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 work for a small company in a small city. I really like my job, but the atmosphere in my office is so toxic I am not sure I can live with it. This is my first real job. My immediate boss took me under his wing, taught me the business, and he…
If someone asks my opinion about their organization making a shift to a coaching culture, I won’t say “think again, my friend”—but I will say “let’s think this through before you go spending a lot of money on consultants and a lot of time and energy rallying the troops.” Who am I to say anything?…
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.…
Dear Madeleine, I work in a professional services firm and we have an open-space concept. Almost everyone is on the phone all day or reading complicated documents. We have one assistant who supports a whole bunch of the senior people, and she sits right near me. She is an idiot, and loud to boot. Every…
Hi Madeleine, Earlier this year I joined a consulting firm that works with companies in my previous industry. I had taken a break to get a management degree and got a taste of consulting doing an internship that was part of my program. I believed consulting would be a different world where I would learn…
In its simplest definition, culture is the way things get done in an organization. It’s about the behaviors and attitudes of employees and management and how that translates into different approaches to performance—both good and bad. If you are a leader looking to improve your organization’s current culture and work environment, here are five steps…
Too many leaders have been conditioned to think of leadership only in terms of power and control. But there is a better way to lead, says best-selling business author Ken Blanchard—one that combines equal parts serving and leading. This kind of leadership requires a special kind of leader: a servant leader. “In this model,” says…
Managers don’t have enough high quality conversations with their direct reports, according to Ann Phillips, a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies. This deficiency has a negative effect on both productivity and morale. “Part of effective communication between manager and direct report is a mindset and part is a skillset. Both are required,”…
Dear Madeleine, Our company went to “unlimited PTO” about 16 months ago. The idea was to try it out for a year and re-evaluate. The re-evaluation period was moved to the 18-month mark, so it hasn’t happened yet. You would think the problem would be people abusing the policy but I have the opposite…