• LEADERSHIP SOLUTIONS

• CONTACT US TODAY

• ATTEND A WORKSHOP

• LEADING BUSINESS BOOKS

August 2010 Article - Use Executive Coaching to Accelerate Leadership Development

Executive coaching is being used in a variety of ways that organizations didn't even anticipate 15 years ago. It is being used to get new hires up-to-speed more quickly, or when a person is transitioning to a new role. It's also being used with high potential executives who are being groomed to meet an organization's future needs.  Read More

July 2010 Article - Leadership Behaviors That Inspire Trust

Trust is in need of some serious repair these days due to the pressures placed on organisations over the past few years. As a result, rebuilding trust has become a top priority for companies that are looking to break out of the negativity that has become pervasive in many organisations.  Read More

June 2010 Article - Leadership Strengths are a Double Edged Sword

In working with highly successful executives over the years, Master Certified Coach and cofounder of Coaching Services Madeleine Homan Blanchard has had an opportunity to witness some of the positive and negative behaviors that enhance or limit leadership effectiveness. She has also seen that, surprisingly, the same behaviors that advance an executive's early career are the same behaviors that can later limit performance if they are left unchecked.  Read More

May 2010 Article - Leaders, Don't Take Your People for Granted!

While we've seen and survived the worst of the economic crisis, there still remains one very real danger ahead, according to Scott Blanchard, Vice President of Client Relations for The Ken Blanchard Companies. The danger is complacency about meeting the motivational needs of employees. So the challenge right now is for leaders to build spirit and motivation, energy, commitment, and innovation in their organisations.   Read More

May 2010 Article - Bonus Article! With Trust, It's a Leader's Behavior That Counts Most

Trust has taken a hit lately in all facets of our life. Chalk it up to the combined effects of the economic meltdown, financial mismanagement, and an increasing sense that, in business at least, everyone seems to be in it only for themselves. The result has been dwindling levels of trust in organizations to a recent new low point where only seven percent of workers strongly agree that they trust their senior leaders to look out for their best interest. Leaders need to tackle these declining levels of trust head-on. To combat the decline, leaders must take the time to assess current trust levels in their organizations and if they find trust is lacking, immediately begin a process to resolve the issues.   Read More

March 2010 Article - Learning How to Lead in a Virtual Environment

Learning How to Lead in a Virtual Environment - Experienced managers are ofter suprised that they have to relearn skills for managing performance in a virtual environment. Even the most successful face-to-face leaders have to fight an out-of-sight, out-of-mind, or micro-managing tendency that occurs when dealing with not being able to see what a direct report is doing.
It's a pattern that Senior Consulting Partner Carmela Southers has seen played out numerouse times in working with hundreds of managers over the past 10 years. The result is that managers either get blindesided by poor performance because they don't have the opportunity to check in as frequently, or they risk alienating employees with a domineering style.   Read More

January 2010 Article - Creating a Culture That Works

Do you think about the culture operating in your organisation? Unless you're employed in a human resource capacity, the answer is probably "no" according to Chris Edmonds and Bob Glaser, Senior Consulting Partners with The Ken Blanchard Companies. In Edmonds' and Glaser's experience, culture is usually poorly understood in most organisations even though it is a key factor that impacts employee satisfaction, engagement, and overall employee productivity.

Considering the importance of a supportive and aligned culture, why is it under the radar for most senior executives?

Part of the reason is that culture is hard to define in most organisations. It operates in the background, doesn't get noticed much, and so it continues to grind away behind the scenes while other aspects of corporate performance that are easier to measure like goals, tasks, and results, preoccupy leadership discussions and strategy sessions.

  Read More

December 2009 Article - Don't Skimp When it Comes to Reward and Recognition

These days, leaders are preoccupied with figuring out new strategies for cost control and revenue growth. Everyone is so focused on ensuring a successful recovery. While you do all the right things to lead your organisation strategically and operationally out of these tough economic times, don't forget to take a minute to recognise the people working so hard alongside you.

A culture of praise and recognition needs to be established at the top. People at all levels in the organisation need to feel cared for and recognised for the work they are doing. That's one of the keys to building a motivating culture. And that's one of the differentiators that will separate successful organisations from unsuccessful ones as we move along the path toward economic recovery.

While leaders intellectually understand the importance of recognising people, the reality is that it still doesn't occur at anywhere near the level it could. In fact, if you ask a group of people, how many of them get too much praise at work, no one ever raises their hands.

What gets in the way of managers catching their people doing things right more often?

  Read More

November 2009 Article - Identifying and Eliminating Performance Gaps in Your Organisation

During tough economic times, all aspects of a company's spending come under increased scrutiny. Everyone tries to find ways to make the organisation more efficient, more productive, and more cost effective. While many areas are easy to identify, one area of potential impact remains unexamined in most organisations. That area is people.

A new white paper by The Ken Blanchard Companies^®, The High Cost of Doing Nothing: Quantifying the Impact of Leadership, is shedding some light on this important area.

  Read More

October 2009 Article - Improve Performance with Meaningful Direction

How are most organisations doing when it comes to managing the performance of people in their companies? Not very well, according to Dr. Vicki Halsey of The Ken Blanchard Companies. In talking with managers and direct reports over the past year, Halsey has heard a lot of frustration with the process of leading others.

As she explains, “Managers are upset because their people aren't doing what they think they should do. Direct reports are upset because they are not getting the direction that they need.”

Part of the problem comes from confusing competence with commitment, according to Halsey.

“When I ask managers what they most want from their people, I hear things like, ‘I want them to have a positive attitude. I want them to communicate better. I want them to be more of a team player.’

“So, managers are thinking about the traits that they would like their employees to exhibit, instead of the actions they would like them to be taking.”

  Read More

September 2009 Article - Why Aren't Managers More Coach-like?

Considering all of the advantages of being more coach-like—self-reliance, enjoying your job more, and better performance—you would think that managers would be more open to using coaching skills with their direct reports. But the reality is that many managers do not coach their employees at the levels they could. There are three reasons according to Linda Miller, Global Liaison for Coaching at The Ken Blanchard Companies.

1. They have competing priorities and don’t feel that they have the time to coach.
2. They believe they are already acting in a coach-like manner.
3. They aren’t sure that coaching their employees is necessarily in their best interest.

  Read More

August 2009 Article - Making the Shift from Survival to Growth

It’s been 12 months since the American investment banking system collapsed, starting a domino-like financial crisis that eventually spread around the world. The good news is that the worst appears to be over; the bad news is that the hard work of rebuilding your business still lies ahead. This shift from immediate survival to planning the next steps is creating a new set of challenges for leaders explains Dr. Dick Ruhe, senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies and coauthor of the business book Know Can Do!

“People have spent the last 12 months thinking about, “What if?”—What if they lop off my part of our organisation? What if they cut out my product line? What if the entire organisation goes under? When people are putting on their life jackets it is very difficult to ask them to simultaneously stay under sail. But once the immediate disaster is averted, it is important for leaders to chart a new course of action.”

  Read More

July 2009 Article - Are You Leading Your People Through Change,
or Putting Them Through It?

Blanchard^® research shows that up to 70% of business change initiatives fail, or are derailed - why? Your organisation is populated with intelligent, experienced people and your change goals are clearly linked to its ongoing success ... so what could go wrong? This feature looks at the recently-launched "Leading People Through Change" program, a methodolody derived from researching thousands of change intitiatives and crystallising the key factors in successful implementations.  Read More

July 2009 Article - Helping People Win at Work

Most workers do not feel that their employee performance reviews are valuable.

That is what Garry Ridge, CEO of WD-40 Company, discovered when he surveyed students in a business course he teaches at the University of San Diego.

"I recall, in one of my first classes, only 18 percent of the students surveyed said they had a positive, meaningful review in the last 18 months," Ridge said. "I think that is deplorable."

The problem, according to Ridge, is that most performance systems are used for the wrong reasons. They are either arbitrary, conducted out of habit, or they are used just in case it is ever necessary to document evidence to fire someone. Ridge thinks that performance reviews should be used to develop people - not to evaluate them.
  Read More

June 2009 Article - Creating a Change-Ready Organisation

Leaders need to create fast, flexible, and nimble organizations to meet constantly changing market and customer demands. Otherwise they risk becoming obsolete, according to Dr. Patricia Zigarmi of The Ken Blanchard Companies. How can you tell if your company is in danger of losing its capacity to change? Zigarmi recommends that companies be on the lookout for some early warning signs.  Read More

May 2009 Article - The Impact of Ego on Collaboration

What's one of the biggest barriers to people working together effectively? "The human ego," according to Dr. Ken Blanchard, best-selling business author and co-founder of The Ken Blanchard Companies. As Blanchard explains, when people get caught up in their ego, it erodes their effectiveness. That's because the combination of false pride and self-doubt created by an overactive ego gives people a distorted image of their own importance. When that happens, people see themselves as the center of the universe and they begin to put their own agenda, safety, status, and gratification ahead of those affected by their thoughts and actions. That's a deadly combination in today's business environment where organizations need people to work together collaboratively to meet the ever increasing expectations of customers. The good news is that there is an antidote.  Read More

April 2009 Article - Focus on People to Get the Most out of Mergers and Acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions offer both challenges and opportunities. The key to success is making sure that your people strategy is as strong as your business plan. It's a one-two combination that makes sure the results anticipated from the merger or acquisition materializes. When leaders take the time to think through the people side of the process as carefully as the financial process, they can leverage all of the strengths, assets, and goodwill of the old business by making the most of the existing employee and customer relationships.   Read More

March 2009 Article - Providing Feedback and Direction

Managing people effectively is a tough job under normal circumstances. During the type of economy that we are facing right now, it’s especially challenging. Instead of being their usual focused and productive selves, direct reports are increasingly nervous, concerned, and cautious. It’s as if everyone has taken a half-step backward in terms of their personal productivity. For managers charged with getting or keeping their people on track during challenging economic times, Madeleine Homan-Blanchard, founder of Coaching Services for The Ken Blanchard Companies, recommends a renewed focus on setting goals for others combined with equal doses of support and feedback.   Read More

February 2009 Article - Make Your People Your Business Partners

Everywhere you turn today, organisations are focusing on cost containment. "When people talk about cutting costs, their first thought is to get the accountants in the room with the top managers to decide how many bodies to get rid of " according to Dr. Ken Blanchard, best-selling business author and cofounder of The Ken Blanchard Companies. But getting rid of people is not the only way to cut costs. There are many, many costs that can be saved if you will make your people your business partners. If you can provide all your employees with information, this open-book policy will unleash a torrent of ideas and commitment."   Read More

January 2009 Article - Acknowledging Reality, Defining a Direction, and Managing People’s Energy

In times of uncertainty, people need information, direction, and a clear plan for action. If leaders do not address these issues, people will tend to imagine the worst. Self-preservation and an individual focus will end up replacing the collaboration and cooperation necessary for an organization to survive. The result is a loss of organization-wide focus that inevitably leads to declines in productivity and profitability - the very outcomes that companies are hoping to avoid.

It’s a pattern that Scott Blanchard, Executive Vice President of The Ken Blanchard Companies, has seen repeated many times. To survive and thrive during an uncertain economic environment, Blanchard recommends that leaders adopt three strategies.  Read More

December 2008 Article - The Stabilizing Effect of Good Leadership

As the financial markets continue to see-saw and new companies announce layoffs, it’s easy to feel anxious wondering what the future might hold for you and your company. It can seem as if matters are outside of our control, especially when companies point to economic conditions as the source of their problems. Yet some companies seem to deal with adversity better than others. What’s their secret?  Read More

November 2008 Article - Delivering Well-Crafted, Targeted Feedback

Employees need specific and descriptive feedback if they are going to master a skill or achieve a goal. But this type of one-to-one feedback is in short supply in most organisations. The reason is two-fold. First, managers avoid giving feedback because they do not have a clear process to follow, and second, they are concerned that without such a process the conversation might be perceived as evaluative and judgmental. The result is hesitation on the part of the manager that results in the feedback session never occurring.  Read More

October 2008 Article - Build a Personal Connection to Succeed with Remote Relationships

The sign of a great manager isn’t how your employees act while you’re there, it’s how they act when you’re not. As a virtual manager, you’re never "there," so how do you manage and bring out the best in your people? A growing challenge for today’s managers is how to effectively lead a team of employees who work in different locations. Time zones, schedule conflicts, and lack of face-to-face time can put a strain on even the best employee-manager relationship.   Read More

September 2008 Article - Take care of the people who take care of your customers

Most organisations agree that customer service is an important area of focus, but only 44% have a formal process in place for achieving desired service improvements according to a survey by The Ken Blanchard Companies. That might explain why Kathy Cuff, a senior consulting partner with Blanchard who specialises in customer service, believes that in spite of increased attention, customer service still seems to be average at best.   Read More

August 2008 Article - Virtual Teams? Look Beyond the Technology

Organisations spend great amounts of money on elaborate systems for communication, and yet few focus on helping people understand how these tools build or damage relationships, and help or hinder productivity. That’s a problem according to Carmela Sperlazza Southers, a Senior Consulting Partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies specialising in virtual team effectiveness.   Read More

July 2008 Article - Challenging Conversations: Avoid at Your Own Risk

Whether the topic is delivering a difficult message, giving tough performance feedback, or confronting insensitive behaviour, most managers feel some reluctance when faced with having challenging conversations.  Read More

June 2008 Article - First Time Manager: It’s not just about you anymore

Being promoted into your first management position is exciting. Suddenly, you have the opportunity to move up the organisational ladder and do some of the things that you’ve always been wanting to do. The resources to act on your good ideas are now at your disposal. But being a new manager also brings a whole new set of responsibilities.   Read More

May 2008 Article - Increase Involvement to Improve Your Odds for Organizational Change Success

Even under the best of circumstances nearly 70 percent of all change initiatives fail. And that’s why most organisations never realise the benefits they hoped for with their new culture change, software implementation, or training initiative.   Read More

April 2008 Article - Defining Your Corporate Culture

There is no denying that culture is a powerful catalyst of organisational excellence. After all, culture is the organisation’s personality — it’s “how things are done around here.” So how does this critical determinant of organisational success get established in most organisations?   Read More

December 2007 Article - Eight Employee Needs You Must Address to Create Passion at Work

Employees in today’s workforce are expecting more from their work, their leaders, and their organizations. Increasingly, employees want their workplace to provide them with a sense of meaning and identity. They want to be recognized as individuals. They want a chance to express themselves. They expect work to engage their abilities and develop their potential.  Read More

November 2007 Article - Keeping a Vision Strong through All Levels of Your Organization

In most organizations, when executives create a vision for the entire company, they believe it provides clarity, focus and direction. And it is true that it does, at least for those at the top of the organization. Unfortunately, it gradually loses strength as it works its way to the front lines. In fact, research by The Gallup Organization indicates that senior executives are more than twice as likely to feel that an organization’s mission and purpose inspire them to higher levels of performance as frontline workers.  Read More

September 2007 Article - Leadership: The Key To Organizational Vitality

There are many elements that go into creating a successful, vital organization. Customer focus, a great marketing strategy, and passionate employees are just a few of the factors that come to mind. But the one place that organizations should focus on first is leadership. That’s because leadership is the engine that drives the other factors.  Read More

April 2007 Article - Manage and Develop People to be Their Best

Only over a period of time, by receiving the appropriate leadership styles, do employees reach the levels of confidence and competence that enable them to increase their productivity and effectiveness on given goals and tasks. Without the proper leadership styles, most employees end up achieving only a moderate level of performance on key tasks instead of pushing through to the highest level possible. The challenge then is for organizations to develop their employees to reach higher levels as quickly and efficiently as possible, thus improving productivity and overall corporate performance.  Read More

March 2007 Article - Leading High Performing Teams

Research over the past sixty years has consistently demonstrated that regardless of their purpose, teams go through predictable stages on their path to high performance. After a comprehensive review of more than 200 studies on group development, R. B. Lacoursiere in 1980 identified five stages of team development.  Read More

November 2006 Article - Why Teams Fail

Teams fail for a number of reasons, including poor planning for the implementation of teams and a lack of training. Research by The Ken Blanchard Companies® has identified the top 10 reasons for a team failing to reach its potential.  Read More