The Leadership Pill: The Missing Ingredient in Motivating People Today [Hardcover]

Ken Blanchard (Author), Marc Muchnick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2003

Now can you become a more successful manager, a stronger team leader, and a motivator who gets the best results from a group? Ken Blanchard and Marc Muchnick's The Leadership Pill provides the answer. In the bestselling tradition of Whale Done! and The One Minute Manager, their entertaining and inspiring new book is a parable about the competition between two leaders with totally different management styles -- a story that reveals the ingredients of truly effective leadership.

Consider this tantalizing possibility: What if there were a pill that could actually stimulate the natural powers of the mind and body to provide leadership? In the story, an amazing new pill heightens one leader's powers, but contains the wrong ingredients, stimulating him in an obsessive and shortsighted direction with disastrous results. In contrast, the Effective Leader, working without a pill, proclaims that "only through sustainability can our teams remain motivated and successful." An inspiring and supportive leader, he supplies the right ingredients, earning his team's respect and trust with a blend of integrity, partnership, and affirmation. The hard-won result is a highly motivated team producing consistent top performance and genuine success. Ultimately it is recognized that "leadership for a lifetime" is much easier to digest than a pill for leaders looking for a quick fix.

Destined to be a transforming experience for countless readers, The Leadership Pill shows business managers at any level how to apply the right techniques for getting both results and the commitment of their people, even when the pressure to perform is high.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Blanchard is a veritable self-help book writing machine. His latest-a typically slim volume offering a typically simple parable-concerns a competition between two leaders with wildly different management styles. One leader takes "the leadership pill," which gives him "all the attributes of effective leadership." The other leader does not take the medication. Although the book is presumably not an advertisement for natural healing, it seems that way at times: it turns out the leader who doesn't take the pill winds up winning the competition. The message? Leadership takes time-it can't be learned overnight (or ingested via pill form). Leaders must show integrity, build "a culture of partnership" and affirm their employees' sense of self-worth by letting them know what they do is important. It's a solid, though obvious, message that should resonate with fans of Blanchard's brand of advice.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Marcus Buckingham Coauthor of First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths The Leadership Pill is as instructive as it is entertaining, with a positive message that can truly help managers at any level to develop effective leadership.

Marilyn Carlson Nelson Chairman and CEO, Carlson Companies Ken Blanchard has come up with a prescription for what ails American business -- The Leadership Pill. Its active ingredients of integrity, partnership, and affirmation have been part of our daily diet at Carlson for sixty-five years, and we've never felt better!

Kim Regenhard, VP Human Resources Customer Services & Operations, AT&T Wireless The Leadership Pill is entertaining and easy to read, and the action-oriented steps are truly valuable. The book includes the perfect "prescription" for anyone who has a desire not only to manage but to lead. I think Blanchard and Muchnick have created the next Management Book of the Year!

Dan T. Cathy President and COO, Chick-fil-A, Inc. The One Minute doctor has done it again with partner Marc Muchnick by prescribing a Rx labeled The Leadership Pill that when taken as directed is sure to lead to greater organizational healthiness.

Mary Anne Brannon Technical Operations, Development & Learning, Delta Air Lines What an easy-to-understand approach to building positive and productive relationships...both professionally and personally. It's about doing the right thing at the right time for the right reasons. When people understand their respective roles in the business, the results are more than just the dollar. The lessons of The Leadership Pill could make a "new course" for Delta.

Marilyn Winn Senior VP, Human Resources, Harrah's Entertainment The Leadership Pill is excellent in every way -- a worthy successor to The One Minute Manager.

Jeanine Kestler Dell Computer Human Resources Executive Creative and entertaining...captures the true essence of leadership.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1 edition (September 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 074325001X
• ISBN-13: 978-0743250016
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,574 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

84 of 94 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars One-page, thirty-second leadership, February 13, 2004

By 

Peter Lorenzi (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Leadership Pill: The Missing Ingredient in Motivating People Today (Hardcover)

Go to page 110. Read the four themes: integrity, partnership, affirmation, and perfecting the blend. Perhaps read each of the three bullet points for each of the four themes. Do this while browsing at a bookstore or, better yet, at the local library. Good. You now have spent thirty seconds and saved yourself money and the other fourteen-and-a-half minutes it takes to read the entire book.

Should we be grateful that leadership can be expressed so concisely and learned -- no, mastered -- so quickly? Or should we wonder who would pay a full-book price for 112 very short pages? Or should we wonder when the authors say, "The focus group data is (sic) compelling?" (p.3). Five-star reviews come from people in the first category.

The parable is full of sweet, easily transformed people, coming alive after years of mistreatment by management, brought back to life by a simple yet incredibly powerful act or word from "The Effective Leader". There is little to be generalized from these simple, simplistic cliches.

This is a variation on the incredibly successful "One-minute manager," which had similar characteristics to an article entitled, "McGregor" a few years earlier in "Organizational Dynamics," espousing one-minute praise, punishment and goals. In this case, Blanchard and Muchnick describe a people-oriented, empowering leadership model and contrast it with the pill-induced, autocratic, domineering, results-oriented style they attribute to "Patton, Napoleon and Attila the Hun." Suffice it to say, the pill doesn't work. It's poisonous. Like heroin, it gives the leader a rush of power and grandeur, but only until the followers get pretty sick and tired of ego tripping.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Leadership Pill Is Full of Ideas on Effective Leadership, September 15, 2003

By 

F. C. Martin (Newport News, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Leadership Pill: The Missing Ingredient in Motivating People Today (Hardcover)

I purchased this book at Barnes and Noble yesterday and I read it today. It is really easy to read and it is loaded with very helpful suggestions for leaders that explain how to effectively create a cohesive work environment without relying on force. I especially liked the ideas about "no Monday meetings," "lunch and learn sessions," "one-on-one 15 to 30 minute meetings", and "leadership shadowing." It was very powerful and thought provoking and it helped me to see some things that I can do to improve the way that I handle situations with my team. I have recommended that our training organization include it on their suggested reading list . Its quick, fun, and insightful.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blanchard knows how to get through to the reader, October 6, 2003

By 

"ryanjwalters2003" (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Leadership Pill: The Missing Ingredient in Motivating People Today (Hardcover)

Once again, Ken Blanchard captured me with another story about leadership development. Emphasizing the basics and recognizing that we can't escape them, was the message for me. I recommend this book, because there are no shortcuts for integrity and commitment.

Recently I read a book Dr. Blanchard recommended which totally turned my career and life around called Optimal Thinking: How To Be Your Best Self. Before reading Optimal Thinking, I was confused about some of the shortcomings of positive thinking. Optimal Thinking clarified the shortcomings, showed me how to overcome them, taught me how to make the most of any situation, bring out the best in others and truly be my best.

To anyone reading this review, buy every book Dr. Blanchard writes or recommends. Dr. Blanchard, I thank you!