Author: Ken Blanchard

Make Sure Your Employees Trust You–Or Else

/ Ken Blanchard / 1 Comment

Wanted to let you know about this recent article that was published in Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/23/trust-respect-employees-leadership-managing-blanchard.html

Leadership
Make Sure Your Employees Trust You–Or Else
Ken Blanchard and Terry Waghorn 03.23.09, 5:48 PM ET

How do you keep people trusting you at a time like this? Trust is essential in our lives, and it has been since the beginning of our country. Our dollar bills say In God We Trust. Yet today trust is all but vanishing, especially trust in our business leaders, whose greed and short-term selfishness seem to have been a major cause of our economic crisis. With negativity running amok, it is no small wonder that trust within the organizational context is slipping.

Yet that need not be the case. “Managed properly, trust can actually grow in such adverse conditions,” says Shawna O’Grady, associate professor of management at Queens School of Business, in Kingston, Ontario. “Taking this point to the extreme, consider the bonds forged between comrades-in-arms in a theater of war.”

The key to building trust in both good and bad times is to realize that none of us is as smart as all of us. There are companies that have embraced this simple truth and used it to maintain trust before, during and, we’re sure, after this economic downturn. All these companies seem to have two characteristics in common.

First, they have a higher purpose than simply making money. Let me give you a couple of examples.

Southwest Airlines, from its beginning, has expressed the conviction that it is in the freedom business. The freedom of all Americans to be with friends and relatives during good times and bad times–thus, their low price structure. Herb Kelleher, who co-founded Southwest, not only wanted to give his customers the lowest possible price, he also wanted to give them the best possible service.

As a result, Southwest is set up to empower everyone, right down to its frontline employees–to make decisions, use their brains and be customer maniacs so they can create raving fan customers.

Chick-fil-A’s purpose is to glorify God by having a positive influence on everyone who comes in contact with its stores and foods. The stores aren’t open on Sundays, even though that is often the busiest day in the fast food industry. S. Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, first did this for religious reasons as a devout Southern Baptist and lifelong Sunday school teacher, because Sunday is the day of rest. But it has turned out to be a good business decision. Chick-fil-A attracts many of its employees, including managers, because they know they will be able to be with their families and friends every Sunday. Has it paid off? The chain has by far the lowest turnover of restaurant managers and frontline employees in the quick-service business.

Second, companies that engender trust democratize the decision-making process by soliciting input and sharing the decision-making itself with as many people as possible. In his primetime address to Congress in February, President Barack Obama acknowledged “difficult and trying times” but sought to rally the nation with an upbeat vow that by working together “we will rebuild, we will recover.” How do you do that in business organizations?

It isn’t complicated. When leaders treat their people as their business partners and involve them in making important decisions, those people feel respected, and respect leads to trust. If you respect your people and they trust you as a leader, they will give their all to get the best results they can for your organization.

Ichak Adizes, a longtime consultant and professor at UCLA, observes how respect and trust are conveyed by both nonverbal and verbal messages. If you respect someone, you face them when you speak to them, because you are interested and want to hear their opinions. If you don’t respect them, you turn your back, because you couldn’t care less what they think. If you trust people, on the other hand, you can turn your back on them, because you feel certain they mean you no harm. If you don’t trust them, you watch their every move.

How does that work at Chick-fil-A and Southwest Airlines? In both cases, they respect their people and therefore share information with them about the performance of the company in both good times and bad. In good times, they celebrate together; in bad times, they are problem-solving partners. Does that work? You’d better believe it.

Unlike many companies today, where the top managers are locked behind closed doors, cutting costs while holding everybody’s fate in their hands, these two great businesses open their books to everyone so they can know what’s happening and go right to work cutting costs and increasing revenue.

Many leaders are afraid to share negative information with their people, because they fear appearing vulnerable and therefore weak. We have found the contrary to be true. Everyone knows leaders are not perfect. When leaders admit problems and involve their people in problem solving, respect and trust rise.

Corporate leaders may also fear Wall Street’s reaction to their trusting moves, but that’s like playing tennis with your eye on the scoreboard and not on the ball. The ball in business is results and people. If the focus is only on results, you’ll never be able to maintain or build trust in a time like this.

What are you doing? Are you betting on the brainpower of your top managers, or on the brainpower of everyone in your organization?

What’s at stake? The future of your company, based much more than you may realize on trust and respect.

Ken Blanchard is co-author of many New York Times bestsellers, including The One Minute Manager and The One Minute Entrepreneur. He serves as chairman and chief spiritual officer of the Ken Blanchard Companies.

Terry Waghorn is an adviser to senior executives in companies ranging from small to Fortune 500. He is co-author of Mission Possible and author of The System.

Everyone Needs to Contribute

/ Ken Blanchard

In the last couple of weeks at our company, we’ve had our own special March Madness going on down on the basketball court at lunchtime. Next week, we’re going to start to get into the semifinals of this great tournament. One of the things I was thinking about was how, in basketball, the team that really wins is the one where all the players are really contributing. One star can’t be enough, and we saw that even in our own games. When there were two people who were both playing well, they tended to win. If you depend on one person, you can’t win. It applies to basketball and everything in life. I remember when Michael Jordan was the big star in Chicago. They never really got winning when it was just Michael scoring 30 or 40 points, but then he got some other teammates who contributed and made a difference. We need everyone to contribute. This is the way it is as we work together through this tough economic time. It’s not going to do us any good if a few people are putting in 150 or 200 percent and other people are only giving 60 or 70 percent. We need everybody giving 100 percent if we’re all going to really be a winning team in this effort.

I was talking to a friend who is in the automobile industry through advertising, and they are a big user of Gung Ho! with us. They have shared with their customers the whole Gung Ho! framework and he thinks it’s a perfect message as we manage through these tough times. It’s really interesting if you look at it:
The Spirit of the Squirrel is about worthwhile work, and the first thing that all of us have to recognize is that what we do is really important. We make a difference with our clients. Those who can’t work with us are really sad because they recognize what we do.
The Way of the Beaver is to be in control of achieving the goals. One of the things that we need to do in our organization, and every organization, is that everybody has to take responsibility for asking, “How can we help? Who can I help? What can we do?” The Way of the Beaver has got to be an operation.
And the last one, which is what we all ought to be doing with each other, is The Gift of the Goose, which is to cheer each other on and applaud each other and catch each other doing things right.
Let’s keep on pulling together and knowing that no matter what happens, we can get through tough times because we’ve done it before.

Maintaining Trust in Uncertain Times

/ Ken Blanchard

How do you maintain trust in uncertain times? Trust has been an important concept since the beginning of our country. On our dollar bills, we have said In God We Trust. Yet today it’s hard for us to trust people—particularly our business leaders, whose greed and self serving leadership seem to have been a major cause of our economic crisis. Yet, if we are going to pull out of this present situation, we have to realize that none of us is as smart as all of us. There are companies that realize this simple truth and have maintained trust before, during, and I’m sure after this economic downturn. All these companies seem to have two characteristics in common.

First of all, they have a higher purpose than making money. As an example, Southwest Airlines, from its beginning, has been convinced that it is in the freedom business. The freedom of all Americans to be with friends and relatives during good times and bad times—thus their low price structure. Chick-fil-A’s purpose is to glorify God by having a positive influence on everyone who comes in contact with Chick-fil-A. They aren’t open on Sundays, even though that is often the busiest day in the fast food industry.

Secondly, they value both people and results. The way that plays out is that their leaders and their people respect and trust each other by celebrating good times together and working out tough times together.

I first realized the importance of trust and respect going together by listening to Ichak Adizes, a long-time consultant and professor at UCLA. He argues that respect and trust have both nonverbal and verbal messages. If you respect someone, you face them, because you are interested and want to hear their opinions. If you don’t respect someone, you turn your back on them, because you couldn’t care less what they think. If you trust people, you will turn your back on them because you are convinced they mean you no harm. If you don’t trust them, you watch their every move. How does that work at Chick-fil-A and Southwest Airlines?  In both cases, they respect their people and therefore share information with them about the performance of the company in both good times and bad times. In good times, they celebrate together, and in bad times, they are problem-solving partners. Does that work? You’d better believe it. Unlike many companies today where the top managers are locked behind closed doors, cutting costs and having everybody’s fate in their hands, these two great companies open their books to everyone so they know what’s happening and immediately go to work to cut costs as well as increase revenue.

This is exactly what our company, The Ken Blanchard Companies, did after 9/11 when we lost $1.5 million in sales that month, and what we are doing today with sales and operating income going down. We believe that none of us is as smart as all of us, and we are convinced we will pull out of this together.

What are you doing? Are you betting on the brain power of your top managers or on the brain power of everyone in your organization?  What’s at stake? The future of your company, trust, and respect.

Leading in Uncertain Times

/ Ken Blanchard / 1 Comment

We did a pretty good webinar recently. Twenty-five hundred people signed up for it. Do you know what the title was? “Leading in Uncertain Times.” Of course, we don’t have any uncertain times here, do we? Ha! Let me tell you three points I shared in the webinar, because maybe it could help us, because we’re all hitting times that are interesting.

The first point is: You have to be a bearer of hope. Some of you might think, “Blanchard, will you stop this? These are hard times.” Hey—I’m going to be a bearer of hope. I thought you could be a bearer of hope, too. Is that always tied into reality? No. But what difference does it make—if you don’t hope, then why don’t you just lie down and we’ll throw some dirt over you.

The second point is that you have to make people your business partners. I want to tell you—in our company in this kind of economic situation we’re going to keep on asking our people whether they have any suggestions. Where can we cut costs? Where can we increase revenue? Our people are our partners. We need everyone’s input. That is so important now.

The final one is to be a servant leader. This is not the time to be self-serving and say that it’s all about me, even though you’re concerned and you have some fears and all. But if you realize that life is about how to serve, not be served, in the process of reaching out to help others and maybe forgetting your own problems for a minute, you know what? Your own problems might be helped. It’s a real simple fact, but I have found it true.

A couple of friends of mine were saying how you can’t deal with hard times if you don’t embrace the good times, and the laughs. Good times are an example of hope. A lot of people are saying how things are really rough. A friend of mine says, “Don’t waste a crisis!” This is a time to change our attitude even when people around us aren’t having the same feeling. Another friend of mine said, “If you can see the future, then what’s the use of faith?” I think that’s really so true. In my locker room in high school, my coach said, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” And he also said, “Winners never quit and quitters never win.” So what we really need to do is remember that we have the capability to do anything. Together, together, together! And that’s what we’re going to do this time, okay?

So put your chins up—put your smiles on. Go out and make a difference in people’s lives. And in the process I think we can all continue to make a difference in our own lives. To be bearers of hope, we have to catch people doing things right and celebrate when people go beyond the moment, beyond the circumstances. You know, sometimes in life, you get “in the zone,” where positive things are happening and you can’t explain it. So I was just wondering—how can we encourage each other to get into the zone? How do we help each other go beyond where we ever thought we might be in what we do? Every job is important, whether you’re a visiting professor, or director of first impressions, or shipping, or doing sales, or whatever. Get in the zone. Think about it. How can you get yourself in the zone?

Serving Others and Serving Ourselves

/ Ken Blanchard

With the way things are right now, I hope we’re all wishing the best for President Obama, whether we voted for him or not, because we have so many problems and we really need a leader who can deal with them. You might have seen that two of his top cabinet appointments resigned because of tax problems. I love what Obama did on NBC News and on CNN —  he said, “I screwed up.”  He said that part of the era of responsibility is not never making mistakes, it’s owning up to them. This is really all about The One Minute Apology. He said, “I campaigned on changing Washington and bottom-up politics. I don’t want to send a message to the American people that there are two sets of standards—one for powerful people and one for ordinary folks who are working every day and paying their taxes.”  I admire that.

I’ve talked with some of my friends recently about the idea of serving two masters or two kingdoms or two worlds—the two worlds are really ourselves and others – Ourselves and the highest good – Ourselves and leading at a higher level. It’s a constant battle, because that little ego is waiting there to kind of snap us up periodically and make us think that the world really centers around us, rather than saying, “Gee, I wonder how I can help. I wonder how I can support. I wonder how I can reach out to make a difference to somebody else.” I think we need to recognize that there are these two worlds and these two focuses. How do we balance those two, or at least be aware when our self is in charge? And then watch it—so that more often than not, we can be serving others and making a difference in other people’s lives. It’s a constant battle—a constant conflict between serving ourselves and serving others. You have to recognize that it’s not always an easy task. So my thought for you today is: Watch out. Get out of your own way as much as you can, and recognize that you really, finally, become an adult when you realize you’re here to serve rather than be served, and to give rather than get. But also recognize that little “self” that sneaks up once in a while.