Blanchard LeaderChat

In this exciting episode, you’ll hear how aviation pioneer Carey D. Lohrenz learned what Fearless Leadership means in two of the most demanding and extreme environments imaginable: the cockpit of an F-14 and the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Through her experiences, Lohrenz identified a fundamental truth: high performing teams require fearless leaders. “Fearless leadership isn’t about not feeling fear. It’s having the ability to feel uncomfortable and to move through it and show up to be the best you can be,” explains Lohrenz. Hear her describe the fundamentals of Fearless Leadership: Courage: If you cultivate courage in yourself, you’ll have what it takes to see limitless possibilities for yourself as a leader. Tenacity: Embracing the persistence it takes to keep going after a goal—even when it becomes difficult or risky—and continuing to take action. Integrity: Do the right thing, be honest, be trustworthy, and lead by example. Lohrenz also describes how to put Fearless Leadership into action by first setting a clear vision, then being the catalyst for moving your team toward that vision by creating the culture to support it. She also illustrates the importance of being resilient as a leader and describes the seven steps you can take to become more resilient: Reject victimhood Embrace change Focus on what matters Find a wingman Know what you can control Learn from adversity Take action “Above all, Fearless Leadership is the difference between having the life, team, culture, and organization that you want, and settling,” says Lohrenz. So risk more, worry less, and take action—because bold, fearless action drives success. For more information about Carey Lohrenz, visit www.careylohrenz.com

In this episode, you’ll hear Jim Clifton describe the findings from Gallup’s largest study on the future of work from his new book, It’s the Manager. “We found that engagement—not satisfaction, but engagement, where people are developing and contributing to something bigger than themselves—is extremely low. In the United States, about 30 percent of employees are engaged at work. And if you look worldwide, that number drops to 15 percent,” says Clifton. “This tells us that in the world of management, something isn’t working. The numbers are depressing—but the possibilities are inspiring.” After studying 300,000 teams across 160 countries, Gallup found that one thing makes the difference between high performing teams and failing teams: the manager. While the world’s workplaces have been going through extraordinary change, the practice of management has been stuck in time for more than 30 years. Hear Clifton describe a few of the 52 discoveries from his book, including the importance of creating the kind of culture that supports employee development and the need for managers to stop being a boss and start being a coach. The new, younger workforce wants their work to have deep mission and purpose—and they don’t want old-style command-and-control bosses. They want coaches who inspire them, communicate with them frequently, and develop their strengths. “Just imagine if we improved engagement from 15 percent to 50 percent. We would see meaningful growth like never before.” About Jim Clifton For more information about Jim Clifton, visit www.gallup.com.

For everyday situations that can drain our daily energy and make us lose focus, Micro-Resilience offers quick and easy ways to help us cope: Learn how to Refocus Your Brain, Reset Your Primitive Alarms, Reframe Your Attitude, Refresh Your Body, and Renew Your Spirit! Bonnie St. John explains how in her book Micro-Resilience, coauthored with Allen P. Haines. “We have so much disruption in our lives—new technology, new customers, new competition, new processes and systems,” says St. John. “All of this disruption creates stress and mental exhaustion. But you can make tiny changes in your daily routine to help you deal with the big changes going on in your life.” A lot of information is available about how to deal with big life changes such as illness or natural disasters. These kinds of events can require complex solutions and take time to work through. But for everyday situations that can drain our daily energy and make us lose focus, Micro-Resilience offers quick and easy ways to help us cope.

In this episode, S. Chris Edmonds discusses the key points of his book The Culture Engine: A Framework for Driving Results, Inspiring Your Employees, and Transforming Your Workplace. S. Chris Edmonds has a delightfully simple explanation of culture: “Culture is all about how people treat each other—how leaders treat their teams and peers, how employees treat each other, and how people treat customers and vendors. It’s about relationships and respect,” he explains. As simple as that sounds, it can also be a very disruptive concept to some organizations. Many leaders and managers are asked to manage business results but are rarely asked to manage the quality of their work culture. “Get out of the mindset that results are the most important thing. Make respect as important as results. One of the first things I do is educate senior leaders about how important it is to have a culture that is purposeful, positive, and productive—one that is going to drive great customer experiences and employee engagement.” So how does an organization start creating the culture they want to cultivate? Edmonds suggests writing an organizational constitution—a document that outlines the purpose, values, strategies, and goals of the company. It describes exactly how employees will engage with each other, with customers, and with vendors. An organizational constitution gives meaning and clarity to every employee by providing a clear understanding of how they can do their best work, treat others respectfully, and help the organization prosper. It is critical to urge all the leaders in the organization to model the behaviors outlined in the organizational constitution. It becomes the document they can lead by, live by, and manage performance to. It helps them hold people accountable, praise people who are living the values of the constitution, and redirect people whose behaviors are not in alignment. If your organization doesn’t have a constitution, individuals can lead by example. Edmonds asks leaders to pay attention to the relationships they have with their direct reports, peers, customers, and vendors. “I ask leaders to shift from an ‘I need’ mindset to a ‘What do you need?’ mindset. If leaders can help their people accomplish tasks easier, or give a client what they need, they will build trust and create a mutually beneficial relationship,” Edmonds explains. “I’ve seen it work with intact teams within organizations.  I tell people to just start making a difference where they are.” Edmonds shares several examples of working with organizations to help them define their purpose, values, strategies, and goals, and describes how these companies are creating their desired cultures. The stories bring his concepts to life. Edmonds stresses that culture drives everything that happens in an organization day by day, including focus, priorities, and the treatment of employees and customers. A great culture not only drives great performance but also can help attract and retain top talent. However, a great culture isn't something that evolves naturally—it must be defined, supported, honored, and modeled every day. About The Ken Blanchard Companies The Ken Blanchard Companies is the global leader in management training. For nearly 40 years Blanchard has been creating the best managers in the world, training over 150,000 people each year. From the award-winning First-time Manager program—based on the best-selling business book The New One Minute Manager®—to SLII®, the most widely taught leadership model in the world, Blanchard is the provider of choice for Fortune 500 companies as well as small to medium businesses, government agencies, and educational and nonprofit organizations. About S. Chris Edmonds For more information on S. Chris Edmonds visit his website at www.drivingresultsthroughculture.com  

In this episode, Whitney Johnson discusses the secrets to creating an engaged and productive team as outlined in her book, Build an A-Team: Play to Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve. Johnson shares seven ways managers can support their team members’ journey up the curve. Take the right kind of risks—Help team members understand the difference between doing something just to compete, versus finding a problem that needs to be solved and creating the solution. Play to your distinctive strengths—Help team members identify what they are good at and let them apply their knowledge to those types of projects. Embrace your constraints—By identifying constraints and taking a hard look at them managers can help team members inspire innovation. Battle entitlement—Encourage team members to think about new ways of doing things. Just because a process has been in place for years, doesn’t mean it is the best process. Entitlement can kill innovation. Step back, down, or sideways to grow—Continually pushing forward is not always the best way to drive innovation. Help people understand the positive influence of stepping back to look at other possibilities. Give failure its due—Accept what you can learn from failure. It might be the very thing to catapult you up the learning curve. Be driven by discovery—Encourage your team to ask for feedback and use what they learn to discover things that might be holding them back. About The Ken Blanchard Companies The Ken Blanchard Companies is the global leader in management training. For nearly 40 years, Blanchard has been creating the best managers in the world, training over 150,000 people each year. From the award-winning First-time Manager program, based on the best-selling business book, The New One Minute Manager®—to SLII®, the most widely taught leadership model in the world, Blanchard is the provider of choice for Fortune 500 companies as well as small to medium businesses, government agencies, and educational and nonprofit organizations. About Whitney Johnson For more information on Whitney Johnson visit www.whitneyjohnson.com. Or visit www.whitneyjohnson.com/diagnostic to take an assessment to determine where you are on the S-Curve of Learning.

In this episode, Tasha Eurich describes concepts from her book Insight: The Surprising Truth About How Others See Us, How We See Ourselves, and Why the Answers Matter More Thank We Think. Eurich explains how developing self-awareness—knowing who we are and how others see us—can help you be fulfilled, confident, and successful in life and work. “As an organizational psychologist—and intuitively—I’ve always believed that self-awareness was an important skill. But as an executive coach, I’ve come to realize it is an essential skill. I wanted proof, so I started researching the concept.” Eurich’s research shows that self-awareness is the foundation for high performance, smart choices, and lasting relationships. It also shows that most people don’t see themselves as clearly as they could. “Our data reveals that 95 percent of people believe they are self-aware, but the real number is 12 to 15 percent,” she says. “That means, on a good day, about 80 percent of people are lying about themselves—to themselves.” There are two parts to self-awareness: internal and external. Internal self-awareness means knowing your values and personality strengths and weaknesses. External self-awareness means knowing how other people see you. The two parts are independent of each other. A person can be high or low on both scales, or high on one and low on the other. Fortunately, self-awareness is a skill that can be developed—all it takes is a willingness to improve. Critical elements include questioning your assumptions about yourself and asking for feedback. Most people don’t like hearing feedback, but pushing past this discomfort is one of the first steps on the journey to self-awareness. Eurich identifies a phenomenon she calls cult of self as a global problem. “Think about the way people use social media. They don't post bad news—only great news. It can take so much effort to make ourselves seem a certain way that we become disconnected from who we really are,” she explains. “We each have a choice between being a meformer—just talking about ourselves, or an informer—focusing on what we do, how we can add value to the world, and what we learn from people around us.” Self-serving behavior shows up in the workplace when people are not authentic and not open to feedback. The most productive work environments, according to Eurich, are built around people being humble, open, honest, and willing to learn and grow. “A surprising finding centers on people who spend a lot of time in self-reflection. We assume they would be more self-aware, but it isn’t true. Some people spend so much time ruminating on the negative that it actually damages their self-awareness. The key to effective self-reflection is to think about something for a defined period of time and then make a decision, not to beat yourself up. For example, instead of focusing on why you may have done something, think about what you can do differently next time or what kind of support you need. Self-reflection should move you forward productively.” To apply this concept in the workplace, leaders must model self-awareness behaviors. First, ask for feedback from every member of the team. Create a safe environment for people to share their truth when giving feedback. Most important, make sure this is a continuous practice—not just an activity at a retreat. Eurich offers one last piece of advice. “Working on your self-awareness will put you ahead of 80 percent of your colleagues. It is the secret ingredient. Don’t put pressure on yourself to do it quickly—be open to what people tell you so that you can make a significant improvement.” About The Ken Blanchard Companies The Ken Blanchard Companies is the global leader in management training. For 40 years, Blanchard has been creating the best managers in the world, training over 150,000 people each year. From the award-winning First-time Manager program—based on the best-selling business book, The New One Minute Manager®—to SLII®, the most widely taught leadership model in the world, Blanchard is the provider of choice for Fortune 500 companies as well as small to medium businesses, government agencies, and educational and nonprofit organizations. About Tasha Eurich For more information on Tasha Eurich, and to take a free self-awareness quiz, go to www.insight-quiz.com.  

In this exciting episode, Peter Bregman shares his thoughts about leadership and the importance of showing up with confidence, being connected to others, and being committed to a purpose in a way that inspires others to follow. He explains that the most successful leaders not only know what to say and do, but are willing to experience the discomfort, risk, or uncertainty of saying and doing it. These leaders display what Bregman calls Emotional Courage. “Think about a conversation you need to have, but haven’t. You have all the skill and knowledge you need, but you aren’t doing it. Why? Most likely it is because you believe it may cause you to feel something you don’t want to feel. You might become disconnected from that person. Or they might come back in anger or act in a passive aggressive way that can damage relationships and put projects at risk. It could simply make you uncomfortable—and no one likes to feel uncomfortable. Emotional Courage is not how much you know—it is about what you are willing to feel,” says Bregman. The four elements of Emotional Courage are simple to understand, but not always easy to implement. To be a leader with Emotional Courage, you need to: Be confident in yourself. To be confident, you need to understand who you are as a leader and then determine who you want to become. Asking for feedback is a powerful way to uncover blind spots, while listening to and accepting that feedback is the key to changing your behavior. Building confidence creates the foundation for your leadership style. Be connected with others. Listening with a willingness to learn something new is the birthplace of connection. Following through on commitments builds trust for a lasting, honest relationship. True success depends on connecting with others. Be committed to a purpose. Create a clear, powerful, compelling focus toward a larger purpose in order to channel your energy and the energy of those around you toward a common goal. Achieving a common purpose requires extreme focus. Act with Emotional Courage. Understand when you don’t want to feel something and take steps toward it. Be courageous and act boldly. Emotional courage feeds on confidence, connections, and commitment. “The key thing to remember is to be aware of what is important to you and be willing to take the risk to increase your own productivity. That will have a positive impact on personal and organizational results—because you will be operating with Emotional Courage.” About The Ken Blanchard Companies The Ken Blanchard Companies is the global leader in management training. For nearly 40 years, Blanchard has been creating the best managers in the world, training over 150,000 people each year. From the award-winning First-time Manager program, based on the best-selling business book, The New One Minute Manager®—to SLII®, the most widely taught leadership model in the world, Blanchard is the provider of choice for Fortune 500 companies as well as small to medium businesses, government agencies, and educational and nonprofit organizations. About Peter Bregman For more information on Peter Bregman, visit www.bregmanpartners.com.

As we wrap up season one of the LeaderChat Podcast, Ken Blanchard and Chad Gordon revisit some of their favorite episodes. They share new thoughts about the important messages from our guests and invite you to send questions you would like Ken to answer in future episodes. Just send your questions to podcast@kenblanchard.com. Enjoy this episode of Chad Gordon interviewing Dr. Travis Bradberry, researcher and author of the best-selling book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0—which has sold over one million copies! Bradberry shares how emotional maturity is absolutely critical for success as a leader, and how emotional intelligence is a capacity that can be learned and developed. He explains that increasing your emotional intelligence begins with self-awareness. Bradberry discusses how to integrate EQ training into a leadership development curriculum—and how the emotional intelligence displayed by top leaders can set the example for all levels of leadership in an organization. Bradberry also shares strategies for dealing with stress, procrastination, and toxic people.  Emotions are a primary driver of behaviors and emotional intelligence is a foundational skill of all good leaders.  Learn how to be a master of your emotions in a way that increases your effectiveness as a leader. And be sure to listen to the very end of this 30-minute interview to hear Ken Blanchard share his thoughts and personal takeaways on Dr. Bradberry’s ideas.

As we wrap up season one of the LeaderChat Podcast, Ken Blanchard and Chad Gordon revisit some of their favorite episodes. They share new thoughts about the important messages from our guests and invite you to send questions you would like Ken to answer in future episodes. Just send your questions to podcast@kenblanchard.com. Enjoy this episode of Chad Gordon interviewing Patrick Lencioni, author of The Ideal Team Player as well as nine other books on teams and motivation—which have sold nearly five million copies! Lencioni describes leadership as a calling that requires putting the needs of others ahead of your own. That begins with identifying people with the right qualities and developing those qualities to the fullest extent. Building on the concepts he first explored in his best-selling first book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni recommends taking a moment to consider your own behaviors when working on a team. He teaches how using a Humble—Hungry—Smart model can help you and others become more effective team members. Lencioni shares how leadership development experts can identify these traits in potential new hires along with sharing his own personal story of using these principles in his work and other areas of his life. Be sure to listen to the very end of this 30-minute interview to hear Ken Blanchard share his key takeaways and the areas that he most plans to work on. About The Ken Blanchard Companies The Ken Blanchard Companies is the global leader in management training. For nearly 40 years, Blanchard has been creating the best managers in the world, training over 150,000 people each year. From the award-winning First-time Manager program—based on the best-selling business book,& The New One Minute Manager®—to SLII®, the most widely taught leadership model in the world, Blanchard is the provider of choice of Fortune 500 companies as well as small to medium businesses, government agencies, and educational and nonprofit organizations. About Patrick Lencioni For more information on Patrick Lencioni visit www.tablegroup.com

As we wrap up season one of the LeaderChat Podcast, Ken Blanchard and Chad Gordon revisit some of their favorite episodes. They share new thoughts about the important messages from our guests and invite you to send questions you would like Ken to answer in future episodes. Just send your questions to podcast@kenblanchard.com. Enjoy this episode where Chad Gordon interviews Elena Botelho, coauthor of The CEO Next Door: The 4 Behaviors that Transform Ordinary People into World-Class Leaders to hear what it takes to become a world-class leader. “Most ideals about why people are successful are driven by stereotypes and gut feel rather than facts and data,” explains Botelho. “In this book, we’ve aspired to provide information about how anyone can be successful by helping readers learn from other successful people in business.” Learnings shared in the book are based on groundbreaking research and in-depth analysis of more than 2,600 leaders drawn from a database of more than 17,000 CEO and C-suite executives. Botelho describes the four behaviors of highly successful people as identified by the research. They are decisive and understand the importance of speed over precision when making decisions. According to Botelho, most people assume that CEOs have an uncanny ability to make the right decisions more often than other people. But her research indicates that what really makes a CEO stand out isn’t necessarily the accuracy of their decision, but the speed and will to make the decision in the first place. They are reliable and deliver what they promise, when they promise it—without exception. This behavior sounds simple, but isn’t easy to practice consistently. Botelho describes the importance of being on time and doing what you say you’re going to do—and she offers another tip: “Highly reliable leaders are thoughtful about setting expectations right up front.” Botelho shares that this behavior not only improves the likelihood you will succeed in your role, but also increases your chances of being hired In the first place. They adapt boldly, especially when faced with the discomfort of the unknown. “Of the four behaviors, this is the one where people are most likely to underestimate their ability—and that is costly.” Botelho explains people naturally assume change will be painful, so they resist it. But her research shows that the most successful leaders are good at letting go of past behaviors, habits, and commitments that will not serve them in the future. They engage with stakeholders without shying away from conflict. These leaders focus on leading to deliver results that benefit the company as opposed to leading to be liked. They keep all stakeholders—customers, employees, and shareholders—in mind and manage those relationships. Finally, Botelho shares some counterintuitive insights about making great strides in your career—what she calls career catapults. “Sometimes it is better to go small in order to go big,” Botelho says. Having an elite MBA or working for a marque company is a great way to advance your career, but sometimes taking what looks like a side step instead of always focusing on moving up the ladder can have a more positive impact. By being in charge of a smaller project, division, or group, you might actually have a chance to practice more skills and get more exposure. According to the author, here is the most important message to take away from The CEO Next Door and this podcast: Excellence is more achievable for us than we assume. Be sure to stay tuned for comments from Ken Blanchard at the end of the podcast!