We came back home from Tucson recently, and it was a joy to get here. Why? Because Joy was waiting for us—our fuzzy little dog. And you know, more and more I just believe that dogs, particularly puppies and all kinds of other pets, teach about unconditional love. They want a lot of attention but they give you back that unconditional love. She was just so excited to see us. It just kind of lifted up our spirits. I hope this week you will reach out and really hug some people and just tell them how important they are and make them feel like you are really excited to see them. You can even behave a little bit like a dog if you want to.  It’s just so wonderful when you get a sense that people really care about you and that you can make a difference in their lives that way. Dogs know how to do that. It’s great to be home.

Last week I had lots of festivities set up around my birthday. It’s really kind of funny—why did I do all this?  I invited all my coauthors, as many as could come, to come to our house for a little reception on Tuesday night. Then for the next couple of days we all talked about celebrating simple truths and what we’ve all done together. We talked about our body of work—what it was all about and where was it going in the future. Margie probably summed it up the best when she said it was really about being champions of self worth and individual dignity, and that everything we’ve done is to try to help make people feel important and cared for. And when people feel good about themselves, they produce good results. I think that’s probably a really good message for you as you continue to interact with each other and people at home and work. Every chance you get, ask, "How can I make the world a better place by the moment-to-moment decisions I make as I interact with other human beings, and build up their own sense of self worth?"  I’m really still amazed that the company Margie and I started with some of our friends is 30 years old, and that I’ve been able to do some of the things that I had never thought about before. People told me I couldn’t write—that I should be a college administrator. Zig Ziglar has a wonderful quote: "Regardless of your lot in life, you can build something beautiful on it."  And you know, I didn’t do it all by myself. I think that’s one of the reasons I wanted to invite everybody—because you know, my mother always said, "Why don’t you write a book by yourself?" and I would say, "Mom, I already know what I know."  So I built a wonderful life with the help of tons of people. I love another quote by Woodrow Wilson: "Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together." So we not only celebrated what we’ve accomplished together, but also our friendship. It was a special time and I really enjoyed it. Seventy is not a huge number. I have always thought that I wanted to be like Norman Vincent Peale. He died quietly in his sleep at 95. So that means I have another 25 years to go! I just feel great. I was glad I was able to put a bookmark there and take a look at what we’ve done over the years. We also got a chance to get our first copies of Helping People Win at Work: A Business Philosophy called "Don’t Mark My Paper, Help Me Get an A" that Garry Ridge, president of WD-40 Company, and I wrote. And then the first copies of Who Killed Change? which is the book that John Britt wrote with Judd Hoekstra and Pat Zigarmi and me. Everybody was excited to see those. Somebody once said, "Many things will catch your eye but only a few will catch your heart. Pursue those."  I really always tried to pursue things in my heart. Maybe I didn’t always make the best decisions. I could have probably done better writing fewer books and focusing more; we could have done things a little differently, but what’s happened has happened. So my 70th birthday, I think, has just been a celebration of life. We had a wonderful time; it was way beyond my expectations, and fun. I think life, as I’ve said for a long time, is a special occasion. And I don’t intend to miss any of it and I hope you don’t either.

I recently had an interesting experience—I spoke to the Better Business Bureau of the whole Phoenix valley. Normally, you know, the BBB is a group that deals with whether businesses are doing the best practices. They started this night a number of years ago where they recognize companies in the area who are leading in an ethical, values-driven way. It’s become quite a prestigious thing. I got a chance to talk to them about The Power of Ethical Management, the book I did with Norman Vincent Peale. What I particularly like is catching people doing things right. My own sense is that there are many good things happening in business that just don’t get publicized. You may think everybody is self-serving and doing everything for themselves—but that’s not really true. I think the number of people who are unethical and running businesses just for themselves is just a small percentage in comparison to the people who are doing it right. It was a real joy to be there and also to share with them our ethics check: Is it legal? Is it fair to all involved? How does it make you feel about yourself? Concepts like that. Being successful in business isn’t about perspective; it’s about both results and people, and that is so important to us. So it was an interesting night. So you take care of yourself. Life is a very special occasion. Make sure you don’t miss it. You’re missing it if you think life’s all about you.

Today I came across a wonderful quote from Winston Churchill, who I always felt was quite a guy. He said, "An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity. A pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity."  I guess I’m an optimist. I’m always looking for the lemonade from the lemons. That’s the way my mom always was. She said I laughed before I cried, I danced before I walked and I smiled before I frowned. So what are you? Are you an optimist or a pessimist? I think optimists live life a little bit differently and, I hope, more joyously. So be an optimist today, no matter what’s bothering you. See if you can see the opportunity in the problem rather than seeing everything as a problem. Have a great day.

Laura Berman Fortgang, a friend of my son Scott and his wife Madeleine, wrote a book recently called The Little Book of Meaning that really made me think.  I think it’s really an interesting topic, because I think one of the gnawing questions people have is: What’s the meaning of life? What’s our reason for being here? I think it’s so important that we not just go through the motions in life. You know—you come to work, you do your job, you go home, you do this and you do that. Where do you make the difference? What is meaning for you? In my opinion, it’s all tied into relationships—relationships with yourself, with others, and with something greater than yourself.  And I think we can create meaning for ourselves. We can create it by the attitudes we bring and the desire to have meaning in our life. If you feel like you’re getting hum-drummy about life, step back and quiet yourself and say, "Why am I doing this? What is the meaning of this? Why am I here?" Just raising these questions will enlighten you and lift you up to a different level.  So keep asking the questions around meaning—because we all have a real purpose. Don’t forget it.

One thought we have to keep at the top of mind is we are going to make it through this challenging time, and we’re going to do it together. We are. And we can’t get discouraged. We’re figuring this out together. Positive thinkers are winners. Why? Because they get positive results. And we’re going to get those. It’s going to be a story. It’s going to be a celebration. So don’t get down—keep up. We’re doing it all the time. You have a great, positive day, and remember we can do everything together. Remember that quote, "None of us is as smart as all of us."

The point I want to make today is to cherish and celebrate wonderful times when you can get together with your family and loved ones. And if you can build some traditions like we have built at our lake house, that’s a wonderful thing too, where people always come back for a period of time in the summer. It makes it really special. So cherish it, but also celebrate it and recognize that life is good after you spend time together. Life is good every day if you have the right attitude. Go around and hug people who are important in your life; tell them you love them. Tell them you care about them. Because you know what?  It will make them feel good, and you, too. Because when all is said and done, all we have in life is who we love and who loves us.

You know, not long ago I woke up and I had a little "pity party." I was kind of feeling bad.  I had been traveling a lot, and that day I was flying out of state to do something I had agreed to do over a year earlier. And I was thinking, "Wow, I’ve had enough of travel." I’d just as soon have stayed home with Margie and our dog Joy and gone up to the office and hugged everybody. So I was having a pretty good pity party. And then I just kind of backed off. I read my mission statement and my obituary and my values—and I realized that there must be some reason I was going there. Maybe somebody really needed the message I was going to bring; maybe somebody really needed something I could help them with. You know, if you’re going to make the word a better place, you do it by the moment-to-moment decisions you make as you interact with other people. So I just kind of pumped myself up and said, "Okay, Blanchard, you’re here to make the world a little bit better, so stop with the pity party. You’ve just got another new audience—a new group of people." And maybe, just maybe, I did make a little bit of a difference in someone’s life. So if you ever have those feelings, you know—"Monday, oh my God. I’ve got to go back to work," or whatever—the reality is that we’re really wonderfully blessed. We have to keep on reminding ourselves when we get into our pity party to just get up. Because somebody always has it worse than we have it. Somebody has some problems and maybe we can help—whether it be a customer or coworker, family member, or friend. So no more pity parties. Although it is good to recognize that we can all fall into that mood, the way out, especially this week, is positive thinking, giving thanks for what you do have,  and realizing that we are really here to make a difference.

You know, one of the things that bugs me is how much the press goes too far in trying to catch people doing things wrong and find out where they stumbled, where they’ve made mistakes. It seems to be relevant now with the Tiger Woods saga, but this "gotcha" mentality is something that has been going on for a long time. It doesn’t matter what position, what office, what they’re trying to do. They love to make sure they can dig somebody a hole and try to push them into it. I heard a great quote the other day that originally came from Teddy Roosevelt. He said, "It is not the critic who counts; not the person who points out how strong people stumble, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is no effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." So it’s really tough. Like I say, if you’ve never made a mistake in your life or done anything stupid, then you probably lie about other things, too. The important thing is not doing a stupid thing, but realize when you’ve done it and own up to it, give an apology, and move on. I think it would be really good if we could spend more time catching people doing things right rather than wrong. So take care of yourselves. You might make a mistake, but give it your best. I’ve always enjoyed and promoted the concept of "Catching People Doing Things Right," and over at LeaderChat.org they are running a new Twitter contest… Starting on Tuesday and lasting for 72-hours, The Ken Blanchard Companies will give you a chance to "catch someone doing things right" by entering that person in a drawing for a copy of one of my latest books. The book will contain a personalized inscription congratulating the winner on being caught doing things right.  The contest ends on Friday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time and you can enter as many people as you would like.  Here’s how to participate: 1.    Go to www.Twitter.com and post the name of the person you would like to catch doing things right along with a very short description of why. Include the following code in your message @leaderchat For example: Nick Peterson—for doing an outstanding job all year and helping to make this our best year ever!  #@leaderchat 2.    Push the UPDATE button! It’s as simple as that.  Every day between now and Friday we’ll randomly choose one lucky person among those entered to receive one of the personalized books.  Each day’s winner will be posted at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time at www.leaderchat.org Don’t miss this chance to say "thank you" to someone who really deserves it.  Participating is a fun, low-cost, and very thoughtful way to let someone know that you appreciate them! PS: If you don’t have a Twitter account yet, you can sign up at Twitter when you get there.  Just follow the instructions and you’ll be online in minutes.

Listen to this definition of excellence: Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical, and expecting more than others think is possible. I just think that is a really interesting thing  -  think about yourself and how you are doing in a caring scale, how you are doing in the risking scale, how you are doing in the dreaming scale, and how you are doing on the expecting scale.  I really think that’s a wonderful definition of excellence. Be excellent today - care, risk, and dream and expect big. Speaking of excellence… At the University of San Diego, my wife Margie and I teach a course as part of the Master of Science in Executive Leadership program. Our course is "Determining Your Leadership Point of View." Your leadership point of view is really figuring out who you are as a leader, and sharing it. There are seven aspects of it: Who are the role models you had early in life that impacted your belief about leadership? Most people don’t talk about bosses; they talk about their mother or father, uncle or cousin, teacher or coach—what we call "lifelong leaders." What’s your mission in life? What are you trying to accomplish? What are your values - what’s going to guide your behavior? Based on those three things, what’s your leadership point of view—what are your beliefs about leading and motivating people? What are your expectations of others? What do your people expect of you? How are you going to walk your talk? How are you going to model what you say you stand for? It’s a fascinating process. We discuss this in Chapter 15 of Leading at a Higher Level. So if you want to find out more about that, get a copy of that book and read that chapter. If any of you haven’t developed a leadership point of view, I would like to challenge you to develop it. Then sometime, maybe in the first part of next year, sit down with your people and share your leadership point of view with them. Because it really does clarify expectations and who you are. It’s not about weakness; it’s about sharing who you are so other people can share who they are with you. It’s a wonderful process. And remember, it’s not just supervisors that should have a leadership point of view—all of you are leaders in some aspect of your life. You’re a leader as a spouse, as a father or mother, or as a volunteer. Anytime you try to influence the behavior of someone else, you’re engaging in leadership. Where did you get your image of leadership? I challenge everybody to develop and be able to share their leadership point of view.

Whenever two people quarrel, inevitably they focus on who is right and who is wrong.  Playing the "I’m right, you’re not" game is a sure way for people to push away from each other even further. If there is a history of disagreements, this mindset will cause even the slightest spat to become a rehash of past conflicts. Knowing how to handle conflict is an important skill for anyone.  I find that three very simple questions can help minimize conflict. 1. "What would make the other person’s position right?" The first question is from Mary Parker Follett, a professor of organizational behavior in the early 20th century.  She was one of the first people to point out that conflict was often the result of rational, well-intentioned people who simply saw the world differently and thus focused on different problems. To best resolve a disagreement, Follett advocated not to dwell on who was right, but rather to try to better understand why the other person sees the situation as he or she does.  That is, ask yourself, "For the other person to be correct, what views would that person have to hold about the situation of life in general?"  This simple technique can help you see beyond the problem at hand and focus on a more general understanding of the situation. For instance, I once got upset when I felt that someone in my company did not treat a customer well.  But by asking, "How could this person allow this to happen?" I learned that the other person simply didn’t realized the importance I have always placed on customer service.  As a result, we achieved clarity about this issue. After you have a good understanding of how the other person sees things, you can more objectively discuss with him or her the basis for the specific perception.  It is easier to discuss how the person arrived at the perception and what might change his or her viewpoint than it is to force someone else to change a position he or she is locked on. 2. "What do we have in common?" This question comes from Peter Drucker, one of the foremost management thinkers of our day.  He believed that sometimes the best approach to deal with conflict is simply to try to make it more bearable for those involved.  Instead of criticizing each other when you disagree, Drucker advocated finding what you have in common with the other person.  Finding a common ground can then typically be parlayed into other areas of agreement.  Although the conflict may not ever be fully resolved, focusing on areas of agreement will help minimize the conflict and make it more manageable. To take a simple example, suppose a man who works with you is constantly late for meetings, and this bothers you.  You may interpret his behavior as unprofessional and disrespectful and you are apt to get increasingly annoyed. The other person, however, is likely not to see it the same way.  He may instead feel that being on time in life is simply not that important in the overall scheme of things.  He may feel instead, for example, that it is more important to get the job done. He may be willing to work long and hard—maybe even staying overtime—to complete any given assignment.  Both of you place a different value on timeliness for different reasons which are valid to each of you individually. Instead of focusing on being "right" when the colleague is late, it would be much more productive for you to explore how you both see the subject of timeliness and what you each might do to minimize the potential conflict that results when he is late. You might get the person to agree to call you if he expects to be late, or you may need to emphasize in advance to him when it is crucial for you to have him be on time. These agreed upon "rules" will help to minimize potential friction in the future between you both. 3. "If we were to agree in the future, what would it look like?" I learned this last technique from my wife, Margie, who convinced me that looking ahead to the future and imagining a harmonious relationship makes it easier to get to that point. As an example, let’s say you are discussing the future direction of your company with your management team and there is disagreement. Instead of getting caught up in escalating emotions about some aspect of the company’s vision that you feel strongly about, just slow down and imagine what your company would ideally be like in five or ten years. This technique allows people to focus together on a positive future vision that can serve as an anchor in your interactions today.  Again, areas of disagreement tend to become secondary. Resolving conflict is not always an easy thing to do. Yet, if you take a moment to use these techniques, you may find your anger and frustration slipping away as you take a giant step toward achieving more harmonious working relationships.

At The Ken Blanchard Companies, most of our work in the past focused on leader behavior and how to improve leadership style and methods. We attempted to change leaders from the outside. But through the years we have become convinced that effective leadership starts with self perception—it’s an inside job. It is a question of the heart. It’s all about leadership character and intention. Why are you leading? Is it to serve or be served? Answering this question in a truthful way is so important, because you can’t fake being a servant leader. We believe that if leaders don’t get the heart part right, they simply won’t ever become servant leaders. The most persistent barrier to being a servant leader is a heart motivated by self interest that looks at the world as a "give a little, take a lot" proposition. Leaders with hearts motivated by self interest put their own agenda, safety, status, and gratification ahead of others who are affected by their thoughts and actions. In a sense, developing a "servant’s heart" is a lifelong journey. It is my belief that you finally become an adult when you realize that life is about what you give rather than what you get. The shift from self-serving leadership to leadership that serves others is motivated by a change in heart. Servant leadership is not just another management technique. It is a way of life for those with servant’s hearts. When some people hear the phrase servant leadership, they associate it with "soft management"—they think you can’t lead and serve at the same time. Yet you can, if you understand that there are two kinds of leadership involved in servant leadership: strategic leadership and operational leadership. Strategic leadership has to do with vision and direction. This is the leadership aspect of servant leadership. The responsibility for this visionary role falls to the hierarchical leadership. Kids look to their parents, players look to their coaches, and people look to their organizational leaders for direction. Once people are clear on where they are going, the leader’s role shifts to a service mindset for the operational leadership task, which is all about implementation—the servant aspect of servant leadership. How do you make your vision happen?  In a traditional organization, all the energy in the organization moves up the hierarchical pyramid as people try to be responsive to their bosses instead of focusing their energy on meeting the needs of their customers. Bureaucracy rules, and policies and procedures carry the day. This creates unprepared and uncommitted customer contact people who are trying to protect themselves and it leaves customers uncared for at the bottom of the hierarchy. This scenario doesn’t do much to move the organization in the desired direction toward accomplishing a clear vision. Servant leaders, on the other hand, feel their role is to help people achieve their goals. To do that, the traditional hierarchical pyramid is theoretically turned upside down so that the frontline people, who are closest to the customers, are at the top. Now the frontline people are responsible—able to respond—to the needs of the customers. In this scenario, leaders serve and are responsive to their people’s needs, training and developing them to accomplish established goals and live according to the vision. Servant leadership is not soft management; it is management that not only gets great results but also generates great human satisfaction. If you are interested in learning more about Servant Leadership, I will be speaking at the Servant Leadership Institute Winter Conference on February 1st-3rd in San Diego. For more information, or to buy tickets, please visit their website at http://sli2011winterconference.eventbrite.com/. See you there!

As part of a new series, I’m introducing today’s leadership concept via a segment extracted from my latest book, Lead with LUV, coauthored by former Southwest Airlines president Colleen Barrett.   Understanding Servant Leadership For those of you who may not be clear on the concept of servant leadership, read this excerpt from Lead with LUV where Colleen and I discuss why servant leadership is the very best way to lead. Colleen: Ken, it makes me sad when people hear the term servant leadership and, as you have said, they think you’re talking about la-la land where the inmates are running the prison or trying to please everyone. Ken: The problem is that they don’t understand leadership or, more importantly, servant leadership. They think you can’t lead and serve at the same time. Yet you can, if you understand that there are two kinds of leadership involved in servant leadership: strategic leadership and operational leadership. Strategic leadership has to do with vision/direction. It’s the leadership part of servant leadership. The focus for strategic leadership is the "what" that ensures everyone is going in the same direction. This is all important because: Leadership is about going somewhere— If you and your people don’t know where you are going, Your leadership doesn’t matter Alice learned this lesson in Alice in Wonderland when she was searching for a way out of Wonderland and came to a fork in the road. "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" she asked the Cheshire Cat. "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," the cat said. Alice replied that she really did not much care. The smiling cat told her in no uncertain terms, "Then it doesn’t matter which way you go." Colleen: At Southwest, we’ve always tried to make sure everyone knows where we are heading. Then, of course, we had to make it all happen. Ken: In essence, that’s what operational leadership is about:  implementation—the "how" of the organization. This is the servant part of servant leadership. It’s what leaders focus on after everyone is clear on where they are going. It includes policies, procedures, systems, and leader behaviors that cascade from senior management to frontline employees and make it possible for the organization to live according to its vision and values and accomplish short-term goals and initiatives. These management practices create the environment that employees and customers interact with and respond to on a daily basis. I hope you all believe, as I do, that effective leadership starts on the inside. Servant leadership is not just another management technique. It is a way of life for those with a servant’s heart.  The byproducts are better leadership, better service, a higher performing organization, and more success and significance. Stop and think about this:  Are you a servant leader?

During tough economic times, I’m often asked how to build trust within an organization. People seem to be really down and don’t trust their leaders. I got the best advice about this from my friend Ichak Adizes, who used to be a professor at UCLA—a brilliant guy. He said, "You can’t talk about trust until you talk about respect." There’s a nonverbal and verbal aspect of each of those. If I respect you, I face you, because I want to hear your opinion. If I don’t respect you, I turn my back on you, because I couldn’t care less what you think. But this it interesting—if I trust you, I’m willing to turn my back on you because I know you mean me no harm. If I don’t trust you, I face you because I need to watch your every move. So these two things work together. You can’t talk about building trust until you show respect. I’ve seen a lot of leaders who will go behind closed doors and start making decisions about other people’s lives. And the people outside the door don’t trust the intentions of the leaders inside; they think they’re in there to serve themselves. One of the things we do to show respect for people in our company is to share our balance sheet with them so they know how the company is doing. We even brought in someone from Colorado to teach people how to read a balance sheet! We share this because we want everyone to always know where we stand as an organization. We have a gain-sharing program where we share a percentage of our profits with our people. We also have a "give back" program where we take a percentage of our profit and give it to our employees so they can each give money to a charity that is important to them. We want them involved—we show them respect and they trust us in return.  I think it’s so powerful and so necessary to understand how those two things go together. If you don’t treat people with respect, they won’t trust you. Trust and respect go together.

Unethical leaders always seem to be in the news these days, which raises the question:  How can you be sure you are leading in an ethical way? I was fortunate enough to be able to work with Norman Vincent Peale, the great author of The Power of Positive Thinking, on a book called The Power of Ethical Management.  We had a wonderful "ethics check" in that book that I would love to share with you. It will help you make sure you’re doing the right thing. There are three parts to the ethics check. The first part is this question:  Is it legal?  And by this we mean not only within the legal system, but also within organizational policies. A lot of people will stop there, and I think that’s where they get into trouble—they think it’s fine to do something as long as it’s not illegal. But the two follow-up questions in our ethics check are essential. The second question is: Is it fair? Is it fair to everyone involved if we do this?  The final part, if you make it through the first two, is a self-esteem question:  If you do this, how will it make you feel about yourself?  Would you be proud to have it published in the local newspaper?  You might also think about whether you would like your friends to know. How about your kids or grandkids? We use this ethics check in our company all the time. For example, a number of years ago, a person in our Accounting department came to my wife Margie and said, "We have a potential ethical problem with Ken’s travel. He’s going to five different cities this week, and the contract with each client is that they pay round-trip airfare from San Diego and back. How should I bill it?"  So Margie said, "Let’s think. Is it legal to charge each of them for a round trip even if you are going from one city to another and not going back to San Diego until the end? Sure, it’s legal, because they signed the contract.  Is it fair to all involved?  Of course not! That wouldn’t be right. And if we do it, how would it make us feel about ourselves?" Margie continued, "I wouldn’t want it published in the local newspaper that the Blanchard companies made a lot of money on overcharging their clients for travel expenses!" What a wonderful way to consider whether something is the right thing to do. Is it legal? Is it fair to all involved? And if you do it, how will it make you feel about yourself?  Use these three little questions frequently, and they will help you stay on the right track.

(This is the eleventh installment in my twelve-part blog series A Leadership Vision for America.) I realize that what I have been saying about creating a servant leadership culture in Washington is not easy to sell. To a lot of people, it sounds like "soft management." When I am confronted by these kinds of concerns, I love to tell about an experience I had several years ago at my local branch of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Stop me if you’ve heard this one! When you mention the DMV, most people would say it’s a government bureaucracy that often treats them as a number instead of a human being. I felt the same way at the time—but like we all do every few years, I had to go there in person to renew my driver’s license.  I hadn’t been to the DMV in years and headed to the office with low expectations. I knew immediately something had changed when I walked in the front door and was greeted by a smiling woman. "Welcome to the Department of Motor Vehicles! Do you speak English or Spanish?" "English," I replied. She pointed to a nearby counter and said, "Right over there." The guy behind the counter cheerfully said, "Welcome to the Department of Motor Vehicles! How may I help you today?" It took me only nine minutes to get my replacement license, including having my picture taken. I asked the woman who took my picture, "What are you all smoking here? This isn’t the same old DMV I used to know and love." She asked, "Haven’t you met our new director?"and pointed to a man sitting at a desk right in the middle of everything. I walked over to him, introduced myself, and asked, "What’s your job as the director of this branch of the DMV?" The man gave me the best definition of management I had ever heard: "My job is to reorganize the department on a moment-to-moment basis, depending on citizen (customer) need." The director obviously had a compelling vision for his department. The point of their business was to serve the needs of their customers, and to serve them well. What did this director do? I learned that he cheered everybody on—that’s why he was out in the middle of the action. He also cross-trained everyone in every job—that way, if a flood of citizens came in suddenly, they would be able to provide the service that was needed. And no one went to lunch between 11:30 and 2:00, because that was the busiest time of day for customers to come in. This director created a motivating environment for his people. His team members were really committed. Even employees I recognized from past visits—who at the time had seemed stiff and jaded—were now excited about serving. When leaders are servants first and leaders second, they make a positive difference in everyone around them. Would you like to work for this kind of leader? You’d better believe it. Why? Because he’s a servant leader who treats his people as his business partners in implementing the service vision and solving problems. If this philosophy can impact a government agency like the DMV, why can’t it impact all segments of society, including the U.S. government?  To me, what’s needed are leaders in Washington who believe we should: Have a Compelling Vision: If people don’t have a larger purpose to serve, the only thing they have to serve is themselves. Treat Citizens as Business Partners: People who are well informed have a greater commitment to help solve problems. Involve Every Sector of Society: No problem can withstand the assault of sustained collective thinking and action. Elect Servant Leaders:  The more leaders we have in Washington who realize that their job is to serve, not to be served, the better chance we have of breaking our political deadlock and maintaining our reputable standing in the world. Thanks for tuning in to the Leadership Vision for America series.  America is a great country and I feel blessed every day to be able to live here. Let’s encourage our leaders to do what they need to do to keep America moving in the right direction. And if you’re an American citizen, be sure to get out and vote on November 6, on national, state, and local political races and issues. Your vote counts!  I’ll have some final thoughts next week as I conclude this series. What are your thoughts as Election Day approaches?

I’ve written more than a few books over the years, but I still get excited when a new one comes out. We’ve just released a new book I coauthored with Cynthia Olmstead and Martha Lawrence called Trust Works! Four Keys to Building Lasting Relationships. We think it will make a difference in people’s lives while giving them a smile. The first part of the book is written as a parable about a dog and a cat and how they learn to trust each other. It’s interesting—we asked people for feedback on one of our first drafts, and some dog lovers were offended because it seemed as if the dog had to do all the work to get the trust from the cat. We realized that we needed to emphasize that trust is a two-way street. So in our finished story, not only is the dog trying to get the cat to trust him, but the cat has to get the dog to trust her too. Of course, the story is a metaphor for any relationship where people need to create and build trust with one another. Readers will be able to apply it to their working relationships as well as their relationships with family and friends. Cindy Olmstead spent years developing the wonderful ABCD Trust Model™ we use in the second part of the book to highlight the four behaviors that need to be present in order to build trust. If even one of these behaviors is absent, trust erodes. First, you have to prove that you’re Able. You are competent to solve problems and get results. You strive to be the best at what you do and you use your skills to help others. Next, you have to be Believable. You act with integrity and honesty. You show respect for others, admit your mistakes, keep confidences, and avoid talking behind others’ backs. You also have to be Connected. You care about others, which includes showing interest, asking for input, and listening.  You praise the efforts of others and share information about yourself. Finally, you need to be Dependable. You do what you say you will do. You are organized and responsive. People know you will follow up and be accountable. How would you assess your trustworthiness in these four key areas? Go to http://www.trustworksbook.com and take the self-assessment. While you’re at it, ask the people you work with to evaluate you as well. That’s how I learned that my lowest score in these four areas was in the Dependable category. What an eye opener! I never thought of myself as undependable but since my executive team and I understood the four factors, we were able to have that conversation and zero in on the problem. Turns out that my desire to please everyone showed up in real life as a tendency to over-commit myself—which resulted in people ultimately being disappointed because I couldn’t meet their expectations. Using the ABCD Trust Model™, my team came up with a great solution for me. Now when opportunities come up, instead of saying yes without thinking, I hand out my executive assistant’s card so she can make sure I have the time and resources to follow through.  As a result, my Dependable score has soared! In most organizations, trust issues are simply avoided until they reach a breaking point. You can’t just assume that trust will grow over time—sometimes the exact opposite happens. Trust is hard to define. You can tell when it’s absent—but how do you create it and build it when it doesn’t exist? Trust Works! provides a common language for trust—and essential skills for building, repairing, and sustaining it. Building trust is one of the most needed skills for leaders today. Don’t leave trust to chance in your organization.

I’ve talked often of the importance that values play in achieving your corporate vision. Your purpose as an organization tells you where you want to go as a company, but values tell you how you are going to get there.  Clearly defined values provide guidelines for how to make daily decisions that impact your future success—or failure. I recently had the chance to hear Stephen M.R. Covey talk about the impact that the lack of trust has on all of us, and I realized something: there is another layer of underlying behavior that impacts our ability to live by our values. Trust and values actually work hand in hand to create a strong company. As I listened, I realized that the Four Cores of Credibility™ for self trust, as defined in Stephen’s book The Speed of Trust, align very closely to our own corporate values. When we practice our values, we build trust with each other and with our customers—and the trust we build makes our values even stronger. Covey’s first two cores of credibility deal with character—they are Integrity and Intent.  Integrity is about making and keeping commitments. Intent focuses on how motives and agenda drive behaviors. The second two cores deal with competence—they are Capabilities and Results. Capabilities are talents, attitudes, skills, and knowledge. Results are past performance, present performance, and potential future performance. Our prioritized values at The Ken Blanchard Companies are: Ethical Behavior—doing the right thing. Relationships—developing mutual trust and respect. Success—operating a profitable and well-run organization.  Learning—always growing, inquiring, and developing. Our first two values deal with character and the last two deal with competence, similar to Covey’s cores of credibility for self trust. Our first value, Ethical Behavior, ties in directly with Covey’s element of Integrity. To most people, integrity means honesty. This value is reinforced by what we call our "Ethics Check." When in doubt about whether something is ethical, answer these three questions:  Is it legal? Is it fair? Would you be proud to see your actions reported in the news? Our second value, Relationships, is about treating people with respect—very similar to Covey’s element of Intent. If your intentions are good, you are likely to build mutually beneficial relationships. Our third value of Success ties closely to Covey’s element of Results. Success and results are measures of financial achievement as well as being indications of the development of personal relationships, processes, products, and services. Our fourth value, Learning, relates to Covey’s element of Capabilities. Particularly in today’s changing economic environment, it is essential to keep learning new techniques and building skills. According to Covey, trust always affects two outcomes—speed and cost. When trust goes down, speed goes down and costs go up: consider the time and cost of airport security after 9/11. Similarly, the way values are applied can impact trust. If values drive consistent decisions and behaviors, trust goes up. But if values are just some forgotten document posted on a wall and not followed, trust goes down. Values and trust are profound, necessary principles when they occur individually. When combined, they become far more powerful—and can create a huge competitive advantage for any organization. I’m not sure you can have one without the other—what do you think? I’d love to hear your stories.

I’ve been reading an interesting book by Richard J. Leider and David A. Shapiro called Whistle While You Work: Heeding Your Life’s Calling. The authors explain that in many instances our calling comes to us when we are removed from everyday routine—that’s when we are able to listen to what authentically moves us from the inside. Each summer, my wife, Margie, and I spend time at our lake home in upstate New York, where we are removed from our everyday routine and obligations in San Diego. This change of scenery allows me to do just what the authors of the book describe: I get time to think about where I want to make a difference in the world. In fact, I do most of my writing at the lake. I have time to think about the issues leaders are facing around the world and spend time researching and writing articles and books that offer solutions to those challenges. So what’s your calling—and how do you discover it? In addition to taking the time to quiet yourself by removing yourself from routine, I also think it is important to identify the activities that cause you to lose track of time—that’s a hallmark of a calling versus something you are driven to accomplish. For me, writing at the lake certainly ticks that box. How about you? Think about using vacation time to quiet yourself. Pay attention to what you learn. This concept goes beyond what you do to make a living—think about what you want to do in your community or with your family that will support your values and purpose. It’s never too late to make changes in your life by taking advantage of your most precious commodity—time. Life is a very special occasion, so celebrate it by finding and honoring your authentic self!

Setting boundaries to help empower people might sound like a contradiction. When managed correctly, though, well placed boundaries can ensure a strong culture of empowerment for your entire company. I’ve often said that a river without banks is a large puddle. If you empower people by setting them loose without any direction, they can lose momentum and focus—or, even worse, they can make costly mistakes or put a project at risk. Like the banks of a river, properly set boundaries will channel energy in the right direction so that people can take on more responsibility as they grow and develop. The key to setting boundaries is to ensure people know the areas where they can be autonomous and responsible rather than focusing on things they are not permitted to do. Boundaries are based on each person’s skill level and are meant to help the person understand how their goals align with the overall vision and goals of the organization. Helping people see how their work fits into the big picture allows them to become peak performers. It is also important for managers to explain the decision making process in an empowered culture. Some people think being empowered means they get to make all the decisions. They could be disappointed when the manager continues to make strategic decisions and leaves only some operational decisions to them. And they might hesitate to make decisions at all when they realize they will be held accountable for the results—both good and bad. Yes, empowerment means people have the freedom to act, but it also means they are accountable for results. The right balance is to have managers continue making strategic decisions and get team members involved in making more operational decisions as they become more comfortable with assuming the potential risks involved. As people gradually accept more responsibility for decisions and consequences, managers can pull back on their involvement. It takes a little time in the beginning for managers to establish boundaries for team members, but this investment has a huge payoff. The worst thing a manager can do is to send people off on their own with no clear direction and then punish them when they make mistakes. Don’t fall into that trap. Establish clear boundaries that will empower people to make decisions, take initiative, act like owners, and stay on track to reach both personal and organizational goals.

Some say the only thing you can count on in life is change itself.  Often change is viewed as a negative thing, especially when it destroys plans we spent so much time on.  The reason it is viewed negatively is that our plans cause us to create expectations for ourselves and create a mental model about our near future.  Change makes that mental model invalid and we feel like we wasted effort by planning in the first place.  Then we don’t execute our plan and never accomplish anything.  Sounds pretty depressing doesn’t it? Another point of view is that change is always a good thing.  In fact if it weren’t for change, everything would just stay the same and we wouldn’t be making progress anyways.  We’ve been having lots of change here at Discovery Machine recently and most of it is positive.  The seasons have changed from summer to fall with winter pushing right in.  (Winter is my favorite season).  We actually had our first snowfall last week so I bought some new skis.  We just passed the fall equivalent of Groundhog Day meaning we are now past the halfway point between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice.  At work, we have recently completed some large development projects and are making some compelling demos to show off these new capabilities.  We’ll be showing these demos at the I/ITSEC conference in Orlando at the end of November.  Be sure to stop by our booth 2880 if you are at the conference. Our portfolio of products is growing as a result of this work and we are getting a lot more interest from potential customers who see more clearly the cost savings they will realize by using Discovery Machine solutions for either their training and simulation needs or commercial knowledge deployment.  Our development team is starting new projects that will leverage our recently completed work in innovative ways.  The next few months will be exciting as we begin to experience firsthand the benefits of using the capabilities recently developed.  So change is not always a negative thing, in fact here today it is very positive.

In a previous post, I described 4 ways Discovery Machine models human behavior. The fourth way is by building models that project potential courses of action to make nuanced decisions. There are many circumstances in which our Navy crew member models project different courses of action to make decisions. For example, one of our crew [...]