How I Met Ken Blanchard

I’ve been in San Diego this week for training on a leadership model called Situational Leadership II.  This model was created by Ken Blanchard a few decades ago, and it still going strong.  It’s one of the top leadership models being taught in the country today.  My objective this week has been to obtain my certification to be able to teach this class to leaders in my company.  As you read the rest of this (or at least I hope you will), you’ll see that I was able to accomplish much more.

On Wednesday night I had the privilege of attending a reception at Ken and Margie Blanchard’s house.  Yes, at their house!  Not only did I get to meet one of the heroes of leadership development, I got to mingle at his house and get a signed copy of Fit at Last, one of his most recent books.  (You might recognize the title The One Minute Manager.  Ken wrote that in the early 80’s.)

Here is how the evening went down.  Most of my classmates were able to attend this reception at the Blanchard’s house.  We weren’t sure what the evening would be like, but the Blanchard’s were extremely gracious hosts.  We all mingled and had some hors d’oeuvres for a bit until Ken invited us all to sit around the living room.  It felt like we were about to have a fireside chat, but it was too warm to start a fire.

Ken and Margie told the story of how they came to live in their house, which involved a terrible story of their previous house of 25 years burning down in a wildfire several years ago.  They talked of this fire as if it were a blessing, and how fortunate they were through the situation.  Margie said something remarkable that I hope stays with me for a long time.  She said that everything they had given away over the years they had access to, but everything they kept for themselves was all destroyed.  They have looked at that as a life lesson and have shared this story many times over, I’m sure.  It was obvious that it was very impactful to them.

We also got to meet Tamara McCleary, a keynote speaker on the topics of organizational development, leadership, and women in the work place.  She was there because she just happened to sit next to Ken and Margie on a flight into San Diego this week.  Being the gracious hosts they were, they invited Tamara to come to the reception at their house.  She was as star struck as the rest of our group!  I was able to visit with Tamara for a few minutes, in which she encouraged me to go to Toastmasters.  Who knows, maybe that is step one to a future in speaking publicly. 

I walked away with a few life lessons that were impactful to me that I want to share with you.

1.       Give more than you get.  The Blanchard’s have a thriving business a nice home that is well decorated, and who knows how much they might be worth.  The great thing is that they give to others and are thoughtful of other’s needs before their own.

2.       Be kind and gracious, not arrogant and self-centered.  The Blanchard’s were a great example of how to host others.  The party was not about them having an audience to dispense their lifetime of wisdom to, but it was about giving us access to ask them questions that were relevant to us.  It was so inspiring!

3.       Success doesn’t happen overnight.   I can get caught up in thinking that I want to be more successful than I am today.  More money would mean a better life for my family in the short term, first cars and college for the kids would be easier, and we’d have a more secure future in retirement.  I looked at the Blanchard’s how they operated and their lives appeared well thought out, calm, and not concerned about all the things I just mentioned.  I think they’d be happy without the fame and fortune as long as they knew they were changing the lives of others for the better.

You never know who you might meet. And they might significantly enhance your life.

I admit it…I am a podcast junkie.  I am an audio book junkie.  I am a leadership development book junkie.  Regardless of the media, I love how this stuff opens my mind to new ways of thinking.  If you are reading this blog, you may be like me.  One concept that I seem to hear over and over through all these sources is that we need to expose ourselves to new ideas by reading books, attending conferences, workshops, and other training events. 

I recently had the opportunity to attend a two-day workshop in Chicago called Systems Thinking put on by a consulting company called Linkage, Inc.  The first day was hard to stay engaged.  The facilitator was young and inexperienced, and it showed.  He did well, but he just didn’t have “it” (experience, panache, charisma, etc.).  But, oh boy, was day two worth it!!!  The facilitator for day two was Mark Hannum.  Quite honestly, I had never heard of him before this class, but I think he could be one of the most interesting people I have ever met.  

Check out this biography I jotted down as he was quickly sharing his background.  He grew up in Lennox, MA, went to high school in St. Louis, then college in Pennsylvania to be a priest.  After some consideration, he chose to not be a priest, and went to the University of Oklahoma and obtained a PhD in animal behavior.  Following his PhD, he was one of the pioneers in teaching chimps how to use sign language.  Jobs in this arena dried up, so he went back to St. Louis and started working in leadership development and statistics.  He then went to Princeton and wrote geometry questions for the SAT, and he hated it.  So back to leadership development he went.  For a year, he helped Peter Drucker write a book and helped diagram many of Drucker’s concepts.  (Peter Drucker!  Are you kidding me?!  He was a huge thought leader in management and is held in the highest regards!)  Then he went to work for Aetna, the insurance company, and was head of national accounts.  From there he went to Hanover Insurance as the president’s chief of staff when the company was just eight employees strong.  Hanover eventually rose to be one of the top 10 insurers in the country.  He listed a few other accomplishments.   He helped start the newspaper USA Today.  He also worked on the Fast Pass system at Disney.  To top it all off, he was on a committee of consultants that were chosen to go to South Africa to figure out how to put a stop to Apartheid.  Finally, he has been a consultant and trainer at Linkage, Inc. for the past 20 years or so. 

I semi-apologize for the long paragraph above, but I was so taken back by this broad career path that I just had to share it.  And his biography only took the first five or ten minutes of class today.  Hopefully you can see why I was so intrigued!

I want to share with you some key takeaways that this brilliant man left the class with today: 

1.      Time delays in systems are bad news.  If you are a manager, try hard to not let them happen.  The longer a delay is in place, the less likely a change will happen.

2.     Use leverage everywhere possible.  Simply stated, focus on what will take the least amount of effort but make the largest impact.  Sometimes these things are not obvious or intuitive, but when discovered and acted upon, exponential changes can occur with a small amount of influence.

3.     Always find data to support your theories.  Oftentimes we have a gut feeling about a trend, or a perceived bottleneck, or a problem.  Gut feelings may get us thinking about the right problem, but we need to know the story.  So gather the data!!!

4.     Character is the most important thing in an organization.  Rules don’t work.  Develop character and you won’t have to make so many rules.

5.     Careers are largely built on luck.  What?!?  Yes.  You may be smart, talented and able, but you might not be in the right place at the right time working for the right manager.  Don’t get discouraged by this.  Who knows, you could go from teaching sign language to chimps to working with some of the world’s greatest thought leaders like Mr. Hannum did.  

When opportunity knocks, how do you answer?

Many times we miss opportunities for deepening personal relationships, creating great memories, or developing our careers.  Sometimes these opportunities just aren’t obvious.  Other times we are too busy to see them.  Many times we simply choose not to follow them for any number of reasons.    

I recently had the opportunity to hang out with a group of men from church for a morning of skeet shooting, but I almost didn’t go.  For months my wife and I have been in the process of adding on to our house.  In the final stages we have taken on a lot of the detail work – painting cabinets, installing hardware, hanging fans, etc.  Things that sounded simple at first, but took a lot of our time in hindsight!  With all that we have going on it would have been very easy to say no to this opportunity.  (See my previous blog titled “Present or Future?  Where do you tend to live?” for more on saying “no”.)

But what an opportunity I would have missed!  The camaraderie with this group of men was something I needed in order to escape the everyday routines and stresses.  Between the hours in the car driving to the ranch, to the hours outdoors with nothing around but cattle, horses, donkeys, and a couple dozen guys, the fellowship could not have been better.  On top of that, the weather was perfect, too! 

Sometimes, one opportunity leads to another.  Had I not gone skeet shooting, I would have missed a few other really cool life experiences.  For instance, I got to shoot a 100-year-old Russian rifle (that I can’t remember the name of).  It was a single shot, bolt action, iron sight military rifle that fired a round much like a modern deer hunting rifle.  I also got to shoot a fully automatic M16 (yes, fully automatic).  Though these guns were fun to shoot, they didn’t compare to the final experience of the day.  Someone brought a .50 caliber sniper rifle and was letting guys shoot it!  My understanding (admittedly limited) is this is the largest caliber rifle that is legal for American citizens to own.  Translation = AWESOME!  I was allowed one shot, and quite honestly, that is enough to hold me over for a while.  The shock waves, concussion, or whatever the technical term is for the feeling that comes from this rifle being fired is like nothing I have experienced before.  I literally felt like I had been punched in the nose after shooting it, but boy was it worth it. It’s not likely I will get another opportunity to shoot a gun like this any time soon.

So when you’re faced with making decisions about whether or not to follow those opportunities that are clearly in front of you, ask yourself the following questions before you say “no”:

1.  Am I saying no for something else that is truly better, or just easier?

2.  Where might I have the greatest impact for personal development?

3.  Where could I have the greatest impact on others?

There are several other questions we could ask ourselves, but I believe these few could point us in the right direction pretty well!

Present or Future? Where do you tend to live?

How do you live your life?  Do you tend to dream about the future so much that you forget to see the blessings of today?  The answer to the latter question rings a resounding "YES" in my life, but I am trying to change that.

I'll give you a couple examples to help you understand what I mean. 

My wife's daily driver from her 16th birthday until we had kids some thirteen years later was a 1986 GMC truck (which we still have, by the way).  This particular body style of truck has nice lines, a good stance, and hers had a nice sound to it.  But we never thought it was good enough.  We talked regularly about how great it would be not just to restore it, but to really make it "hers".  When we came up with the money, we proceeded to do just that.  We had it painted, added a cowl-induction  hood, replaced the windshield, lowered it, and put some nice wheels and tires on it.  This was exciting, but honestly, the end result didn't give us that lasting feeling that we thought it would.
 
Another example is a few years ago a coworker of mine told me that when I completed my master's degree it wouldn't be long and I would double my salary.  That sounded super exciting (and far-fetched).  Fast forward to the present and this has happened, but hardly a day passes that I don't think "what's next, how can I increase my income, and why does so-and-so make so much more than I do?"  

So what is the point of all this, and what can we do about it?

The point is, as humans we may never be satisfied with the present.  There will always be a future point that we crave, but when we get there we might be surprised about how empty it feels.  

I am learning there are a few things we can do to help us live more for the moment than for the future.  (Please note, I am a huge proponent of living wisely and saving/planning for the future, but that is not what we are talking about here.)

1.  Say "no" more often.  We oftentimes fill our calendars so full that we can't enjoy the current activity we are doing because we're always thinking of the next thing to check off of our lists.  Understand what you are choosing not to do, so you can be more aware of your current situation.

2.  Reflect Daily.  My faith teaches the importance of a healthy prayer life.  Prayer is simply communication with God.  Be thankful for what you have, "count your many blessings", and recognize that today is exactly what it is intended to be.  There are no mistakes with God.

3.  Laugh.  I grew up in a blue collar home.  We didn't have a lot of money for entertainment, but my mom sure knew how to make us laugh.  I have great memories of my childhood because of the laughter within my home.  Afterall, laughter is the best medicine!  

Enjoy today and plan for tomorrow in wisdom.  We have no guarantees that tomorrow will come, so why waste too much time worrying about it?!?!