Ken Blanchard - Helping People Win at Work: A Business Philosophy Called Dont Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A

A Business Philosophy Called Dont Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A

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2009 by Polvera Publishing and Garry Ridge
Publishing as FT Press
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458

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Printed in the United States of America

First Printing May 2009

ISBN-10: 0-13-701171-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-701171-1

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Blanchard, Kenneth H.
Helping people win at work: a business philosophy called, dont mark my paper, help me get an a : helping people win at work Ken Blanchard, Garry Ridge.
> p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-13-701171-1 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Leadership. 2. PerformanceManagement. 3. Communication in organizations. I. Ridge, Garry, 1945-II. Title.
HD57.7.B557 2009
658.4092dc22
2009000598

To Ted and Dorothy Blanchard
who taught Ken that effective leadership
is not about position power
but about earning the trust and respect
of those you lead
To Bob and Jean Ridge
who taught Garry about character
and determination
and
To the tribe members of WD-40 Company
who have worked hard to put Garrys beliefs
into action

ONE
Dont Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A

TWO
Building the Right Culture

THREE
My Leadership Point of View

FOUR
The Simple Truths About Helping People Win at Work

Simple Truth 1
Performing Well: What Makes People Feel Good About Themselves

Simple Truth 2
To Help People Perform Well, an Effective Performance Management System Must Be Established

Simple Truth 3
It All Starts with Performance Planning

Simple Truth 4
The Biggest Impact on Performance Comes from Day-to-Day Coaching

Simple Truth 5
Trust Is Key to Effective Coaching

Simple Truth 6
The Ultimate Coaching Tool: Accentuating the Positive

Simple Truth 7
Redirection Helps Get Performance Back on Track

Simple Truth 8
Deliver Reprimands with Caring Candor

Simple Truth 9
Performance Reviews Should Be About Retaking the Final Exam

Simple Truth 10
Developing and Sharing Your Leadership Point of View Is a Powerful Communication Tool for Your People

Simple Truth 11
Servant Leadership Is the Only Way to Go

Simple Truth 12
Celebrate Successes

KEN BLANCHARD

IN WINTER 2007, my colleagues and I from The Ken Blanchard Companies published Leading at a Higher Level. It pulled together the best thinking from more than twenty-five years of working together. It truly is Blanchard on Leadership. Our hope is that someday, everywhere, everyone will know someone who leads at a higher level.

When you lead at a higher level, the development of the people youre leading is just as important as the performance and results you desire. This is true whether youre leading students in class, youngsters on a team, parishioners at church, family members at home, or direct reports at the office.

In the business realm, the importance of developing people applies to both your employees and your customers. In short, the well-being and personal growth of the people youre leading are as importantif not more soas the goals you seek to achieve.

As a result, we define leading at a higher level as the process of achieving worthwhile results while acting with respect, care, and fairness for the well-being of all involved.

The feedback on Leading at a Higher Level has been tremendous. Now that people know our curriculum, the only additions they have requested are in-depth examples of how leaders and their organizations have taken aspects of Leading at a Higher Level and put them into practice while maintaining a dual focus on performance and people. We decided to introduce the Leading at a Higher Level series to do just that.

I am thrilled that the first book in this series is with Garry Ridge, president and CEO of WD-40 Company. Conventional wisdom tells us that if it isnt broken, we shouldnt fix it. WD-40 Company wasnt broken when Garry stepped into the role of CEO in 1997. It was a brand leader that had produced consistent profits for more than forty years. WD-40s philosophy and culture were conservative, and that cautious approach had served the company well. Yet that wasnt good enough for Garry because he knew the companys best was yet to come.

Garry bucked tradition and messed with success. Among the many changes that he and his colleagues initiated was a performance review system that has elevated Partnering for Performancea major aspect of Leading at a Higher Levelto whole new heights. This process has helped WD-40 Company to become a darling on Wall Street.

Since becoming CEO and implementing the Dont Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A performance review system, Garry has seen the companys annual sales more than triple. They have grown from $100 millionwith only 30 percent coming from domestic salesto more than $339 million in 2008with a more balanced 53 percent coming from sales outside the United States. During that time the companys capital value has nearly doubled, from $320 million to $600 million. And with sales per employee at $1.1 million, WD-40 Company is an extraordinarily efficient operation.

Remarkably, they have accomplished this financial feat while making WD-40 Company a great place to work. The 2008 WD-40 Company Employee Opinion Survey found an astonishing 94 percent of the companys people to be fully engaged in their work.

At its best, leadership is a partnershipone that involves mutual trust and respect between two people who work together to achieve common goals. When that occurs, both leader and direct report have an opportunity to influence each other. Both parties play a role in determining how things get done. In other words, its all about we, not me.

My thinking on this dates back to my ten-year experience as a college professor, when I was periodically in trouble with the faculty. What drove them crazy more than anything was that at the beginning of every course I often gave my students the final exam. When the faculty found out about that, they asked, What are you doing?