Management Gurus: Ken Blanchard
Ken Blanchard is one of the most widely-recognised management writers in the world, thanks largely to his groundbreaking book, "The One Minute Manager". This book was one of the first to popularise the art of management. Until its publication in 1982, few people other than students, academics and other management gurus bothered to read management books. Its simple approach, accessible style, and focus on practical management skills changed all that and assured Ken Blanchard his place in management history.
10 Things You Didn't Know About Ken Blanchard
1. Ken Blanchard was born in 1939 in a town called Orange in New Jersey in the USA.
2. Ken was awarded a MA degree in sociology and counselling at Colgate University in 1963. The university was named after the toothpaste company.
3. In the early 1980s he was Professor of Leadership and Organizational behaviour at the University of Massachusetts.
4. Ken Blanchard published "The One Minute Manager" in 1982 using an allegorical story-telling style that, at the time was unusual, but since his book, has become widely imitated.
5. "The One Minute Manager" was lambasted as trite and shallow by academics but sold 7 million copies and was translated into 25 different languages.
6. The premise of "The One Minute Manager" is that an effective manager does 3 things with their staff, each lasting just one minute. They are one-minute goal-setting, one-minute praising, and one-minute reprimanding.
7. In one-minute praising, Ken says that the key to developing people is to catch them doing something right.
8. In follow-ups to "The One-Minute Manager", Ken Blanchard developed the ABC and PRICe models. A manager's ABC are their Activators, Behaviours, and Consequences. The PRICE model are the steps of Pinpointing performance areas; Recording progress; Involving the employee; Coaching; and Evaluating.
9. In "Leadership and the One Minute Manager, he coined the term, "seagull managers" as those who, "...fly in, make a lot of noise, dump on everyone, then fly out."
10. Ken Blanchard's title in his organisation is Chief Spiritual Officer.
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