Dr. Ken Blanchard is cofounder and chief spiritual officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies, an international management training and consulting firm that he and his wife started in 1979. He is also a trustee emeritus of the Board of Trustees at Cornell University, his alma mater, and teaches at the University of San Diego. Prior to his keynote session, Blanchard spoke with Connection Point about his background and experience and what he’ll share with ATD Virtual Conference attendees.
One of your titles is chief spiritual officer. What does this role mean to you, and how does it impact your company?
When my wife, Margie, and I first started the company, I was president and she was chairman of the board. I never particularly liked the title of president. Many years later, Margie became the head of our Office of the Future. One of the things she studied were qualities of a spirit-filled organization. I thought, “Wow, that is interesting.” That’s when I decided to become the chief spiritual officer.
As chief spiritual officer, I leave a morning message for every person at our company every day. I’ve done it for 20 years. I do three things: I tell people whom we need to pray for. We have every faith and nonfaith in our organization, and no one objects when I ask them to pray for someone’s mother who is sick or a family member who needs help. I also praise people who are doing good things. And finally, I leave an inspirational message about something that someone has told me or something I’ve read or experienced.
A while back, I sent some books to a man from New Zealand whom I had met in an airport. Later I got a letter from him. He said he believed our company was “in the business of teaching people the power of love rather than the love of power.” I thought that was a beautiful statement, so I shared it with everyone in a morning message. You could say that as chief spiritual officer I am the head cheerleader.
In your keynote session, you plan to talk about developing a personal statement. Why is this so important for individuals—and not just for a company to have?
The reason it is important for individuals to have a personal mission statement is so they can decide how to spend their time to their best advantage. How do you want to show up in the world, and what do you want to focus on? If you don’t have any sense of who you are or where you are going or what values will guide your journey, you’ll be open to all kinds of requests and distractions. This was important for me to learn, because I tend to say yes too often. I am a positive-thinking guy, so lots of ideas sound good to me—but I had to realize I couldn’t do it all. I needed to focus.
So, I created my vision statement to know what business I’m in. My statement is “I am a loving teacher and example of simple truths who helps and motivates myself and others to awaken the presence of God in our lives and to realize that we are here to serve, not to be served.”
You should also develop your picture of the future. To do that, I wrote my own obituary. It’s an interesting thing to do—to put in writing how you want to be remembered. I’ve also prioritized my values—spiritual peace, health, integrity, love, and joy. When I read my vision statement and values in the morning, I know who I want to be and can make decisions on where to focus my time so I can show up being who I want to be in the world.
How can individuals live out their personal statements, even during a pandemic and social distancing?
I believe we have two selves: the task-oriented self and the thoughtful, self-reflective self. The task-oriented self typically wakes up first when the alarm goes off every morning. A friend of mine wonders why we don’t call the alarm clock the “it’s going to be a great day” clock. That is so much more appealing than alarm.
For many, the alarm goes off and they’re off and running, trying to dress and eat quickly, then jumping in the car and checking voicemail on the way to work, where they are in meetings all day. They get home at night and fall into bed without the energy to say goodnight to anyone, then start it all over the next day. I love what Lily Tomlin says about the rat race: “Even if you win the rat race, you’re still a rat!”
Instead, we can allow our thoughtful, self-reflective self to start the day slowly by reading our vision statement and reviewing our values. This self starts each day with a routine—exercise, prayer, reading—whatever helps us get into the right mindset to live our life consistently with our vision and values.
Even without a pandemic, there will always be something that can get in the way and challenge our reflective self to become task oriented. The key is to develop a pattern that works for you and to be especially faithful to it during challenging times.
What would you like the virtual conference attendees to take away from your session?
I want them to understand the importance of having a compelling vision. Three things must be present in a compelling vision. You must have a purpose statement so you know who you are—your mission in life. You need a picture of the future so you know where you are going—where you want to be. And you need values, which will guide your journey. With a compelling vision, you always have a sense of who you are and what you want to accomplish on a day-to-day basis.
What one thing have you learned that has made the greatest impact on your life?
I’ve learned that flexibility and adaptability are the key to all organizations and all individuals. We have to be able to shift with the circumstances. People could have just sat around and sulked because they weren’t able to go to Denver and attend the Association for Talent Development’s International Conference and EXPO in person. But that just couldn’t happen. So, they had to be flexible and adaptable and come up with another way to get valuable information to people during this time. This Virtual Conference is a perfect example of being adaptable.
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