Servant Leadership

Explore the Versatility of SLII®

/ Ken Blanchard

Most of you already know about SLII®, our company’s situational approach to leadership and our flagship product. Millions of managers around the world have found it to be the very best way to lead. The SLII® model shows leaders how to give their team members the right kind of leadership style for the person’s development level on each specific task or goal they do. Here’s how it works:

When working toward completing a task or achieving a goal, everyone moves along a continuum made up of four development levels. Managers use this practical framework to assess a person’s competence and commitment on a task and diagnose their development level:

  • Enthusiastic Beginner (D1): The person has low competence and high commitment. They don’t know how to do the task but are excited to get started.
  • Disillusioned Learner (D2): The person has some competence but low commitment. Still early in the learning process, they are feeling discouraged and insecure about moving forward.
  • Capable, but Cautious, Contributor (D3): The person has high competence and variable commitment. They are finally getting the hang of things but still need occasional help.
  • Self-Reliant Achiever (D4): The person has high competence and high commitment. They are at the top of their game on this task.

Next, the manager matches the person’s development level on the task with the leadership style that has the right combination of directive and supportive behaviors to help the person succeed: S1—Directing; S2—Coaching; S3—Supporting; and S4—Delegating.

If you have taken SLII® training, you may remember being asked by the facilitator to come up with a situation in your own life where you could apply the SLII® model. This is where everyone learns how many areas SLII® can be applied, not only on their job but also in their day-to-day life. It’s always fun to see participants’ faces light up when they discover how easily they can relate real-life activities to the SLII® process.

One example we’ve used for years in training sessions references a person learning how to ski.

  • Starting out, the instructor shows the person how to put on their skis and move forward. The person feels the thrill of starting down their first small hill, envisioning themselves easily mastering this fun sport. (D1)
    • After their first lesson—and several falls—they realize skiing isn’t as easy as they had thought it would be. They feel inadequate and a little foolish, and think about quitting. (D2)
    • Several more lessons go by, and the person is now having fun skiing and is practicing on more difficult runs. They know there is still much to learn but feel optimistic about their progress. (D3)
    • With time and the right amount of direction and support from their instructor along their learning journey, the person has achieved their goal of becoming a confident skier. (D4)

Now think of how the stages of the SLII® model could pertain to almost any task or goal you can think of—areas as diverse as showing someone how to play a musical instrument, bake cookies, or improve their driving skills. It could be used by anyone coaching a team sport involving people of any age, or by a friend helping another friend learn a foreign language. I’ve been told SLII® can be applied to the different stages of marriage, business partnerships, and raising children. Someone even said the basics of SLII® helped them train their dog! How’s that for versatile?

A few years ago, I wrote a book titled Fit at Last: Look and Feel Better Once and For All with my personal coach, Tim Kearin. In the book we describe how Tim used the SLII® model to help me through my fitness journey. He kept track of my development levels on goals such as nutrition and weight control, aerobic exercise, strength training, flexibility, balance, and rest and sleep, and he used all four leadership styles as needed. SLII® played a huge part in my reaching my goals.

SLII® teaches leaders how to build meaningful connections with team members. It creates engaged, high performing individuals and teams, and helps organizations excel. It can also make a difference in your home, your community, and your life. Give SLII® a try and let us know how it works for you!

An Empowered Workforce Focuses on the Greater Good

/ Ken Blanchard

In an earlier blog post on the topic of quiet quitting, I made a case for servant leadership—leaders who serve their people by helping them realize that quiet quitting (disengagement at work) is not the answer. Servant leaders establish a safe, caring environment, let people know how valuable they are as individuals, ask them what they need, listen to their answers, and work side by side with them on a solution.

I want to go one step further today with another goal for organizations run by servant leaders: creating a culture of empowerment.

Empowerment is an organizational climate that unleashes the knowledge, experience, and motivation that reside in people. Creating a culture of empowerment doesn’t happen overnight—but leaders of the best run companies know that empowerment creates satisfied people, positive relationships, and never before seen results. People are excited about the organizational vision, motivated to serve customers at a higher level, and focused on working toward the greater good.

It’s true—empowered employees have more expected of them. But along with those high expectations comes growth, career development, the satisfaction of belonging to a self-directed team and being involved in decisions, and a sense of ownership.

In Empowerment Takes More than a Minute, the book I coauthored with John Carlos and Alan Randolph, we offer three keys leaders must use to guide the transition to a culture of empowerment.

The First Key: Share Information with Everyone

Team members who get the information they need from their leader can make good business decisions. But when leaders keep important information to themselves, people often come up with their own version of the truth—which may be worse than reality. And when people don’t have accurate information, they can’t act responsibly.

Servant leaders trust their people and realize that openly sharing information about themselves and the organization—good or bad—is the right thing to do. It builds trust between managers and their people. And when people have accurate information, they can make decisions that are in the best interests of the organization.

The Second Key: Create Autonomy through Boundaries

Counter to what some people believe, there is structure in an empowered organization. It is there to inform team members of the boundaries that exist within their autonomy. These boundaries take the form of vision statements, goals, decision-making rules, performance management partnerships, etc. Within those ranges, team members can determine what to do and how to do it. As the empowered person grows, the range of structures also grows to allow them a greater degree of control and responsibility.

The Third Key: Replace the Hierarchy with Self-Directed Individuals and Teams

Empowered, self-directed individuals and teams—highly skilled, interactive groups with strong self-managing skills—are more effective in complex situations. They don’t just recommend ideas—they make and implement decisions and are held accountable for results. Today, success depends on empowered, self-directed individuals and teams.

Empowerment means that people have the freedom to act. It also means that they are accountable for results. The journey to empowerment requires everyone to challenge their most basic assumptions about how business should operate. People at all levels of the organization must master new skills and learn to trust self-directed individuals and teams as decision-making entities. An empowered culture is not easily built—but the rewards for the organization, its leaders, and its workers are enduring and plentiful.

Playing Well with Others

/ Ken Blanchard

Remember the days when we used to get report cards from our teachers? They gave us feedback not only about our class work but also about us as human beings. Perhaps you were one of the kids whose teacher praised you by saying that you “played well with others.” If so, good on you! Playing well with others is an essential life skill, no matter how old we get.

 Who Are Your Truth Tellers and Challengers?

It’s not always easy to work well with others, especially when the other person is very different from us. Often, the people we work with don’t share our opinions or our approach to problem solving. They might even challenge our thinking and insist on doing things their way—or at least insist that we compromise. This is a good thing! Why? Because we need truth tellers and challengers to help us grow and develop.

In her wonderful book, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Doris Kearns Goodwin shows how Lincoln became the greatest American president, in part by surrounding himself with those who had initially opposed him and who continued to challenge him throughout his presidency.

How Working with People Least Like Me Brought Out the Best in Me

Early in my career, I worked with a man who wasn’t like me in many ways. Where I was easygoing, he was a stickler. Where I saw the big picture, he was better at details. Where I had a live-and-let-live philosophy, he had a take-no-prisoners approach. A lot of people found it tough to be around this man, but he was brilliant and working with him led to a wonderful career for me.

I don’t regret a single day I spent working with this man. He got me excited about leadership and pushed me hard to be clear and theoretically sound in my work. I would not have become as good a teacher or presenter if not for him.

I also had a writing partner whose personality could be tough at times. He insisted on getting his way and didn’t always use tact when he communicated his opinions. Yet he had such a brilliant, creative mind that I knew I had to write a book with him. Despite the many confrontations we had, the book we worked on together never would have reached its full potential without him.

Working with these two men showed me how partnering with people who were different than I was could improve my skills and ignite my career.

The Benefits of Working with Others

I believe that playing well with others is my superpower. Over the past 53 years I’ve written more than 65 books, most of them with coauthors. Here are just a few of the upsides to working with others.

Learning. My mother used to ask me why I didn’t write my own books. “I already know what I know,” I would tell her. “When I write with somebody else, I learn a lot.” Writing with others increases my knowledge on multiple topics.

Skill Building. By working with coauthors, I sharpen my writing skills—vocabulary, grammar, organization, and structure. I also get to practice patience and listening skills.

Productivity. Without question, working with others increases my productivity. It is highly doubtful that I could have published more than 65 books on my own.

Networking. On my seventieth birthday, we threw a party and invited all my coauthors to attend. What a joy it was to be with all the wonderful writing partners I’d had over the years! There were around 30 of them at that time, and the number is even larger today. Developing a network of special friends is one of the greatest benefits of working with others.

Ability to Serve Others. I believe that the purpose of work is to make a positive contribution to humanity. Working with others allows me to expand my influence and make a bigger difference in people’s lives.

So, don’t go it alone! Learn to play well with others—especially those who might be different than you. Collaborating with others will bring out the best in you—and it will benefit your organization, as well.

“No one of us is as smart as all of us.”

/ Ken Blanchard

I have met leaders in organizations around the world who act as if leadership is all about them. They want everybody to recognize that they are in charge. They believe that all the brains in the organization are in their office.

People who think that way certainly aren’t servant leaders. They are self-serving leaders who miss out on the reality that their people are capable of much more than they are given credit for. As a result, the best people exit the organization as soon as possible and search for a company where leaders see their people as partners rather than subordinates (subordinary people).

Servant leaders, on the other hand, realize leadership is about working alongside their people, sharing information, and keeping lines of communication open. When that happens, people get to know each other’s strengths and build on them to help the team perform at the highest level. They prove that 1+1 is greater than 2.

The Power of Teamwork and Inclusivity

Tapping into the talent, wisdom, and creativity of your people solves problems faster and gets more done. Why? Because as Don Carew, Eunice Parisi-Carew, and I point out in The One Minute Manager Builds High Performing Teams, “No one of us is as smart as all of us.”

A thrilling and inspiring example of this principle is the 1980 US Olympic hockey team. Twenty young men—many of whom had never played together before—came from colleges all over the country. Six months later they won the Olympic gold medal, defeating the best teams in the world—including the Soviet Union, a team that had been playing together for years. No one expected this to happen. It is considered one of the greatest upsets in sports history and is labeled a miracle.

Thirty-eight years to the day later, the US women’s hockey team pulled off the same miracle.

When members from both teams were interviewed, all without exception attributed their success to teamwork. The drive, commitment, cohesiveness, cooperation, trust, team effort, and passionate belief in a common purpose—“Go for the gold”—were the reasons for their success.

Making Common Sense Common Practice

Using the power of a team to get things done may seem like common sense, but many leaders don’t—or won’t—allow their teams to “go for the gold.” If you want to create a high performing team, you need to do the following:

  • Face the fact that your people already understand that you don’t know everything.
  • Ask for help from your team members when you are making decisions or trying to find solutions to problems.
  • Let them know everyone’s contribution is needed and appreciated.

When you model this side-by-side leadership philosophy, your team will be ready and willing to get on board. So, the next time you’re faced with pressure or complexity, don’t be a lone hero. Tap into the knowledge and power of your team!

“No One Of Us Is As Smart As All Of Us” is Simple Truth #19 in the new book I’ve coauthored with Randy Conley, Simple Truths of Leadership: 52 Ways to Be a Servant Leader and Build Trust. It’s on sale now at your favorite bookstore or online retailer. Go here to download an eBook summary for a preview!

The Best Use of Power Is in Service to Others

/ Ken Blanchard

Most new leaders are excited to have power because they feel they finally have the title and position to do things their way. But having power doesn’t guarantee cooperation from your people. Leaders who think they are a big deal because of their position are at risk of losing their best people and not getting the performance they need from those who remain. Yet theories still abound that the best kind of leader is one who is forceful, powerful, and commanding. How can that be reconciled with the tenets of servant leadership?

When I was elected president of the seventh grade, I came home from school excited to tell my parents about this achievement. My father, who retired as a rear admiral in the US Navy, had a quick reminder for me. “Congratulations, Ken. But now that you’re president, don’t use your position. Great leaders are great not because they have power but because their people trust and respect them.”

My dad knew an important principle of being a successful servant leader: people will give you their best when they trust you and know you have their backs. I’ve never forgotten his advice—and it has inspired my leadership style for seven decades.

Want to know how to make this commonsense leadership principle common practice in your work? Don’t focus on the power that comes with the title of leader—focus on the people you have an opportunity to serve.  Here are a few suggestions: 

  • Continually emphasize we over me.
  • Listen more than you talk.
  • Encourage and support people’s efforts rather than directing them.

When you show your people you are there to serve, not to be served, they know they are part of a team and are motivated to give you their best efforts.

All kinds of people struggle with the notion of power. The abuse of power, the use of status and position to coerce others, and the egoism associated with people who have social and political power have turned people off to the acceptance of power, let alone the use of it. But there is nothing wrong with being in a position of power if you use it properly.

Randy Conley, my coauthor on Simple Truths of Leadership, wrote this on the use of power: Being a servant leader rather than a self-serving leader means giving away my power to help other people achieve their personal goals [and] the objectives of the organization, and to allow them to reach their full expression and potential as individuals. One of the paradoxes of leadership is that placing others before ourselves, and using our power to serve rather than dominate, actually brings us more power, respect, commitment, and loyalty.

I’ll close with the words of 17th century Spanish writer and philosopher Baltasar Gracian, author of The Art of Worldly Wisdom.

“The sole advantage of power is the ability to do more good.”

“The Best Use of Power Is in Service to Others” is Simple Truth #14 in my new book with Randy Conley, Simple Truths of Leadership: 52 Ways to Be a Servant Leader and Build Trust. Find it at your favorite bookstore or online retailer—and go here to download a sneak preview!