleash their power and the potential of everyone around them. The Ken Blanchard Companies has helped thousands of organizations become more people-oriented, customer-centered, and performance-driven.

In Leading at a Higher Level, Blanchard and his colleagues have brought together all they've learned about world-class leadership. You'll discover how to create targets and visions based on the “triple bottom line”...and make sure people know who you are, where you’re going, and the values that will guide your journey.

Blanchard extends his breakthrough work on delivering legendary customer service and creating “raving fans.” You’ll find the definitive discussion of the renowned Situational Leadership® II techniques for leading yourself, individuals, teams, and entire organizations. Most importantly, Leading at a Higher Level will help you dig deep within, discover the personal “leadership point of view” all great leaders possess—and apply it throughout your entire life.

 

For everyone who wants to become a better leader...

...in any company, any organization, any area of life

Set the right targets, follow the right vision

Focus on the “bottom lines” that really matter

Serve your customers at a higher level

Deliver your ideal customer experience, and create “raving fans”

Beyond ego: the way of the servant leader

Listen, praise, support, guide, and help your people win

 

Lead at a higher level. Lead your people to greatness as you create high performing organizations that make life better for everyone.

This book will guide you, inspire you, provoke you, and be your touchstone.

 

Ken Blanchard (coauthor of The One Minute Manager®) and his colleagues have spent more than 25 years helping good leaders and organizations become great, and stay great. Now, for the first time, they’ve brought together everything they’ve learned about outstanding leadership. Discover how to...

 

Go beyond the short term and zero in on the right target and vision

Deliver legendary, maniacal customer service, and earn raving fans

Truly empower your people and unleash their incredible potential

Ground your leadership in humility and focus on the greater good

 

For a long time, leaders have relied on Ken Blanchard’s insight, wisdom, and practical techniques. Now, he and his colleagues have delivered the leadership classic for a new generation: Leading at a Higher Level.

www.LeadingAtAHigherLevel.com

  

Contents

 

Introduction: Leading at a Higher Level—by Ken Blanchard  xvii

Section I: Set Your Sights on the Right Target and Vision

Chapter 1        Is Your Organization High Performing?  3

Chapter 2        The Power of Vision  21

 

Section II: Treat Your Customers Right

Chapter 3        Serving Customers at a Higher Level  39

 

Section III: Treat Your People Right

Chapter 4        Empowerment Is the Key  67

Chapter 5        Situational Leadership® II: The Integrating Concept  87

Chapter 6        Self Leadership: The Power Behind Empowerment  103

Chapter 7        Partnering for Performance  117

Chapter 8        Essential Skills for Partnering for Performance: The One Minute Manager®  145

Chapter 9        Situational Team Leadership  167

Chapter 10      Organizational Leadership  195

Chapter 11      Strategies for Managing a Change  219

 

Section IV: Have the Right Kind of Leadership

Chapter 12      Servant Leadership  249

Chapter 13      Determining Your Leadership Point of View  277

 

Endnotes  297

Organizational Change Readiness Assessment  309

Acknowledgments and Praisings  313

About the Authors  317

Services Available  333

Index  335

 

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Customer Reviews

Putting It All Together
Leading at a Higher Level is an excellent book that really "puts it all together" related to leadership and Blanchard's principles. I highly recommend it for a comprehensive book about leadership. I am using the book with our management/administrative team. Each person is reading the book and then facilitating the discussion of one chapter. The website resources are an added bonus. I am very excited about the individual and team development possibilities. Thank you!

Required reading for everyone who wants to become a better leader
Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager, and his colleagues at The Ken Blanchard Companies have spent more than 25 years helping good leaders and organizations become great and stay great. In this book, they describe how leaders can empower people and unleash their incredible potential. This book must be required reading for everyone who wants to become a better leader.

A better definition of leadership, according to the author, is the capacity to influence others by unleashing the power and potential of people and organizations for the greater good. Leadership should not be done purely for personal gain or goal accomplishment: It should have a much higher purpose than that. Leadership can be defined as the process of achieving worthwhile results while acting with respect, care and fairness for the well-being of all involved. When that occurs, self-serving leadership is not possible. It's only when you realize that it's not about you that you begin to lead at a higher level.

Being a successful leader is not only about leading your organization, but your customers as well. According to the author, to keep your customers, you can't be content just to satisfy them; you have to create raving fans. Raving fans are customers who are so excited about the way you treat them that they want to tell everyone about you. A good example of how this works is Domo Gas, a full-service gasoline chain in Western Canada, cofounded by Sheldon Bowles. Back in the 1970s, when everybody was going to self-service gasoline stations, Bowles knew that if people had a choice, they would never go to a gas station. But people have to get gas, and they want to get in and out as quickly as possible. The customer service vision that Bowles and his co-founders imagined was an Indianapolis 500 pit stop. They dressed all their attendants in red jumpsuits. When a customer drove into one of Bowles' stations, two or three people ran out of the hut and raced toward the car. As quickly as possible, they looked under the hood, cleaned the windshield and pumped the gas (p. 42).

A successful leader must also have a workable vision, and be able to clearly communicate and share this vision with his organization. When Louis Gerstner Jr. took the helm of IBM in 1993-- amid turmoil and instability as the company's annual net losses reached a record $8 billion -- he was quoted as saying, "The last thing IBM needs is a vision." In an article in The New York Times two years later, Gerstner conceded that IBM had lost the war for the desktop operating system, acknowledging that the acquisition of Lotus signified that the company had failed to plan properly for its future. He admitted that he and his management team now "spent a lot of time thinking ahead." Once Gerstner understood the importance of vision, an incredible turnaround occurred. In 1995, delivering the keynote address at the computer industry trade show, Gerstner articulated IBM's new vision -- that network computing would drive the next phase of industry growth and would be the company's overarching strategy. That year, IBM began a series of acquisitions that positioned it to become the fastest-growing company in its segment, with growth at more than 20 percent per year. This extraordinary turnaround demonstrated that the most important thing IBM needed was a vision (p. 24-25).

Leaders must also know how to lead their workforce. Giving people too much or too little direction has a negative impact on people's development. Situational leadership is based on the belief that people can and want to develop, and there is no best leadership style to encourage that development. You should tailor leadership style to the situation. This is pretty much common sense. But leaders should also train their people in self leadership. For example, Bandag Manufacturing experienced the value of self leadership after a major equipment breakdown. Rather than laying off the affected work force, the company opted to train them in leadership. The company began holding their managers accountable and asking them to demonstrate their leadership capabilities. They were asking managers for direction and support and urging them to clarify goals and expectations. Suddenly, managers were studying up on rusty skills and working harder. When the plant's ramp-up time was compared to the company's other eight plants that had experienced similar breakdowns in the past, the California plant reached pre-breakdown production levels faster than any in history. The determining factor in the plant's successful rebound was primarily the proactive behavior of the workers, who were fully engaged and armed with the skill of self leadership (p. 104-105).

Leaders must also encourage team work, and be part of the team themselves. Teams provide a sense of worth, connection and meaning to the people involved in them. A study of 12,000 male Swedish workers over a 14-year period revealed that workers who felt isolated and had little influence over their jobs were 162 percent more likely to have a fatal heart attack than were those who had a lot of influence in decisions at work and who worked in teams. Data like this -- combined with the fact that teams can be far more productive than individuals functioning alone --provide a compelling argument for creating high involvement workplaces. Furthermore, according to a 2003 Gallup study, "actively disengaged" people -- workers who are fundamentally disconnected from their jobs -- are costing the U.S. economy between $292 billion and $355 billion a year. The Gallup survey found that 24.7 million workers (17 percent) are actively disengaged. These workers are absent from work 3.5 more days a year than other workers, or 86.5 million days in all. Statistics show an even less engaged work force worldwide.

When people lead at a higher level, they make the world a better place because their goals are focused on the greater good. Making the world a better place requires a special kind of leader: a servant leader. Robert Greenleaf first coined the term "servant leadership" in 1970 and published widely on the concept. Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela are examples of servant leaders. Servant leaders feel their role is to help people achieve their goals. They try to find out what their people need to be successful. They want to make a difference in the lives of their people and, in the process, impact the organization (p. 249).

Research shows that effective leaders have a clear, teachable leadership point of view and are willing to teach it to others, particularly the people they work with. If you can teach people your leadership point of view, they will not only have the benefit of understanding where you're coming from, but they'll also be clear on what you expect from them and what they can expect from you. They may also begin to solidify their own thinking about leadership so that they can teach others too. Some say that learning, teaching and leading should be inherent parts of everyone's job description.

The world needs more leaders who are leading at a higher level. Perhaps the day will come when self-serving leaders are history, and leaders serving others are the rule, not the exception.

Blanchard's 25-year cumulative definition of leadership
Dramatic changes have altered the workplace over the course of the past 25 years, but many executives stick to outdated scripts even as corporate directions shift. Fortunately, The One Minute Manager guru Ken Blanchard offers insightful coaching exercises that give leaders new ways to proceed. Using straightforward language, Blanchard provides templates, examples and guidelines for employee education, performance reviews and promotions. The reader may become impatient with the repetition of key points and with Blanchard's slightly jarring habit of referring to himself in the third person, but despite these minor annoyances, this book is an excellent primer about modern leadership roles. In fact, Blanchard says that it "pulls together the thinking from the Ken Blanchard Companies for the past 25 years." We recommend this leadership overview to managers, board members, team leaders and every employee in a cubicle who aspires to reach higher levels.