The One Minute Entrepreneur by Ken Blanchard

Author:Ken Blanchard
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780385526975
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2008-04-28T16:00:00+00:00

One Minute Insights

Look for Moments of Truth with your customers, to create the kind of experience you want them to have.

Listen to your customers; discovering their ideas for improving the customer experience can make your company’s vision and service even better.

Don’t create a company of ducks. Let your people soar like eagles to deliver superior customer service.

Helping People Soar Like Eagles

Nancy Kaline had taken over the presidency of her large, family-owned company from her father, who had built an incredible business from scratch with a classic “my way or the highway” leadership style. Yet that hadn’t seemed to work in the last few years he ran the company.

“Several things changed,” Nancy told Jud and Terri when they all got together. “First of all, business is much more complicated today than when my dad started out. Globalization, intense competition, and rapid and constant technological change were stretching him beyond his comfort zone. The one-man-band strategy of decision making just didn’t cut it anymore as the company grew. Today’s knowledge workers want a partnership relationship with their leaders.”

“Partnership?” said Jud.

“Yes,” said Nancy. “Dedicated employees today believe that ownership and management need them as much as they need the company. If they feel undervalued or uninvolved, they will go elsewhere. As with customers today, loyalty from your people has to be earned.”

“How do you earn your people’s loyalty?” Terri wondered aloud.

“By letting them bring their brains, not just their bodies, to work,” said Nancy. “As Lou would say, let them soar like eagles instead of quack like ducks. To do that requires owners and bosses who are servant leaders.”

“‘Servant leadership?’” said Jud. “It sounds like the inmates are running the prison.”

“Or some kind of religious movement,” said Terri.

Nancy laughed. “To truly understand what servant leadership is all about, you have to recognize that there are two aspects to leadership: vision and implementation. The visionary aspect of leadership sets the direction, the values, and the major business initiatives. That’s the ‘lead’ part of servant leadership. It’s what I call strategic leadership. This is what my father was good at.”

“Sounds like he was a big-picture guy,” said Terri.

“He was,” said Nancy with a smile. “And he had a number of experienced folks with him from the beginning, who would do anything to please him and make things happen. They were the typical employees of the past—loyal and willing to do what they were told. They dedicated themselves to the company in exchange for lifelong loyalty from their employer. Without folks like them, Dad would have been in trouble. He didn’t focus much on implementation. He would set the direction and then expect that what he wanted to have happen, would happen.”

“What do you mean?” asked Jud.

“He would tell people what the task was, and then he’d disappear,” said Nancy. “He would head off looking for the next business opportunity. They were okay if they understood exactly what to do. But that wasn’t always the case. Sometimes work didn’t get done in a timely manner, and mistakes were made.

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