Top 150 Kenneth H. Blanchard Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “Most companies spend all their time looking for another management concept and very little time following up the one they have just taught their managers.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

102. “Everyday do something in relation to everything that’s important to you.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

103. “You have the power to help people become winners.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

104. “Catching people doing things right provides satisfaction and motivates good performance. But remember, give praise immediately, make it specific, and finally, encourage people to keep up the good work.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

105. “Leadership is about going somewhere. If you and your people don’t know where you are going, your leadership doesn’t matter.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

106. “Empowerment Is Something Someone Gives You. Self Leadership Is What You Do To Make It Work.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

107. “Empowering means helping teams develop their skills and knowledge and supporting them to use their talents.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

108. “The Hoffman Process brings forth spiritual leadership in a person. It made my spirituality come alive. Through the Hoffman Process I actually brought my faith into my daily actions.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

109. “Present thinking people kill the future.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

110. “Leadership is not about power. It’s not about control; it’s about helping people live according to the vision.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

111. “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.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

112. “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.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

113. “I never use notes, they interfere with me.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

114. “I cannot say Who Art in Heaven-If all my interests and pursuits are in earthly things.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

115. “An effective leader will make it a priority to help his or her people produce good results in two ways: making sure people know what their goals are and doing everything possible to support, encourage, and coach them to accomplish those goals. Your role as a leader is even more important than you might imagine. You have the power to help people become winners.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

116. “A good life is built on strong, solid values such as integrity, love, honesty, and purposeful work.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

117. “Empowerment requires a major shift in attitude. The most crucial place that this shift must occur is in the heart of every leader.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

118. “Unexpressed good thoughts aren’t worth squat!”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

119. “If you can’t tell me what you’d like to be happening,’ he said, ’you don’t have a problem yet. You’re just complaining. A problem only exists if there is a difference between what is actually happening and what you desire to be happening.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

120. “When you touch – don’t take. Touch people only when you are giving something – reassurance, support, encouragement, whatever.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

121. “Consistency isn’t behaving the same way all the time.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

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

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

123. “Spouses often point out each other’s deficiencies. Instead, we should be each other’s motivator. My husband touches my spirit, and I try my best to motivate him, too.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

124. “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.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

125. “Don’t get a big head when you win or get too down in the dumps when you lose. Keep things in perspective. Success is not forever and failure isn’t fatal.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

126. “It’s only when you realize that it’s not about you that you begin to lead at a higher level.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

127. “To learn from the past is good, but to live there is a waste. To plan for the future is good, but to live there is a waste. You are happiest and most productive in life when you are living in the present.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

128. “If you catch yourself doing things right, everything in your life will improve – especially your relationships. That’s because it’s fun to be around people who like themselves.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

129. “Successful people do work hard, but they also think before they act. They are proactive, not just reactive. Most people mentally have a sign on their desk that reads, “Don’t just sit there – do something!” The best advice I ever received was to revise the sign to read, “Don’t just do something – sit there!”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

130. “As Lily Tomlin once said, “The problem with a rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

131. “When you judge someone, it impairs your ability to see him or her clearly, as if a filter is screening out everything about that person except what fits your assessment.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

132. “Focusing on the negative often creates situations that demoralize people. When good performance is followed by a positive response, people naturally want to continue that behavior.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

133. “Learning to let go, to put the team’s will first, is an empowering experience that leads to the most wonderful of all experiences: being a member of a high-performing, gungho, high-five team. Remember, leadership is not all about you.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

134. “What you resist, persists. Until you deal with your feelings, you will be stuck with them.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

135. “When people don’t know what’s going on, it’s human nature for them to imagine a version that’s ten times worse than the truth!”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

136. “Yes. However, remember – productivity is more than just the quantity of work done. It is also the quality.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

137. “Some of the greatest advances happen when people are bold enough to speak their truth and listen to others speak theirs.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

138. “The entrepreneur explained that she was having a hard time finding people who were willing to work as hard as she was. “I feel I have to do everything myself. I can’t count on anyone to take on some of the things that need to be done,” said the entrepreneur. “What you have to do,” said the One Minute Manager, “is learn to delegate.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

139. “It’s more important as a manager to be respected than to be popular.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

140. “Remember, the best leaders are those who understand that their power flows through them, not from them.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

141. “Our Manager makes sure we know what good performance looks like because he shows us. In other words, expectations are clear to both of us.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

142. “After all, how can you be an effective manager unless you and your team are clear about goals and what good performance looks like?”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

143. “Good thoughts in your head that are not communicated “mean squat.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

144. “When I first came to work her i spotted a problem that needed to be solved, but I didn’t know what to do. So I called the One Minute Manager. When he answered the phone, I said, Sir, I have a problem. Befor I could get another word out, he said, Good! That’s what you’ve been hired to solve.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

145. “People in the community, they don’t think less of themselves, they just think about themselves less.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

146. “The people who work with you as their manager will look to you as one of their sources of wisdom.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

147. “In other words, you’re saying managers should work for their people, and not the reverse.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

148. “The main job of a leader is to help his or her people succeed in accomplishing their goals. And when people accomplish their goals and win, everyone wins.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

149. “As you undoubtedly know, making mistakes is not the problem. It’s not learning from them that causes real problems.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard

150. “It’s unfair to be hard on yourself the first time you attempt something new. It is also unfair to expect others to meet such an unrealistic expectation.”

— Kenneth H. Blanchard