Ken Blanchard was born on May 1936; he is an American author and management expert; among his writing career includes over 60 published books most of which are co-authored books. One of Ken Blanchard most successful book is One Minute Manager which has sold 13 million copies and has been translated into many languages. Blanchard attended New Rochelle High School where he graduated in 1957; he completed his BA degree in government and philosophy at Cornell University in the year 1961. In 1963 Blanchard completed his MA degree in Sociology and counseling at Colgate University; in 1967he completed his Ph.D. degree in education administration and leadership at Cornell University. As an undergraduate at Cornell University, he joined the fraternity of Phi Gamma Delta where he was selected for membership in the Quill and Dagger society. Blanchard is a Cornell University trustee emeritus and visiting professor at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration.
Ken Blanchard has contributed a lot to business and leadership, for instance, The Ken Blanchard Companies is a group of international management training and consulting firm that Ken and his wife Marjorie co-founded in 1979. This company aims at increasing organizational performance through leadership consulting; people are trained on leadership here and through this, they are able to gain knowledge on how to run their organizations and this increases organizational performance (Blanchard, Patricia & Drea, 1985). The company provides individuals with leadership training and consulting; the company being owned by Ken Blanchard shows how he has contributed to the business and leadership, for example, consultancy is offered here and many companies come here to consult with their organizations and their business and with proper feedback the organizations are able to increase their leadership capability and make their businesses more profitable.
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The Ken Blanchard Companies stands for three pillars that are Building Leadership Capacity, Cultivating Leadership Bench Strength, and Leading Organizational Change. When it comes to building leadership capacity the company focuses on increasing employee passion, customer attachment, and organizational strength by ensuring that effectiveness of leadership is ensured in the workplace (Hersey, 1985). Building leadership capacity allows an organization, to create results-oriented; people focused leaders who work hard to improve performance and increase retention and morale. Cultivating leadership strength helps individuals by making them realize that they can become effective leaders if they wish to; individuals are mentored here by mentoring high-potential talent and giving them the resources to grow into competent and confident managers as this will increase organizational growth. When it comes to leading organizational change here the focus is put on sharpening the operational strategy, process, and communications of the firms. Here the company handles changes in management which are caused by reorganizations, new executive appointments, mergers, downsizing, and acquisitions. The Ken Blanchard Companies has helped in shaping organizations as it also addresses and consults when it comes to critical issues and necessities.
Ken Blanchard has shaped the world of business and leadership through his companies, Ken Blanchard Companies which is a global leader in management training, this company has been there for over 35years and it has created best managers in the world; more than 150,000 people each year (Hersey & Blanchard, 1977). Blanchard is the expert in management training across all levels of an organization and is the provider of choice by 500 companies as well as small business to medium businesses, governments, educational and nonprofit organizations.
Ken Blanchard is one of the most influential leadership experts in the world; Blanchard is also the co-founder of Lead Like Jesus which a worldwide organization committed to helping people become servant leaders. The Lead Like Organization encourages people that are the managers to lead like Jesus by being Loyal to their workers and their customers. For an organization to be successful it needs to have good leaders who are ready to take the organization to another level; leaders need to lead by example be caring and humble before their juniors. Being a leader is not easy and that why the leaders have to be trained so as to be taught and reminded of what their duties are; a good leader is the one who is trustful, and goal oriented. Some leaders take advantage of their positions and do things which are not related to the business and this makes some businesses to fail. Everyone enters into the business with the main aim of the making profits and also making the business successful and Ken Blanchard through his books teaches people on how to manage businesses and make them successful making profits too.
Through Ken Blanchard book of Management of Organizational Behavior, he tries to explain how employees should behave; the behavior of the employees is what determines how successful the organization (Vecchio, 1987). The employees should be friendly to the customers as this will attract more customers; rude employees will drive out the customers as the customers end up feeling neglected. Leaders should encourage their employees to be hardworking and respect the customers as no customers no business. Leaders are also encouraged to lead by example as it will be easy for them to ask employees to be hardworking, goal oriented and also honest if they are what they ask their juniors to be.
Ken Blanchard encourages managers to be good through his works; he urges that the key to a successful leadership is the influence and not authority, he urges managers not to lead by the authority as this will not make those below him work hard but rather do what they are authorized to do. When workers are not forced to do things by force they tend to do it unwillingly but when let to perform their works on their own they do it with one heart as there is no pressure besides it or anyone to force them. Ken Blanchard also urges leaders to be lead their people the way people wants by being the leader the people desires. When people are lead well it means that they will cooperate and cooperation from the employees is what a leader needs to make the organization successful.
The Situational Leadership book by Ken Blanchard has paved the way for many businesses as the book helps leaders to diagnose the needs of their people and provide them with the appropriate leadership style to meet these needs. Through this book managers learn four stages of development that is from enthusiastic beginner to self-reliant achiever, and how to apply the appropriate directive and supportive behaviors, from directing to delegating, to match the development of their people. This book has played a big role in leadership as many leaders are on how to recognize the needs of their employees and do the necessary by ensuring that employee needs are well catered for. Employees are the heart of an organization and organizations cannot be run without the workers as the workers are needed to perform the work. Employee motivation is also required to ensure that employee’s morale is high as this will increase their performance and thus organizations productivity.
Ken Blanchard in his book Lead From The Heart urges the leaders to lead from the heart as this will make their leadership successful. Leaders are also urged o stop focusing on employee engagement as this makes them be aiming low rather than high, thus leaders are encouraged to focus on what matters to the organization like employee commitment, and sustainable high performance as this will make them be goal oriented. Blanchard encourages employees in his books to be hardworking and further explains to them that they are not only in the organization to make money but also to make the business successful. Therefore, they should not be selfish but they should also consider the organization and realize that if the organization fails, they also loose their job thus they should also work hard to see the organization becoming successful.
Ken Blanchard urges that managers are not born but rather trained thus he wants people to understand that managing businesses is easy and everyone can if only they want to as they only need to be trained. Through his book Self Leadership, Blanchard urges managers to empower their employees to become self-leaders who take responsibility and control for accomplishing their goals. Managers are also taught on how to provide the right leadership style to help in accelerating the growth of their team members. The Ken Blanchard Companies plays a big role in the field of business and leadership as it has helped in training the world Best Managers. Leaders have been trained on how to run their organization and increase their organization performance making their organizations successful. Managers are the heart of the organization and they drive the organization into either success or failure thus their competent is what determines if the business will be successful or will fail. Poor managers cost an organization time, people and money; all they are learned from Ken Blanchard works and thus the man, Ken Blanchard has really shaped the world of business and leadership.
References
Blanchard K, Patricia Z. & Drea Z. (1985). Leadership and the One Minute Manager . Increasing Effectiveness through Situational Leadership . New York: Morrow.
Hersey, P. (1985). The situational leader . New York, NY: Warner Books.
Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K. (1977). Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources . New Jersey/Prentice Hall Publishers.
Vecchio, R. (1987). "Situational Leadership Theory . An examination of a prescriptive theory". Journal of Applied Psychology.
