Leading at a Higher Level

Ken Blanchard, cofounder and chief spiritual officer (a values-and-culture-focused executive role) of The Ken Blanchard Companies, a management training and consulting firm, opens with a personal anecdote from a safari in South Africa. Observing the territorial aggression of jungle animals, he contrasts their instinctive self-interest with the choice of Nelson Mandela, South Africa's anti-apartheid leader, to emerge from 28 years of imprisonment with love and reconciliation rather than vengeance. This comparison anchors the book's central argument: Human beings can choose to lead by serving others rather than by pursuing power and control, but too many default to self-serving models because they lack a different leadership role model.

Blanchard redefines leadership away from goal accomplishment alone, proposing instead that it is "the capacity to influence others by unleashing their power and potential to impact the greater good." He advocates a "both/and" philosophy in which developing people is as important as achieving results, and leading at a higher level means producing worthwhile results while acting with respect, care, and fairness for everyone involved. The book is organized around four practices common to high performing organizations: setting the right target and vision, treating people right, treating customers right, and having the right kind of leadership.

The first section establishes the "right target" as a quadruple bottom line—rather than pursuing financial success alone, organizations should aim to become the employer of choice, provider of choice, investment of choice, and corporate citizen of choice. The authors introduce the High Performing Organization (HPO) SCORES model, an acronym for six interdependent elements: Shared information and open communication, Compelling vision, Ongoing learning, Relentless focus on customer results, Energizing systems and structures, and Shared power and high involvement. Leadership, the authors stress, is the engine driving this model, shifting from top-down authority toward participation and service at every level.

The authors argue that a compelling vision is the most critical starting point. A compelling vision has three elements: a significant purpose (the organization's reason for existence, such as Walt Disney defining his theme parks as being in "the happiness business"), a picture of the future (a concrete image of the desired end result), and clear values (guidelines for daily behavior, limited to three or four). Values should sometimes be rank-ordered, as Disney did with safety, courtesy, the show, and efficiency, so employees know which takes precedence in a conflict. A vision must be created through dialogue, communicated repeatedly, and lived through congruent leader behavior.

The book's longest section addresses treating people right, beginning with empowerment. Blanchard defines empowerment not as managers handing power to people but as creating a climate that releases the knowledge, experience, and motivation people already possess. Three keys enable empowerment: sharing information with everyone, creating autonomy through boundaries that expand as people develop skills, and replacing the old hierarchy with self-directed individuals and teams.

The central leadership framework is SLII, a situational leadership model built on goal setting, diagnosing an individual's development level on a specific task, and matching the appropriate leadership style. Development level combines two factors, competence and commitment, into four stages: Enthusiastic Beginner, Disillusioned Learner, Capable But Cautious Performer, and Self-Reliant Achiever. Each stage calls for a corresponding style: directing, coaching, supporting, or delegating. Development level is task-specific: the same person may need directing in one area and delegating in another. Research cited in the book shows that 54 percent of leaders tend to use only one style.

Self leadership complements SLII by empowering individuals to diagnose their own development levels and proactively request the direction and support they need. Three skills define self leaders: challenging assumed constraints, activating points of power (position, personal, task, relationship, and knowledge), and being proactive.

One-on-one leadership is structured through a Performance Management Game Plan of goal setting, diagnosis, matching, and delivering the appropriate leadership style. The authors emphasize that performance coaching, the day-to-day work of praising progress and redirecting errors, is the most important and least practiced part of performance management. Three core skills from The New One Minute Manager are presented: One Minute Goals (clear expectations using SMART criteria, meaning Specific and measurable, Motivating, Attainable, Relevant, and Trackable and time-bound), One Minute Praisings (immediate, specific recognition), and One Minute Re-Directs (addressing errors while reaffirming the person's value). Trust undergirds these relationships through the ABCD Trust Model: Able (demonstrating competence), Believable (acting with integrity), Connected (showing care), and Dependable (following through on commitments). For severely damaged trust, a five-step repair process moves from acknowledging the problem through agreeing on an action plan.

The book distinguishes coaching from mentoring. Coaching is a deliberate process of focused conversations that accelerate performance and development, with five applications ranging from performance coaching to building an internal coaching culture. Mentoring addresses big-picture life planning through the MENTOR model: Mission, Engagement, Networking, Trust, Opportunity, and Review and Renew.

Team leadership parallels the individual SLII model. Teams progress through four development stages: Orientation, Dissatisfaction, Integration, and Production, each requiring a matching leadership style. The authors distinguish collaboration from coordination, cooperation, and teamwork, defining collaboration as bringing resources from various areas together to solve complex problems. At the organizational level, SLII applies to four stages defined by results and relationships: Start-Up, Improving, Developing, and High Performing. Ford CEO Alan Mulally's turnaround of Ford Motor Company exemplifies effective organizational leadership: he articulated a compelling vision, practiced transparency with union officials, and collaborated on workforce reductions through voluntary means, producing 19 consecutive profitable quarters.

Two chapters address organizational change. The authors present a six-stage model of concerns people experience during change: information, personal, implementation, impact, collaboration, and refinement. Personal concerns are the most often ignored yet most critical stage. The Leading People Through Change model centers on five strategies, with Expand Involvement and Influence as the ongoing core. Cultural transformation follows a four-phase process of Discovery, Immersion, Alignment, and Refinement. The WD-40 Company case study illustrates all four phases: CEO Garry Ridge transformed a conservative culture by creating an inspiring vision, reframing mistakes as "Learning Moments," and growing the company from $100 million to more than $380 million while maintaining employee engagement above the 92nd percentile.

The section on treating customers right argues that Legendary Service consists of four elements forming the acronym CARE: Committed, Attentive, Responsive, and Empowered. The key is turning the organizational pyramid upside down so frontline employees can serve customers directly. Southwest Airlines and the Ritz-Carlton exemplify this approach: at the Ritz-Carlton, a housekeeper flew to Hawaii to deliver a guest's forgotten laptop rather than trust an overnight carrier.

The final section presents servant leadership as the right kind of leadership, integrating the book's two roles: the visionary role (setting direction) and the implementation role (serving those who carry out the vision). The heart of servant leadership is the distinction between driven leaders, who are self-serving and fear feedback, and called leaders, who treat their roles as stewardship and welcome feedback. The ego manifests as either false pride or self-doubt; the antidotes are humility and love, respectively. The SERVE acronym captures what servant leaders do: See the Future, Engage and Develop People, Reinvent Continuously, Value Results and Relationships, and Embody the Values.

The book closes by guiding readers to develop their own leadership point of view: a personal framework built from the key people and events that shaped their beliefs, their leadership values, and their expectations for themselves and others. Blanchard ends with the aspiration that self-serving leadership will become a thing of the past and that leaders who serve others will become the rule rather than the exception.