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

Chapter 7. Partnering for Performance

Fred FinchKen Blanchard

At its best, leadership is a partnership that involves mutual trust between two people who work together to achieve common goals. When that occurs, both leader and follower have an opportunity to influence each other. Leadership shifts back and forth between them, depending on the task at hand and who has the competence and commitment to deal with it. Both parties play a role in determining how things get done.

Partnering for performance, the third skill of effective situational leaders, provides a guide for creating such side-by-side leadership relationships. It is a process for increasing the quality and quantity of conversations between managers and direct reports—the people they support ...