Finding Success Through Mutual Commitment | Ken Blanchard

About Ken Blanchard

 

Interview Transcript:

Alan
Welcome back. I’m here today with Ken Blanchard. Ken is the chief spiritual officer of the Ken Blanchard companies and as author of books in which over 20 million copies have been sold. Ken, welcome to the show. Good to be with you. Thanks. Can you tell me more about your new book that you have coming out? Get it last?

Ken
Well, it’s, uh, you know, I read normally write parables. And this is really a book, it’s a parable about me. i When I turned 65, I was on the phone with Zig Ziglar, he invited my wife and I to the 59th anniversary of his 21st birthday. And I said, Ziggy going to retires there’s no mention of it in the Bible, except for Jesus, Mary and David. Nobody under 80 made an impact. He said, I’m refiling not retiring. And I said, God, what a great concept. But if I’m going to retire, I gotta be around a lot more, you know, and I wasn’t in great shape. And in all my kids were getting on my back and just at all, finally, I said, I better do something about this. And Tim Karen’s who I wrote the book I had known for a long time, and but every February I’d call him and say, Tim, this is the year you know, and I’d work out a few times, and I get busy and all that. And so I went to him. And I said, No, I’m serious this time. How do I get you to be committed to? He said, Well, I’ve always wanted to write a book about a successful fitness journey. I said, What if we wrote a book together, I said, as a good idea, because if I’m not successful, you don’t have a book. And so fitted last, the subtitle is, you know, to look and feel better once and for all. And what I want to try to do is convince people that the problem with new year’s resolutions, is that when you announce them to members of your family, they all laugh and say, I’ll believe it, when I see it. They all go to a delegating leadership style, and they watch you fail, why do you fail, he goes, a delegating leadership style only works. If you’re a self reliant achiever, we talked about situational leadership, where you have both the competence, you know what to do, and you have the commitment. And if you’re going to handle delegating, leadership style wouldn’t be a New Year’s resolution. And so I sat with him and decided maybe we ought to use situational leadership here. So there’s, you know, six aspects of being healthy. You know, there’s weight in nutrition, there’s aerobics, you know, on your, on your heart rate, know, there’s strength, balance is very important, as you get get older, flexibility, and rest. And the only one, I was a D for that I could handle a delegate is sleeping. I’m an expert on on that. And so it’s really about our journey over a year, on how Tim could match the leadership style for where I was in my development level on each of those areas and got some other people involved. But we try to show people that you know, you don’t need a lot of financial resources, but you need to know where you are. So you can ask friends, relatives, could you help me here? I need this from you here. And so it’s different than most fitness books, which are kind of How To books, this is more about the motivational journey, and what it’s going to take you to be successful. We have some people even read it, who health isn’t an issue, but they’ve had something else that they wanted to do for a long time. And with good intentions, but they didn’t do it. So it’s gonna be fun.

Alan
You talk in the book about six principles of a successful health and fitness program with the first being having a distinct purpose.

Ken
Yes. Well, I think you gotta have some reason for doing something. You know, that’s over and above yourself, you know, and so I, I finally, you know, I used to kid with my wife and my kids said, Okay, we’re holding you that is I wanted to be one of the few guys on the tour bus in Hawaii, you know, you go see his tour buses up and 35 women get off in four guys, because the guys are all dead. And so, I had written a book with Norman Vincent Peale. And I met him when he was 86 years old, and he was so vital and all and so I said, Wow, he finally died at 95. I said, man, like, I could have another 20 years or more, you know, I gotta get get going on this. And so it’s, you got to finally get that something is important, and that you want to do, and that starts the whole process. And then you need to find somebody who will be your partner in this, you know, and, and maybe several that you can ask for the kind of help that you need to either cheer, yawn or hold you accountable and all those kinds of things. So it’s, it’s an interesting journey.

Alan
You know, it’s interesting that you talk about in the book about having someone with a mutual commitment that will help you find success. How do you identify who that person is?

Ken
Well, you know, ideally, might be somebody you might live with You know, your spouse or somebody, but a lot of times, people don’t want to do that. But have some good friend or somebody who you know really is committed to you to accomplish your goal as much as you are, and is willing to help you. And maybe you can help them on something that they’re working on. Because, you know, if you can’t think of some intention that you have that will make your quality of life better, that you’re not doing. I bet you lie about other things, too. You know, because we all you know, and so I think this is what’s going to be fun for people to read and say, well, maybe I can get some good ideas on how I can finally do what I said I wanted to do for for a long time.

Alan
I’m visiting here today with Ken Blanchard. He is the chair, chief spiritual officer at the Ken Blanchard companies. And we’ve been talking about his new book on fitness. Can we need to take a quick break. And we’ll be right back. After these messages, I like to talk more about your book and some of the other principles that are given.

Alan
Welcome back. I’m here today with Ken Blanchard. He’s the chief spiritual officer of the Ken Blanchard companies. And we’ve been talking about his new book it at last can’t the fourth or third principle that you have is talking about learning to apply situational leadership that you dress you but what does that mean?

Ken
So situational leaders should be serious or developing years ago, and it’s probably the most widely used leaderships theory around the world. And I thought, well, maybe I’ll just start using it for myself, because it says, you not only need different strokes for different folks, but you need different strokes for the same folks on different parts of their job. So you might, in your own job, have four or five different responsibilities. You could be a self directed achiever who gets into handle a delegating style in one area. But you might have no responsibility where you’re enthusiastic beginner, and you better have some training, and all that kind of thing. And so it’s just a model, I think that nobody is really kind of used in the whole fitness area, to say, if you’re going to look at these six areas of health, what you need to do is analyze where people so for example, I was an enthusiastic beginner on weight training and balanced because I had never done anything, I never lifted weights. And I didn’t realize how important balance was particularly as you get older. So I needed specific direction and close supervision or I was a disillusion learner, you know, when it came to aerobics, and flexibility and weight control, because I tried different things and but always failed. And also I need rather than directing leadership. So I need coaching, which is both direction and some tender loving care. And so what it really is, is you’re trying to develop so people can understand how they can move from directing, to coaching to supporting so eventually, it becomes self motivating for you. Because that’s the way you maintain something. So many people start exercise programs, you know, in January, and by March 90% of the people have already given up. Because it’s hard, and and it takes effort. And you need somebody to be supervising and working with you at all. And that can be a friend that can be a colleague and all who said, I’ll be willing to help you. You told me an interesting story about just getting a guy to say Would you stand with by me while I do my exercises? You know?

Alan
Yeah. And that was it. Yeah, at the break, we’re talking about my my program. And when I invite someone to come in and ask me, it made a world of difference. I worked out differently with someone watching. So now, one of the other principles you talk about is developing a realistic plan with age appropriate goals. What does that mean?

Ken
What it really means is that the reality is you can’t do the same things at different ages you could do when you were young. So you don’t want to get yourself hurt by saying, Man, I used to lift this or I used to do this. And I’m going to do that. Now. You want to look at where you are age wise, what is the capabilities that you can do? And how do you constantly you know, get better in relation to what you can do. So you don’t get yourself hurt. So to say, Well, when I was 20 I could do this, you know and now I’m seven I’m going to do that, you know, hey, you know the bodies changes over time. So it’s got to be age related.

Alan
I’m visiting here today with Ken Blanchard. He is the chief spiritual officer of the Ken Blanchard companies. And we’ve been talking about his new book fit at last can we need to take a quick break, and we’ll be back after these messages. But I want to coming back, I want to finish off these principles that you address in the book The last three. We’ll be right back after these messages.

Alan
Welcome back. I’m here with Ken Blanchard. He’s a chief spiritual officer of the Ken Blanchard companies. And we’ve been talking about his new book fit at last can there’s two principles that you talk about in there. One is setting up a caring and support system that will help you be accountable, and the other having measurable milestones that will help you stay motivated. When we address those,

Ken
Yes, well, you know, you probably need one individual that really you know, is your coach and help or you know, could be a friend could go to a health club and find somebody that that would be helpful to you. But it’s also good to make sure you share what you’re trying to accomplish with important people around your life, so that they can be cheering you on and be aware of what you’re doing and maybe even hold you accountable saying, you know, I thought you were working on that, what’s that piece of pie that you just ordered, you know, they could do it in a kitting way. But again, I think if you could handle a delegating, leave alone leadership style was something you’ve been wanting to do for a long time, you know, it wouldn’t be a New Year’s resolution, it wouldn’t be something you would talk about, you just go ahead and do it on your own. But the reality is you need support and your help and, and the concept of milestones, which is, is that you have a starting point, you know where you are, and you have a sense of where you’d like to go. And the reason why you need milestones is that you need to, you know, of all the things I’ve ever taught over the years that the most important is to catch people doing something, right, and praise their progress. And, but if you can’t measure something, you can’t manage it. So you want to have some goals that you can kind of measure and all and people can cheer you on. You know, I mean, when I started, if I could do, you know, five, you know, push ups, I would be lucky, you know, I can do 25 or 30 Now with no problem, I could maybe do 10 or 15 Sit ups and I can do you know, 80 sit ups. Now, you know, I mean? So if you start working on it, all of a sudden, your number starts improving, then people go well look at look at the comparison of that.

Alan
So this book is not just putting a book in play, it’s something that you have a personal testimony of.

Ken
And we just hope that in being aware of my journey, that it might help other people in their journey, you know, because I had a couple of bumps on the road, I got, you know, pneumonia, about three months into the program, you know, and normally I would have said, well, that’s the end of that program. But since I had a committed partner, you know, Tim carriages says, you know, can get your rest and all but we got to get you back as soon as and he would talk to my doctor and see where you know, and all different kinds of things that I had I hurt my arm playing golf, you know, I was trying to drive my college guys, you know, and so we’ve worked to say where I can continue to work out while this arm healed ice was other things I could do. So it’s a it’s a real journey. And I think that that life is a journey around goal accomplishment, you know, and too often will announce something and then we wonder why we fail. We don’t realize that managing the journey is probably more important than announcing the destination.

Alan
Some 30 years ago you wrote a book called The One Minute Manager which has become an all time bestseller, and it’s changed many people’s lives. What What inspired you to write that book?

Ken
Well life is John Lennon said is what happens to you I think when you’re planning on doing something else, and I met spotted Spencer Johnson at a cocktail party in San Diego he was a children’s book writer I don’t know if you ever remember the value tale series the value of Varanasi the story of Abe Lincoln the value of sensors human Will Rogers, and my wife met him first and she had carried him over You guys want to write a children’s book for managers, they won’t read anything else. And he was working on a woman scolding book with psychiatrists, and, you know, in child rearing, and I invited him to a seminar, he stood the back and he laughed, and everything came running up. And he said, Forget parenting, let’s do the woman manager. And since he was a children’s book writer, and I was a storyteller, we decided to do a parable. And it came out on Labor Day 1982. Next week, it was on the bestseller list. You know, the New York Times because we were on the Today Show, never left for two or three years. And now it’s over 30 years later, still on bestseller list, you know, and so that really kind of launched my career of writing parables and all. But as I said, this other book is kind of a parable of my story. But it’s been fun. And I’ve worked with bird Kohler and a number of books, you know, too, with Mark Miller, who was the head of training for Chick fil A one called The Secret, you know, what a great leaders think and do, which is really done? Well, they serve. And then we wrote a follow up book called A great leaders grow, because if you stop learning, you must lie down and let him put the dirt on you. And also, I’m always looking for ways to communicate with people in a way that can make a difference in their lives. And you know, what, when I work on these kinds of things, it helps me to so it’s not just about me, saying, I’m going to help all you idiots out there. Every time I work on a book, it helps me get down the road a little bit myself.

Alan
So Ken, having written all these books on leadership’s and studied and profiling different styles. Is there a right way to lead?

Ken
Well, you know, as we say, in situational leadership, but depends on the situation. And I think there’s some real basics that people need to learn about leadership. But of course, you got to be who you are, and you have to implement it, don’t try to be somebody else. But we really are big fans of servant leadership. And there’s two parts of servant leadership. The leadership part is about vision, direction, and goals. Because that’s the leadership part, you got to have something to serve. Otherwise, you’re only going to serve yourself. As one of the problems in Washington, we don’t have any clear vision for this country anymore. So we have a self serving system. But once you know where you’re going, the second part of servant leadership is the server part. Now you got to turn the pyramid upside down. And now you work for your people who eventually work for your customers. And if people would understand those, then you’d know why a company like Southwest is the only airline has made any money in the airline business. I wrote a book with Colleen Barrett, who was the former president, you know, and, you know, you just look for people who get it. You know, because leadership is not about you. It’s about the people you’re serving.

Alan
Interesting that the comment comes out about servant being a servant is greater than being the leader. And in you lead by example. Ken has been a pleasure having you on today’s show. Now you got several books in print, I guess people can find those on Amazon.

Ken
Sure, on Amazon, or they can go on? No. Ken blanchard.com or Barry Kohler. You know, I’ve done 10 books with pericoli that a wonderful publishing company. And so it’s, it’s really fun. I’m, some of the publishers say, can you should write a book once every three years, you know, and I said, I’m having too much fun. I don’t have to follow your rules, do I? And so, because my mother used to say, why don’t you write a book by yourself? And I said, already know what I know. So I’ve written over 50 books in order to buy myself one on golf, because so many people helped my golf game, and then went on my spiritual journey, but the rest, I’m a learner.

Alan
you’re an example that because you’re doing it as a servant, and leading by serving. Ken, thank you for being on today’s show. We’ll be right back after these messages.

 

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This transcript was generated by software and may not accurately reflect exactly what was said.

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