Leadership

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.

It takes all of us to make the CHANGE!

/ fgomez321 / 1 Comment

b5b12069594fa08e

It is interesting to note that the title of Ken’s blog is “How WE lead,” instead of “How THEY lead.” This clearly sends the message that we share a responsibility in leadership.

My name is Francisco Gomez and I am this month’s guest blogger. In previous posts, Ken has mentioned how important is the leadership that the new president and his team will need to exercise for positive change to occur and last, starting with the VISION that he should set for all of us. But once that vision is clear for all, it is our turn to contribute our share, it is our turn to act. President Obama also thinks this way, as can see when he said “we are the ones we have been waiting for.”

It is an important responsibility for each of us to realize that the change we want will require that WE act differently as well. We will need to unlearn some things we have adopted as habits, learn new attitudes and behaviors, and relearn some fundamentals that we forgot along the way.

I want to invite you to contribute to this discussion by selecting one change you want to see happen over the next couple of years, and then providing your responses for the following questions:

· What will I need to START DOING to help this change happen?

· What will I need to STOP DOING to help this change happen?

· What will I need to CONTINUE DOING?

To kick off the discussion, one change I would like to see is a new kind of relationship between the United States and the rest of the world, based on what is good for the world at large, not just what is good for America. This means that sometimes we would be willing to do things that are not solely in the best interest of our country, but are desirable for the greater global good.

To help make this change happen, I will:

· Get better informed about the world and the issues different countries face

· Become more tolerant of different points of view

· Accept that we, as a nation, are not immune from making mistakes

· Have renewed faith in our political leadership

· Express my views and participate in the political decision making process

What is one change YOU would like to see? How will you contribute to it? Let’s share our visions and inspire others to do the same.

Three Leadership Tips for President-Elect Barack Obama

/ Ken Blanchard / 2 Comments

In thinking about the election I came up with three leadership tips for President-Elect Obama, and they all focus on in him modeling servant leadership.  The country is in desperate need of a servant leader as President.  This is a President who thinks of the country first and himself second.

The first tip has to do with the leadership part of servant leadership.  Leadership is about going somewhere.  If people don’t know where they are headed, leadership doesn’t matter and becomes bogged down in politics and self interest.  What President-Elect Obama needs to do is develop a compelling vision that helps us as a nation know who we are (our purpose), where we are going (our picture of the future), and what will guide our journey (our values).

Once there is clear direction, my second tip has to do with the servant part of servant leadership.   Now President-Elect Obama has to move to the bottom of the hierarchy and become the cheerleader, supporter, and encourager of everyone in Washington and around the country by working on making that vision a reality.  Now it is not about him, it is about the vision.

My third tip for President-Elect Obama makes servant leadership come alive.  He has to lead with his ears.  As Abraham Lincoln did, he needs to gather around him a team of rivals who are the best thinkers; a team who can help us solve the major problems that confront us today.  We know President-Elect Obama is a great speaker, but if God wanted him to speak more than listen, he would have given him two mouths.  I hope the theme of his presidency is to listen, listen, and listen some more, and then make the best decisions possible.