Leading at a Higher Level: Blanchard on How to be a High Performing Leader (Financial Times Series) [Paperback]

I've been reading Dr. Ken Blanchard since The One Minute Manager came out. Perhaps you have been, too. While I haven't read all of his collaborations, I've usually read the books where the title seemed relevant to my interests.

More than once, I've wondered how I should fit all the pieces of his views on leadership into one finished jigsaw puzzle. Clearly, the views are humanistic, idealistic and inspiring. But how do we combine them all? My confusion was eliminated by reading Leading at a Higher Level which does an excellent job of integrating three decades worth of writing into one coherent set of ideas and directions for implementation.

If you tried to boil down this book into one idea, it's that of having the right target . . . what Dr. Blanchard and his partners and associates call the triple bottom line -- being the provider of choice for customers, the employer of choice for employees, and the investment of choice for investors. I'm not inclined to quibble, but in the rest of the book it's clear that other stakeholders are supposed to be considered (people who use the offerings, partners, the community, suppliers, and those affected by the company). I wonder if the triple bottom line doesn't need to be expanded to have more bottom lines.

Here's how the book is organized:

I. Set Your Sights on the Right Target and Vision

1. Measuring leadership performance (the HPO SCORES model which is:

a. Shared information and open communications

b. Compelling vision

c. Ongoing learning

d. Relentless focus on customer results

e. Energizing systems and structures (ways of getting things done that fit with the vision)

f. Shared power and high involvement

As you can see, this is a highly participative concept of leadership where everyone has a role.

2. The Power of Vision

II. Treat Your Customers Right (Raving Fans created by Gung Ho people)

III. Treat Your People Right (Direct, Coach, Support, or Delegate depending on how prepared your people are for the task, and use one minute praisings and redirections and apologies)

IV. Have the Right Kind of Leadership (Servant leadership and diagnosing your own leadership perspective and style)

The bulk of the book is focused on the third topic, treat your people right, which is Dr. Blanchard's key operating philosophy.

The most interesting aspect of the book for me, however, was Dr. Blanchard's occasional revision of his philosophy. For instance, I could never understand why Dr. Johnson and he emphasized one-minute reprimands as much as one-minute praisings in The One Minute Manager. Dr. Blanchard makes a long-needed shift in that view to point out that one-minute redirections and one-minute apologies are needed much more often than one-minute reprimands.

Who will gain the most from this book? Someone who wants to see a process spelled out that can be used for being a humanistic leader and who hasn't read many books on the subject. If you've already read everything that's ever been written and feel comfortable with how Dr. Blanchard's many books fit together in application, you probably won't gain much additional knowledge from this book. But if you would like a friendly review of books you've enjoyed, you'll find the reading to be a pleasant experience. I enjoyed learning more about Dr. Blanchard's various colleagues.

If you haven't read anything by Ken Blanchard, just buy and read this book. It tells you everything you need to know about the other books. You could then expand your appreciation selectively by reading the fables that go with those books where you want to have a deeper understanding . . . by adding a story to go with the leadership lessons.

Be the leader you would like to have! That's the advice of Norman Schwarzkopf. I'm sure he would approve of this book.

I bought this book believing it was the latest in a line of work from Blanchard and Co, this is not the case. I have previously read many from the one minute manager range and been trained on SLII. If you have no experience of either, this is a valuable book so go buy it. If however like myself you have, it will merely serve as a one stop reference point for the Blanchard works.