I did a recent interview with Dan Schawbel for his blog, Personal Branding. Read the interview at http://personalbrandingblog.com/personal-branding-interview-ken-blanchard/ and let me know what you think.
Leadership
Admitting Mistakes
I have been working with two top guys from a radio program to prepare some “One Minute Advice” radio spots. I tell you, it’s really interesting in life—you have certain things you learn how to do and you get confidence, and all of a sudden you’re asked to do something that you’re not used to. In this case for me, it’s to say something in just a minute. Even though I’m called the One Minute Manager, you know, I usually have more to say than what takes a minute!
But it’s been a good learning process. I’ve thought a number of times about John Maxwell’s saying: “A winner is big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.” So as I’ve been going through this process, I would do one of the spots and then laugh and say, “Of course, we need to do that one over again!” and try to profit from what didn’t go well and see if I could correct it the next time. So I’ve been dealing with my own image of myself—what I’m good at and what I’m not good at. But I’m learning! I’m getting better all the time. It’s been an interesting process.
I think that’s good advice for all of us, to be big enough to admit when you’ve made a mistake, smart enough to profit from a mistake, and strong enough to correct it. Otherwise you would do the same thing wrong over and over again. That would get a little boring and it could be career damaging.
Take care of yourself—have a great day. Life is a very special occasion even though some days are more learning days than others.
Celebration
Last week I had lots of festivities set up around my birthday. It’s really kind of funny—why did I do all this? I invited all my coauthors, as many as could come, to come to our house for a little reception on Tuesday night. Then for the next couple of days we all talked about celebrating simple truths and what we’ve all done together. We talked about our body of work—what it was all about and where was it going in the future. Margie probably summed it up the best when she said it was really about being champions of self worth and individual dignity, and that everything we’ve done is to try to help make people feel important and cared for. And when people feel good about themselves, they produce good results. I think that’s probably a really good message for you as you continue to interact with each other and people at home and work. Every chance you get, ask, “How can I make the world a better place by the moment-to-moment decisions I make as I interact with other human beings, and build up their own sense of self worth?”
I’m really still amazed that the company Margie and I started with some of our friends is 30 years old, and that I’ve been able to do some of the things that I had never thought about before. People told me I couldn’t write—that I should be a college administrator. Zig Ziglar has a wonderful quote: “Regardless of your lot in life, you can build something beautiful on it.” And you know, I didn’t do it all by myself. I think that’s one of the reasons I wanted to invite everybody—because you know, my mother always said, “Why don’t you write a book by yourself?” and I would say, “Mom, I already know what I know.” So I built a wonderful life with the help of tons of people. I love another quote by Woodrow Wilson: “Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.” So we not only celebrated what we’ve accomplished together, but also our friendship. It was a special time and I really enjoyed it. Seventy is not a huge number. I have always thought that I wanted to be like Norman Vincent Peale. He died quietly in his sleep at 95. So that means I have another 25 years to go! I just feel great. I was glad I was able to put a bookmark there and take a look at what we’ve done over the years. We also got a chance to get our first copies of Helping People Win at Work: A Business Philosophy called “Don’t Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A” that Garry Ridge, president of WD-40 Company, and I wrote. And then the first copies of Who Killed Change? which is the book that John Britt wrote with Judd Hoekstra and Pat Zigarmi and me. Everybody was excited to see those.
Somebody once said, “Many things will catch your eye but only a few will catch your heart. Pursue those.” I really always tried to pursue things in my heart. Maybe I didn’t always make the best decisions. I could have probably done better writing fewer books and focusing more; we could have done things a little differently, but what’s happened has happened. So my 70th birthday, I think, has just been a celebration of life. We had a wonderful time; it was way beyond my expectations, and fun. I think life, as I’ve said for a long time, is a special occasion. And I don’t intend to miss any of it and I hope you don’t either.
Each One Help One
You know, in these tough economic times, I’ve been thinking about what’s the best financial advice I’ve heard. I was once talking with the great financial advisor Sir John Templeton. Somebody asked him about the best financial advice he had ever given anybody, and he said, “Tithing.” He said, “I’ve never known anybody who has tithed (given away) at least ten percent of their income to good causes who didn’t have it coming back tenfold. Just reaching out and helping others brings that energy back to you.” And I firmly believe that. Templeton said, “Don’t wait until you have a lot of money. Reach out and help somebody now.” I think we all know people who are hurting, and maybe you could do something special for them—maybe even pay the rent for them or get them some meals or do something like that. Tithing is not necessarily giving to a church. It’s really the whole process of sharing what you have with others. I know some people are pretty tight at this time financially and all. But you know, my belief is that this is the time—maybe more than ever—to really reach out and see if you can help somebody else. I love the whole concept that we’ve talked about, “Each One Help One.”
Choose to Feel Good About Yourself
You know, I was thinking today about the San Diego Padres. They’re 7 and 2 now and it’s interesting to hear the analysts. At one point they were 1 and 2, and they were down by 3 runs to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the eighth inning, and somehow they rallied and won the game and made 2-2 and split with a team that’s supposed to win the championship in our league outright, and suddenly the team started to belief in itself. And they started saying, “Well, we really hang together,” and all that kind of thing. And suddenly they’ve just pulled off all these wins in a row. So what would have happened if they had lost and they had been 1 and 3? Would they have been able to hold their heads up?
So often how you feel about yourself is completely a choice. One of our problems is that how we feel about ourselves is usually related to our performance. So if we don’t have such a good day, or if we lose an account, or think we did something wrong, all that kind of thing—what we have to recognize is that performance will go up and down. People’s opinion of us will go up and down. You have to believe in yourself. You have to choose that we’re doing good things and you’re doing good things. So let’s just see what happens to the Padres – if they keep it up, or if they suddenly lose a couple of games and start staying, “Maybe we’re not as good as we thought,” and all of a sudden their attitude changes. Life is really a series of choices. Norman Vincent Peale used to say, “When you wake up in the morning, you have two choices in life: You can feel good about yourself or you can feel lousy. Why would you choose the latter one?” So today, make the choice to feel good about yourself!
How We Lead 