Servant Leadership

A key to become successful team leader is to become a servant leader. Learn how you can’t send a Duck to Eagle school in Marc Anderson’s book.

As an entrepreneur for the past 30 years, Marc Anderson, Simple Truths founder, has been very fortunate to meet a lot of people who are a successful and servant leaders. . Ken Blanchard is one of those people. His books have sold over 20 million copies. Ken is also a terrific speaker, and he has built a large training company with the focus on servant leadership and customer service. But it is Ken Blanchard, the person that Marc admires most.

In Marc Anderson’s book, You Can't Send a Duck to Eagle School, he shares some of the many "lessons learned" as an entrepreneur. Here's a chapter about Ken that he hopes you enjoy.

Walk Your Talk An excerpt from: You Can't Send a Duck to Eagle School A few years ago I was invited to spend some time with Ken Blanchard at his lake home in upstate New York. Over the last 20 years Ken has probably sold more books than any other business author. His classic, The One Minute Manager, has sold over 10 million copies. He has also built a large training company with the focus on servant leadership and customer service. I've had the good fortune to meet many successful businessmen, authors, and speakers during my career, but I've never met anyone that "walked the talk" more than Ken. He gets it. The first night of my visit to Ken's lake home, we were sitting on the deck with Humberto, his son-in-law, talking about some ways we could work together. It was about 10 p.m., when all of a sudden Ken jumped up and asked to be excused. He returned about 10:20 and Humberto asked "What happened?" Ken said, "I can't believe it; I forgot to call Dorothy on her birthday." Later that night, after Ken had gone to bed, Humberto told me that Dorothy is an 85 year old part time employee for the company. It then dawned on me that at 10 p.m. Ken left to spend almost 20 minutes talking to Dorothy and inquiring about how she had spent her special day. However, after spending more time with Ken over the next year, I came to realize that this was no fluke. This is who he is. The last time while visiting him at his San Diego office, I learned that one of his employees who worked in the warehouse had recently passed away. On that day, Ken had invited the employee's wife to come to his office. When she arrived, he spent an hour walking around with her carrying a tape recorder to record all of the wonderful memories that other employees had of her husband. When the wife left she said it was a day she'd never forget. You see, what many leaders would have considered a waste of time, Ken saw it as an opportunity to serve and to thank his people. He doesn't do it because it's expected of him, he does it because he truly cares. It comes from his heart, and his people love him for being the servant leader that he is. .

This is an old Chinese poem that offers wonderful advice for any leader:

GO to the people

LIVE among the people

LEARN from them

LOVE them

START with what they know,

BUILD on what they have.

But of the BEST leaders,

When their TASK is accomplished,

Their WORK is done,

The PEOPLE will remark,

"WE HAVE DONE IT OURSELVES."

"Walking our talk" is always one of our greatest challenges in life especially as a leader and role model for our families and co-workers. Here's a beautiful 3 minute movie, Walk The Talk, that reminds us that having values is important, but it's much more important to live them!

Walk The Talk movie banner link ~
Our new title, 212 Service, is available in the product

212 Service

The Right To Lead - $ 15.95
From: Simple Truths

Leadership Unlimited Profile

Removing Barriers to Your Potential Roger R. Pearman, R. Daniel Parks, Barry Phillips, and Marcus C. King
The business pages of the world’s newspapers are filled with stories about managers and executives who suddenly self destruct. Individuals who were once considered to be successful ultimately fail, either ending up in a dead-end career or let go by their once seemingly loyal organization. This phenomenon is called Derailment. Just as a train falls off of its tracks, this breakdown is never intentional, and it almost always causes considerable damage. The good news is that derailment can be predicted – and even prevented – when managers are given the right resources.

The Leadership Unlimited Profile is a new assessment that helps managers to develop the behaviors that will help to ensure their success. Based on more than 20 years of research, it provides specific, targeted feedback on those behaviors that severely limit effectiveness, including: Organizing Behavior, Relationship Behavior, Learning Initiatives Behavior, Emotional Behavior, Career Management Behavior. The assessment serves as an “early warning” tool by providing quick insights into the critical areas of performance, identifies the skills sets needed to reach the next level, and establishes benchmarks to help people take charge of their development.
Learning Outcomes: Measure five key career behaviors and 12 scales of behaviors. Understand the management skills needed to maintain and ensure success. Learn how to predict problems that can cause career derailment. Pinpoint development needs to avoid derailment. How to develop and align critical competencies. Identify Career Accelerators, Neutralizers, and Blockers. Create an individual personal development plan. How It Works:
The Leadership Unlimited Profile is an online self assessment that takes approximately 30 minutes to complete. Leaders respond to 90 different items that address the five scales and 12 domains that make up the Profile. If you are planning to use the assessment for classroom training, we recommend you allow approximately 1 – 1 ½ hours for interpretation of scores, debrief, and action planning. The Leadership Unlimited Profile also includes a step-by-step training outline for a one-day workshop.

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