Interview with Ken Blanchard |
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<<Previous What difference can a leader make to an organization which an ordinary manager might fail to deliver? The big difference leaders can make is to excite and inspire people to live according to a vision and accomplish the goals. My title in our organization is Chief Spiritual Officer, because I’m in charge of vision, values, commitment, and energy. Every morning I leave a voice mail that does three things: 1) People tell me who to pray for, and I announce those prayer requests. After ten years of doing this, we have tremendous data on the power of prayer. 2) People tell me who to praise and I publicly praise them. I’m always catching unsung heroes doing things right. 3) Finally, I leave a morning message that’s usually geared around our four key values-ethical action, relationships, success, and learning. Leadership can make a difference if you are constantly reminding people who you are and where you’re going. Why are there only a few women leading the companies worldwide? Is there something which men have and they don’t? Do you see this ratio changing in the future? I think it’s unfortunate that there are not many women leading companies worldwide. In many ways I think women are better top managers than men because they’re better listeners, they’re more supportive, and less apt to be ego-driven. The reason there are not more of them is undoubtedly a result of the fact that they got a late start. We used to feel that the place for women was at home. Now we’re seeing that they are equal partners and have fabulous leadership potential. I see the ratio of men and women leaders changing significantly in the future. Any other thoughts/views that you would like to share with us... Of all the things I’ve taught over the years, the one thing that’s most important and often forgotten is that the key to developing people and creating a great organization is to catch people doing things right. Too many leaders are seagull managers. They tell people what they ought to do and then disappear; and don’t turn up until somebody makes a mistake. Then they fly in, make a lot of noise, dump on everybody, and fly out. That’s not a very good way to lead. Great leaders are always gathering data, seeing if they can catch people doing things right so they can accent the positive. If people make a mistake, rather than slamming them, they redirect them back to where they need to be. My book, Whale Done! The Power of Positive Relationships, dealt with this. I wrote the book with two top whale trainers from SeaWorld. It’s a dramatic presentation of the power of building trust and accentuating the positive. I don’t see anyone argue when I ask them if it would make sense to punish a killer whale and tell trainers to get in the water with them.
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