Author: Ken Blanchard

Better Together: The Importance of Friends and Family

/ Ken Blanchard

In June’s blog I talked about the joys and rewards of connecting with people in your industry at business conferences like ATD. Today I want to focus on the priceless rewards of connecting with friends and family.

In this day and age, when so much of our connecting happens over Zoom and other digital platforms, it’s especially important to get together in the real world on a regular basis. That’s because seeing people in person creates genuine human connections that that you simply can’t have online.

It is a tradition in our family to spend time together during the summer in Skaneateles, New York. We are fortunate that my in-laws, the McKees, bought some property on Skaneateles Lake back in 1947. For more than 75 years, our friends and family members have gathered here to celebrate birthdays, prepare meals, take boat rides, and simply enjoy the slower pace of rural upstate New York.

The Benefits of Togetherness

 There’s a deeper purpose to our time in Skaneateles than just having a fun vacation. Summer in Skaneateles is a decades-old tradition that we have passed down to our children and grandchildren. It’s like a glue that binds the different generations of our family, strengthening our relationships with each other.

The time-honored ritual of coming to Skaneateles also provides structure to our lives. My wife, Margie—an accomplished photographer—takes pictures and creates a book for each summer. Looking through those books, we can appreciate the passage of time and the family rituals that bring meaning to our lives. When our kids and grandkids look at the books, they not only have fun memories, but they also understand their roots and feel a sense of belonging and continuity.

The Importance of Human Connection

I’m an uber-extravert, so being with others is essential to my mental and spiritual well-being. But even the most intraverted person needs to feel a sense of belonging. That’s because human beings are inherently social creatures. Our need to connect with each other is programmed in our DNA. Gathering with friends and family provides an environment where everyone—no matter what their personality type—can feel seen, heard, and valued.

When we spend time together—taking walks, sharing meals, playing sports, or celebrating milestones—we are making memories that anchor us in a sense of belonging and meaning. When life feels tough, we can tap into the reservoir of positive emotions created by good times we have shared with loved ones.

 The Healing Power of Togetherness

In times of crisis or sorrow, the support of friends and family becomes a lifeline. For example, I’ll never forget the outpouring of love Margie and I received after our house burned down in the California wildfires of 2007. We were in Florida at the time of the fire. When we returned to San Diego, people had gathered at the Blanchard headquarters to support us. Just seeing their faces provided tremendous comfort and resassured us that everything was going to be okay. People’s kind words and warm hugs during that difficult time alleviated our despair and made a big difference in our ability to cope.

Make Memories with Your Loved Ones

Finding meaning and purpose through work is important, but nothing compares to the joy and meaning you get from being together with friends and family. Our primary purpose on this earth is to love, which is why it’s so important to cherish and nurture our relationships. In the end, it is our connections with others that make life truly meaningful—so schedule time to make great memories with your friends and loved ones today!

Never, Never, Never Stop Learning

/ Ken Blanchard

Leading in today’s world can be a risky business. No matter how long someone has been at their organization or how secure they feel in their role, complacency can bring disaster. Leaders who aren’t continuously pursuing new learning will find their effectiveness in the workplace—and their personal satisfaction—diminishing. Why? Because, now more than ever, leaders who aren’t learning aren’t growing.

My favorite quote on this topic comes from the late, great Norman Vincent Peale: “Once you stop learning, you might as well lie down and let them throw dirt on you, because you’re already dead.”

Merely knowing how to do your job today doesn’t ensure you will be successful tomorrow. Keeping up with the rapidly changing global work environment is critical for leaders who want to help their organization, their team, and themselves remain successful. When a leader shows a lack of interest in advancements within their industry or signals they are content with the status quo, their influence quickly fades. There is a very real risk that leader will be replaced by someone with fresh ideas.

In Great Leaders GROW, a book I wrote with Mark Miller, we showed how the best leaders make a conscious decision to grow throughout their careers and their lives. We focused on four key practices:

  • Gain knowledge about yourself, your colleagues, your industry, and leadership in general. This can be done through self-help or business books, websites, blogs, networking with industry partners or friendly meetups with co-workers.
  • Reach out to others and share your learnings. Use your expertise to become someone’s mentor—a rewarding experience for both mentor and mentee. Lead a seminar or speak at a conference on a topic you know inside and out.
  • Open your world. Think outside the box. Find a mentor of a different generation and learn from each other. Volunteer in your community. Attend a training event on a topic you’d like to know more about. Learn a foreign language.
  • Walk toward wisdom. The pursuit of wisdom never ends, regardless of age. Ask family, friends, and colleagues for feedback on how you are doing in various areas of your life and work. Learn from others’ experiences as you move forward in your learning.

Whether for professional or personal development, learning keeps mind and skills sharp. Opportunities for learning are endless and all around. Make time to read books and articles, watch videos, and listen to podcasts. Talk with peers or work with a mentor outside your normal work circle. Sign up for an online course or a workshop at your company. Or join an association or a special interest group.

In fact, a great way for you to learn more about leadership best practices and innovations is to join me at the Blanchard Leadership Summit, coming up on October 8-10, 2024 in Dana Point, California. It’s an annual two-day event where our clients make presentations about how their companies are making a difference in the world. There will be 24 learning sessions divided into three different tracks: Strategy, Design, and Delivery. You’ll be able to network with other leaders and the learning opportunities will be fabulous. Click here for more information. Hope to see you there!

I love this quote by author Brian Herbert: “The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.” So never, never, never stop learning and growing. Great leaders make lifelong learning a conscious choice and a continuous journey. Make learning a habit, and you’ll enjoy the benefits of becoming a leader for life!

Connecting with the Training Community at ATD

/ Ken Blanchard

One of the joys of being in the leadership training business is belonging to a wonderful community of people and organizations dedicated to helping others achieve their full potential by improving their knowledge, skills, and abilities at work. A great place to network with this community is at the annual conference of the Association for Talent Development (ATD).

If you are interested in learning more about ATD, think about joining a local chapter, and be sure to attend the conference in 2025. We’ll see you there!

When I first began attending the conference it was a much smaller affair, with maybe a few dozen participants who were all from the United States. Back in those days it was called the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD). They had to change the name as the organization grew and gained international members. Today the conference attracts exhibitors from more than 120 countries around the world and features celebrity keynoters, like this year’s Matthew McConaughey and Venus Williams.

The conference welcomes talent development managers, trainers, instructional designers, performance consultants, frontline managers, and workplace learning professionals from organizations of all sizes and industry sectors—and it’s a blast!

This year about 30 of my Blanchard colleagues and I attended the ATD conference in the fun city of New Orleans, Louisiana. My son, Scott, and I gave a talk based on content for our forthcoming book, It’s Always the Leader. As part of the presentation, Scott dug up forty-year-old videos of me from the 1980s, when I first began talking about timeless principles like Catching People Doing Things Right and Praising Progress, Not Perfection. The audience got a big kick out those vintage videos from the days when I had hair! We were deeply touched when everyone gave us a standing ovation.   

Another fun aspect of the conference was sitting with my coauthor, Randy Conley, and signing copies of The Simple Truths of Leadership and The Simple Truths of Leadership Playbook. We autographed about 150 copies each day, and were delighted to talk briefly with each person who bought a book.                                                

The people we talked with shared our enthusiasm for the conference. We all agreed that ATD is a fantastic place to meet new friends, reconnect with old collegues, and stay abreast of changes in our industry. Whether you’re listening to a keynoter, attending an informative panel discussion, or simply walking around the conference floor to see all the innovations and resources that are available to learning professionals, attending the conference is time well spent.

The Power of Connection

Being at the conference reminded me about the importance of connection and community. No matter what field you are in, you will benefit by tapping into the wider community of practitioners in your profession.

If you’re not already a member, think about joining a membership organization in your industry. Membership organizations are terrific places to meet potential clients, partners, mentors, and industry peers. These connections often lead to new business opportunities and collaborations.

Also consider attending a business conference in your field, like ATD. This is where you can spot trends and keep up-to-date with the latest developments in your profession. Seeing the products, services, and technologies showcased by vendors and exhibitors can help you brainstorm new ideas and solutions for your own business. If you have the budget for it, consider becoming an exhibitor. It’s a great way to increase your company’s visibility.

I always come home from ATD filled with renewed energy and enthusiasm for our work. It’s inspiring to know that we belong to a community that is contributing to the greater good by developing people’s potential.

Is Style 1 the Same as Micromanaging?

/ Ken Blanchard

We all know that when someone describes their boss as a micromanager, it’s not a compliment. The word conjures up a vision of a person feverishly working at their desk with a scowling supervisor standing over them, breathing down their neck.

Even though I just painted an unappealing picture of micromanagement, there are times when learners really do need both clear direction and close supervision on a task or goal. As part of our company’s SLII® training, we teach that people who are new to a task or goal need specific direction from their leader.

Think about a time when you wanted to learn how to do something new, like ride a bike or drive a car. You had never done it before, so you needed to learn everything. Someone had to show you and tell you what to do, how to do it, and when and where to do it. They also needed to observe your progress and give necessary feedback to develop your confidence and competence.

When someone has just begun to learn a task, in SLII® language we say they are at Development Level 1 (D1)—a stage we call Enthusiastic Beginner. They are excited about learning but they are completely inexperienced—they don’t know what they don’t know. An effective SLII® leader provides a matching Directing Leadership Style 1 (S1)—clear, specific direction. They tell the learner what the specific goal is and show them what a good job looks like by laying out a step-by-step plan on how the task is to be accomplished. The leader makes most of the decisions and the person they are leading is responsible for following their direction or plan. The leader provides close supervision and constructive feedback throughout this early stage of development. It’s easy to see how an Enthusiastic Beginner can really benefit from a “micromanager” on this task.

Do you know who doesn’t need to be micromanaged? A person working on a task they have done successfully before. A Directing leadership style would be a complete mismatch. Depending on their development level with that task, the person could benefit from a style that is more supportive or collaborative, or even a Delegating leadership style. An SLII® leader would work with the person to diagnose their development level on the task and then use a matching leadership style for the best results.

In the book Leadership and the One Minute Manager, which I wrote with Pat Zigarmi and Drea Zigarmi, we go into detail about the four development levels (D1-D4) and the four leadership styles (S1-S4) of SLII®. We highlight several directive and supportive behaviors leaders should use in different combinations to develop people’s competence and commitment and help them become self-directed achievers on each of their goals.

Keep in mind that we all are at different levels of development regarding each specific task we are working on. Because people’s development levels vary on different tasks, the best leaders know they must use “different strokes for different folks” depending on their competence and commitment on a task. They also use different strokes for the same folks on different tasks.

Leaders must learn how to flex their style to fit every situation. Too much direction is just as bad as too little direction, as these examples demonstrate:

  • An experienced and competent accountant is not happy with her Style 1 (Directing) boss, who squanders time trying to teach her how to create a spreadsheet the “right way.” Providing too much direction on tasks where a person is already competent feels like micromanagement.
  • An administrative assistant who has never spoken in front of a group is asked to give a presentation to the leadership team by his Style 4 (Delegating) boss, who then leaves him alone to figure out what to do. Providing too little direction on tasks where questions or problems may come up feels like abandonment or being set up to fail.

A leader who over-supervises or under-supervises by giving too much or too little direction can have a detrimental effect on their people’s development. That’s why it is so important for leaders to match their leadership style to each person’s development level on a task.

The best leaders know how to continually adjust their leadership style to fit each situation, helping to develop individuals who will ultimately achieve each goal and perform well on each task with little direction or support. Lao-tzu said it well:

“When the best leader’s work is done, the people say ‘We did it ourselves!’”

Helping People Work Through Disillusionment

/ Ken Blanchard

As leaders, we’ve all seen it happen: Your direct report starts a new project or task, filled with excitement about what they can achieve. While they may not have all the skills they need, they’re enthusiastic about learning what to do, taking action, and achieving their goal.

A few weeks go by. The next time you check in with your direct report, you discover that their progress on the project has stalled. As the two of you talk, it becomes clear that your direct report is finding the work more difficult than they thought it would be. They are no longer engaged and they’re having a hard time staying committed to the task.

In the language of SLII®, the direct report has become a Disillusioned Learner. This is a predictable passage along the journey from low to high competence. Yet many managers don’t know how to lead people at this stage.

Flex Your Leadership Style

The best leaders know how to flex their leadership style to adapt to the changing needs of their direct reports. Yet our research shows that 54 percent of managers use just one leadership style, regardless of the situation. So, in the case of our Disillusioned Learner, most leaders will default to a supporting leadership style, giving the direct report needed encouragement—but providing little help with working through the roadblocks. Some leaders will default to a directing leadership style, closely supervising every move—and undermining what little confidence the direct report has around that task.

Neither approach will be very effective. What the Disillusioned Learner really needs is a coaching style, delivered through coaching conversations that blend direction and support. Learning to be flexible can be a challenge at first—especially for leaders who have become accustomed to using a “one size fits all” approach.

Have an Alignment Conversation

To help the Disillusioned Learner, the leader’s first step is to partner with their direct report by having an alignment conversation. The purpose of this conversation is to clarify the goal or task, confirm the direct report’s development level on that task, and agree on the best leadership style for the situation. Remember:

Leadership is not something you do to people,

but something you do with people.

To give you an idea of what this looks like in the real world, let’s eavesdrop on a leader talking with a direct report during their regularly scheduled one-on-one meeting. As they talk, it becomes clear that the direct report is having trouble with one of her tasks.

“I’m just not feeling very confident about this,” she says. “To be honest, I’m not sure what to do next.”

The leader recognizes that these are the words of a Disillusioned Learner, someone who may have started the task with enthusiasm but is feeling discouraged after running into obstacles. As I mentioned earlier, a person at this stage needs a coaching leadership style, which is high on direction and support.

Having diagnosed her direct report’s development level, the leader now engages her in an alignment conversation, getting agreement on the coaching leadership style that she will use:

“Since you’re still learning and not feeling confident, would it be helpful if I provide you with direction and support?”

“Sure, I could use the help,” the direct report replies.

First, the leader provides some perspective and encouragement:

“Look how much you’ve already accomplished! You’ve made some good initial progress. I’d like to hear your thoughts and ideas as we work together on this.”

To provide direction, the leader offers continued training, instruction, or assistance in problem solving. Her directive comments might begin:

“Let me show you how to …” or “Here’s how you might want to approach this …” or “Here are some more resources/examples….”

To provide support, the leader asks questions, practices active listening, and offers praise and encouragement to help build the direct report’s commitment and motivation. Her supportive comments might begin:

“I know you can do this …” or “I’m confident you can do this …” or “I know this isn’t easy at first, but it gets better. Hang in there. I’m here to help.”

The goal of these coaching conversations is to build the direct report’s competence on the task and pull her out of her disillusionment.

Development Level Varies from Goal to Goal and Task to Task

It’s important to remember that development level applies to a specific goal or task, not to a person generally. For example, while the direct report in the scenario above may be a Disillusioned Learner on that particular goal, on a different goal she may be an expert—a Self-Reliant Achiever—able to achieve outstanding results without any direction or support whatsoever. At that development level she would need an entirely different leadership style—but that’s a topic for another blog!

If you would like to improve the morale and engagement of your people by learning to adapt your leadership style to their needs, I encourage you to take advantage of the many resources we have on our website. Our goal is to make work more inspiring, motivating, and meaningful for all.