Leading at a Higher Level : Blanchard on Leadership and Creating High Performing Organizations

Lead your people to greatness, as you create high-performance organizations that make life better for everyone you touch. Leading at a Higher Level will guide and inspire you, every step of the way. Ken Blanchard (coauthor of The One Minute Manager reg; ) and his colleagues have spent 25 years helping good leaders and organizations become great. Now, theyrs"ve brought together all theyrs"ve learned about outstanding leadership in one book: Leading at a Higher Level. Yours"ll learn how to zero in on your best targets and visions... deliver legendary customer service and earn raving fans... truly empower your people, andunleash theirincredible potential... ground your leadership in humility, and focus on the greater good. For a long time, leaders have relied on Ken Blanchardrs"s insight, wisdom, and practical techniques. Now, he and his colleagues have delivered the leadership classic for a new generation: Leading at a Higher Level.

= 0) {slash = '\\';} else {slash = '/';}openLoc = figLoc.substring(0, figLoc.lastIndexOf(slash) + 1);while (pPage.substring(0,3) == '../') {openLoc = openLoc.substring(0, openLoc.lastIndexOf(slash, openLoc.length - 2)+ 1);pPage = pPage.substring(3, pPage.length + 1);}popUpWin =window.open('','popWin','resizable=1,scrollbars=1,location=0,toolbar=0,width=525,height=394');figDoc = popUpWin.document;zhtm= ' ' + pPage + ' ';zhtm += ' ';zhtm += ' ';zhtm += ' ';zhtm += '' + pPage.substring(pPage.lastIndexOf('/') + 1, pPage.length) + '';zhtm += ' ';figDoc.write(zhtm);figDoc.close();}// modified 3.1.99 RWE v4.1 --> Introduction Introduction Leading at a Higher Level Ken Blanchard This past year, my wife, Margie, and I went on a safari in South Africa with some family and friends. Margie and I have been on a number of safaris over the past 20 years. This time I saw some things I'd seen before but never quite as vividly. What I observed is how vicious, competitive, and territorial the jungle is. If you've ever heard a lion roar, it brings chills up your back. When our long-time guide, Gary Clarke from Topeka, Kansas, imitates the roar, he shouts, "It's mine, mine, mine, mine!" That's because when the lion roars, what he's really saying is, "This is my territory. Don't mess with me." In fact, lions will kill their sons if they challenge their control over the father's territory. The reason I saw this more vividly than ever before is that I had decided on this trip that I was going to find out as much as I possibly could about Nelson Mandela. We had been at a dinner party where people around the table were asked to share what person--of anyone in the world--they would love to have dinner with. It was a quick decision for me. I said, "Nelson Mandela. I would love to have dinner with a man who was in prison for 28 years and treated cruelly, yet came out of that experience full of love, compassion, and reconciliation." On the trip, I began to read Mandela's book Long Walk toFreedom . When I compared what I saw in the jungle with how Mandela had reacted to his treatment, I realized that in many ways we as human beings are just intelligent animals. And being intelligent animals, we can choose between being self-serving and serving. The animals in the jungle can't make that choice. A rhino can't get up in the morning and say, "I'm going to make friends with the lion today." It's just not in their temperament. And yet, just as Mandela did, we can make choices to live and lead at a higher level. But when you look at the leaders around the wor