Ken Blanchard Quotes

If you don't seek perfection, you can never reach excellence.

The best way to develop responsibility in people is to give them responsibility.

A problem only exists if there is a difference between what is actually happening and what you desire to be happening.

What we give our attention to, grows.

Effective team leaders adjust their style to provide what the group can't provide for itself.

Learning is defined as a change in behavior. You haven't learned a thing until you take action and use it.

Your business should be defined, not in terms of the product or service you offer, but in terms of what customer need your product or service fulfills. While products come and go, basic needs and customer groups stay around, i.e., the need for communication, the need for transportation, etc. What market need do you supply?

Purpose has to do with one's calling - deciding what business you are in as a person.

The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.

Start your day with good intentions and set yourself up for a good attitude. It's not what happens to you that matters but how you respond.

Successful organizations have one common central focus: Customers.

Anything worth doing does not have to be done perfectly - at first.

As a manager the important thing is not what happens when you are there, but what happens when you are not there

Catch people in the act of doing something right.

Your game is only as good as your practice.

Life is special when you reach out beyond yourself to be a true servant leader for others.

When you touch - don't take. Touch people only when you are giving something - reassurance, support, encouragement, whatever

Consistency isn't behaving the same way all the time.

If you want to know why your people are not performing well, step up to the mirror and take a peek.

A river without banks is a large puddle.

All leaders are permanent learners.

Your role as a leader is even more important than you might imagine. You have the power to help people become winners.

To ensure that your work is also a play, I recommend that you develop a personal mission statement. This will help you find what it is to enjoy so much that you lose track of time when you're doing it.

Real communication happens when people feel safe.

Congratulations offer more potential than cash. The amount of available cash is limited, but managers have an unlimited supply of congratulations. It's important to pay people fairly, but managers also should heap on congratulations and feed people's souls.

I grew up in New England. I think I was brought up with the Puritan ethic: that if you worked really hard in life, then good would come to you. The harder you work, the luckier you get. I've come to believe that it's the smarter you work, the better.

As a leader you provide for people only what they can't provide for themselves.

Leadership is not something you do to people. It's something you do with people.

Don't quack like a duck, soar like an eagle.

Knowing where you are going is the first step to getting there.

Positive thinkers get positive results because they are not afraid of problems.

Connect the dots between individual roles and the goals of the organization. When people see that connection, they get a lot of energy out of work. They feel the importance, dignity, and meaning in their job.

Customer service should not be a department, customer service is everyone's job.

Everyday do something in relation to everything that's important to you.

In the past a leader was a boss. Today's leaders must be partners with their people... they no longer can lead solely based on positional power.

Don't wait until people do things exactly right before you praise them.

We can't control everything in life, that's for sure, but we can reach out to the people we love to tell them we love and care about them.

The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves." Ray Kroc "If some of today's leaders don't relearn the value of a smile, they'll be unable to fire up others' ability to find real enjoyment in their work.

The cure for too much to do is solitude and silence.

Purpose can never be about achievement; it is much bigger.

Take yourself seriously but take yourself lightly.

Feedback is the breakfast of champions.

Your mind and a computer have one thing in common: neither of them know the difference between the truth... and what you tell it.

Honesty is telling the truth to ourselves and others. Integrity is living that truth.

Catch someone doing something right.

Things not worth doing are not worth doing well.

When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.

How many of you would put in front of your house a sign that says gun-free zone?