I recently announced the February 1 publication of my new book with longtime colleague and trust expert Randy Conley, Simple Truths of Leadership: 52 Ways to Be a Servant Leader and Build Trust. Now I’d like people to know what inspired the book and why I’m so excited about it. The beginning of my mission…
When my colleagues Vicki Halsey and Kathy Cuff and I were creating the Legendary Service customer service training program, we asked people in organizations two questions: Why is creating a positive customer experience important? How do you want your customers to feel when working with your organization? We always got the same answers: If customers…
Over the years, I’ve talked with thousands of people about servant leadership. Every so often somebody will come up to me after a speech and say to me, “You know, Ken, the style of leadership you just talked about is exactly the way I’ve been leading people for years—I just didn’t know there was a…
The quality of a company’s customer service affects its reputation as well as its bottom line. Customer service done well raises an organization’s image in the public eye and attracts new revenue. Customer service done poorly does the opposite. When an organization delivers with such excellence and consistency that its service reputation becomes a competitive…
Constant change is a way of life in organizations today. How do managers and leaders cope with the barrage of changes that confront them daily as they attempt to keep their organizations adaptive and viable? Leaders often feel trapped in a lose-lose situation when they try to launch a change effort. On one hand, they…
Drawing a page from his newly released third edition of Leading at a Higher Level, bestselling business author Ken Blanchard asks senior leaders, “Have you set up your organization to be high performing?” Blanchard identifies seven focus areas to make sure that a company is positioned to be the employer of choice, provider of choice,…
Dear Madeleine, I started a new job as a senior leader for a large manufacturing firm about four months ago—and I still haven’t gotten to the bottom of the disaster I’ve walked into. All I heard about when I first came on was how much everyone loved my predecessor, how smart he was, how much…
Think of a time when you experienced truly excellent service. It may take you a few minutes—I don’t mind waiting. Got it? Now compare that to a time when the service you received was just acceptable, but nothing special. Which organization do you want to do business with again? I’ll bet it’s the one where…
The new, completely updated, third edition of Ken Blanchard’s perennial bestseller, Leading at a Higher Level, was released just last month. The first edition came out in 2006 and featured the best thinking from 18 different authors, summarizing the key concepts from all the Blanchard programs at the time. The new edition continues that tradition.…
Ken Blanchard has a favorite question he asks audiences when he is speaking to them about servant leadership: “Are you here to serve or to be served?” Ken believes the way you answer that question determines how you approach leading others. If you’re here to be served, you think leadership is all about you. You…