Join Ken Blanchard for a special complimentary webinar and online chat beginning today at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (12:00 noon Eastern). Dr. Blanchard will be speaking on the topic of From Recovery to Prosperity: The Power of Vision and Leadership. The webinar is free and seats are still available if you would like to join over 1,500 people expected to participate.
Immediately after the webinar, Dr. Blanchard will be answering questions here at LeaderChat for about 30 minutes. To participate in the online discussion, follow these simple instructions.
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We hope you can join us later today for this special complimentary event courtesy of Cisco WebEx and The Ken Blanchard Companies. Click here for more information on participating.
I’m wishing I could clone myself … One to lead, one to manage, one to help, one to do, and one to pull it all together in a functional system. Time is so easily eaten up by responding to current needs that change and progress is not happening as desired. And when there is forward movement, it is often stalled because of issues raised via committees, departments, volunteers, or resources. I’d love to hear some tips to get out of the rut!
The biggest tip is to remember that none of us is as smart as all of us. Your question almost exhausts me! You have to stop taking on all the burden yourself. Share your concerns with your people, and see if you can come up with a strategy together so that you can enjoy your work and produce good results.
Thank you for taking time to respond! Was it that evident that I take on the burden of my departments (grin)? I’m encouraged. We have just initiated a process of coming up with strategies together with a cross-section of employees, so I hope to see good outcomes.
Good on you Ingrid!
Today, in the world of the Internet and crowd sourcing, it seems that “leadership” may be changing to “consensus.” Thoughts? Thanks.
I would say that I’m not sure it is really changing to consensus, but it does mean that you have to listen and secure information from as many sources as possible. But eventually, as Harry Truman said, “the buck stops here.” Somebody has got to make a decision. It can’t all be by committee. If Moses had taken a committee up on the hill, he would have come back with 3 commandments and 7 suggestions! Good luck!
Nice perspective. Thank you.
Thanks for the question Tom!
Do you have any coaching for ‘self leaders / individual contributors’ – on how they can effectively manage through multiple leadership changes? (ex: three changes of a sr leader within program…with each new leader comes changing priorities or visions.)
My suggestion is “keep on keeping on.” In other words, show up, do your work conscientiously, and remember to “move with the cheese.” Don’t get stuck in the mud, if there is a new direction, go for it! Don’t be like Sniff and Scurry from Spencer Johnson’s bestseller, nd keep on going back to the same cheese station for food, when obviously someone has moved it. If you don’t like this kind of action, get your resume out and go for something more stable.
As leaders, what are some ways to be a bearer of hope to others in the organization when there is so much negative news about the economy, past reductions in force and shrinking revenues?
When I say “be a bearer of hope,” I don’t mean turning your back on the truth of the present reality. We have on our company board, a 94 year old entrepreneur. He went through the great depression in the 30’s and survived. He told us, “this is tough, but it’s a piece of cake compared to then.” You have to let your people know that you are confident that together you can get to the other side where prosperity becomes the focus again.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. I value your insights!
Hi Ken, it’s an honour to be here with You. Somebody think that “the awareness of the ambiguity” is a value in the “modern economy”. What do You think about it? Do You think we have to deal with or to fight against corporate ambiguity? Many thanks.
I don’t think corporations are fostering ambiguity today, it is just that things are changing so fast that it is hard to be certain about anything. I learned from Miami Dolphins great Don Shula that to be an effective leader you have to be “audible ready.” That means, you might have a plan in mind, but if the competition or something in the external environment suggests that plan might be ineffective, you might need to change your plan.
I am tasked with developing leadership among mid sized nonprofits – which typically have limited resources (time and money) for courses etc. Any suggestions or tips on how to create an environment to encourage non profit leaders to make time to develop their skills?
Join the party! It is also hard to get people in “for profit” organizations to make time to develop their skills. The motivation has to start at the top. In our company, we have what we call “IQU” Intelligence Quest University. We are giving courses all the time and we know that the success of these programs depends on the endorsement of our leaders. I think when you stop learning, you die. Organizations, whether they are “for profit” or “non profit”, will die if they do not cultivate a learning environment.
Much appreciated!
Do you have resource recommendations that would apply your leadership principles in a church setting? Thanks.
Go to Leadlikejesus.com to find out what a ministry I cofounded is doing to apply the leadership principles I have been talking about today in a church setting. I would especially recommend two of our books, Lead Like Jesus, and The Most Loving Place in Town: A Parable For the Modern Church. I look forward to having you join one of our LLJ encounters to!
Hi Ken, here is a question from the webinar. What are your thoughts on including others in setting an overall corporate vision? Who should be invited to participate?
The first shot in an overall corporate vision should be the the top management group. But then I would cascade focus groups throughout the organization, where this first draft vision would be presented with the following questions: What should added to the vision? What is missing from the vision? Would you be excited to work with an organization with this vision with the modifications you suggest? Then gather all the suggestions and have the top management redo the vision and then do the process a second time so everyone can see that you listened and maybe catch any additional things that weren’t pointed out during the first round.
One more from the webinar–What are your thoughts on leaders admitting mistakes? Is it a sign of weakness?
A book I coauthored with Margaret McBride called The Fourth Secret of the One Minute Manager covers that. It focuses on the one minute apology. There is two parts of an apology, the first is honesty, admitting you made a mistake, and making amends to those you might have damaged. The second part has to do with integrity, which is what are you going to do to make sure you don’t do this again in the future. Our experience is that when you apologize for a mistake, people don’t see that as a weakness, they see it as a strength. As a result, they are willing to forgive you. Bill Clinton, Pete Rose, Ken Lay from Enron, and others could have learned a lot from that as well as the steroid users in baseball. The earlier you admit a mistake, the better.
Hi Ken,
Hello from KBCOB at Grand Canyon University (I teach in the MSL Program). I wondered what is new these days in “The Office of the Future”?
Hi there! One of the big things in the Office of the Future is managing across generations. They published a white paper on that which can be found on our website, or send a request to webinars@kenblanchard.com, and we will send you a copy!
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Thanks for all your interest, I hope that the presentation and the Q&A period were helpful. If you didn’t get anything out of today, I did, because I always need to remind myself of what is important. God Bless!
Hi Ken,
Just a thought I wanted to share with you.
Reading a number of books, interacting with leaders from different parts of the world, I found that leadership may vary from country to another. May be not a major, deep change in the concept, but, a change in the the way it looks, and how it’s perceived. Now, talking about Servant Leadership (others centred leadership) vs (self centred leadership, interacting with a number of leaders, people from different pars of the world, I found found that the servant leadership is a form of selfishness?
I’m sorry but, just think about it. Who wants to out other first? and why?
I mean unless there’s that strong inner driver to do so, one would always fall back in to old leadership style (me first). I thing one would be a servant leadership for different reasons, but one strong, inner motive to do so is to be recognized by others as a “servant leader”, people man, one that others would gather around, love and support. Honestly speaking, at this point in time, I don’t see any thing wrong with that. The bottom line is that “everyone benefits” when servant leadership is around. Any thoughts, comments?
Thanks.
Wesam
Hi Wesam,
You raise an interesting point about a leader looking at their motives for being known as a “servant leader.” I think it goes back to some of the points that Ken Blanchard raised in his webinar when he identified the importance of looking at your personal values when you are creating and communicating your leadership point of view. As you identified, it really boils down to asking yourself why you want to lead. Is it for your own personal fulfillment–or is it truly a desire to help and serve others? In our experience, people eventually sniff out a leader who is in it mainly for themselves. What do others think?
Congratulations Ken! On your award as the world’s #3 leadership guru. you really deserve it. you inspired me to always be better. i would like to attend future webminars, please keep me on your mailing list.
Hi Athena–on behalf of Ken, thanks for the kudos! You can always find out about our next complimentary webinar by visiting http://www.kenblanchard.com You can also sign-up for our free newsletter which highlights each upcoming event at http://www.kenblanchard.com/ignite
hi! anyone can ask ths personal question: How can you, as a leader, help to overcome the various biases (your own biases and the biases of others)?