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Spirituality in Business
An interview with Ken Blanchard, Ph.D.
by Raz Ingrasci,
President
Chairman of Blanchard Training and Development, Inc., an international
training company, Ken is the author or co-author of twelve books,
including the One
Minute Manager series. He is a visiting lecturer at Cornell University,
where he serves as Trustee Emeritus. Dr. Blanchard is also a member
of the Hoffman Advisory Council.
Raz Ingrasci: Increasingly people speak about
spiritual values in business. What is going on?
Ken Blanchard: This is the first time in the history
of business where you can be great at what you're doing today, and
you're out of business tomorrow. My sense is that people become
interested in spirituality when things are happening beyond their
control. People are looking for some higher power to help them.
It's amazing how people start to think about spirituality when they
get sick, or they have some major problem, and finally realize they
can't figure it all out themselves.
RI: There is also the sense that when one acts
in alignment with a higher power, the action is more likely to lead
to both success and satisfaction. So, people are looking for balance
and flow, as well as success.
KB: Right. In the foreword to Bob Juppert's book
Half Time, Peter Drucker says that 50 to 60 years ago there
wasn't a lot of opportunity for success for people. You either owned
a farm or a factory, or you were a farm or a factory laborer. Retirement
was natural because people were retiring from what they didn't want
to do in the first place. Today there are many more opportunities
for success because of the technology and the changing world. Drucker
said that today, people who have been successful, suddenly find
themselves in their 40's trying to decide what else there is in
life. One group doesn't get it, and they think they'd better continue
to amass symbols of success, and another group starts to search
inward for a spirituality that says there's got be something more
than material success. Juppert says that people start moving from
success to significance. The point of Half Time is we're in the
locker room wondering "what am I going to do for the second
half?" In the appendix to What
Color is Your Parachute, Dick Bowles has a wonderful section
where he says that you can't talk about your "calling"
without talking about the "caller." That is another reason
people get into spirituality.
RI: What are some actions people can take to bring
spiritual values into their career and business life?
KB: People need to spend more alone-time, quiet
time. I've been trying to help people enter their day more slowly.
Successful people often find themselves trying to decide what else
there is in life. They start moving from success to significance.
The world is so busy and our minds are so busy. Norman Vincent Peale
in The
Power of Ethical Management said that we have two selves: a
task- oriented self that's used to getting things done, and an inner
self that reflects our spiritual nature. It takes longer to wake
up your reflective inner self than your external task-oriented self.
The alarm goes off in the morning and people jump out of bed, trying
to eat while they're washing in the bathroom, probably with a cell
phone on the counter. The whole day goes that way. At night, they
fall into bed exhausted, perhaps without even saying good-night
to somebody who is lying next to them. The next day they go at it
again, and one day blends into another. What helps me is to wake
up about an hour or so before I have to do anything and then to
enter my day slowly. I like to do some spiritual reading and take
a walk. In other words, I start the day by feeding my inner Spiritual
Self, and from that space step into my day. I ran into a fascinating
businessman who, if he had a problem in his company, would call
people together and gather all the information about the problem.
Then he'd say, "OK, we've got all the information, now we're
going to move to a solution, but before we do that, I'd like you
all to sit quietly for 10 minutes." He wouldn't tell them to
pray or meditate, just to look for the answer within. Although some
people were uncomfortable, he was amazed at the clarity of the thinking
that came out of that silent period. Everybody should have a sign
on their desk that says "Don't just do something, sit there."
This most important thing is not legitimized in organizations.
RI: So, people bring spiritual values into their
businesses first by bringing spirituality into their everyday lives,
and paying attention to themselves as spiritual beings. How does
the Hoffman Process help with this?
KB: The Hoffman Process actually brings forth
spiritual leadership in a person. Since taking the Process, my title
at our company has become Chief Spiritual Officer. Now, I'm working
on creating a Center for Chief Spiritual Officers. I want to work
with people who have been successful in their organization, and
now want to move to a different level and really give their spiritual
side a chance to flourish through the way they operate their organizations.
I'm convinced that effective leadership has more to do with character
than with methodology and skills. Back in the '60's, Bob Greenfield
said there are two kinds of leaders: strong natural leaders and
strong natural servants. He said the goal of a strong natural leader
is to control and direct. And the goal of a strong natural servant
is to serve. The servant leader is open to feedback because their
goal is not to hold onto power, their goal is to serve. When I see
people with problems in their organizations because of control needs,
usually they have issues from their past that really need to be
dealt with. The Hoffman Process allows people to resolve many of
these issues; which are what they have used to prop their character
up, such as unproductive beliefs about themselves and other people,
and the need to be controlling.
RI: In the Process, people shed their false selves
to reveal a true and loving, noble servant within, which we call
your Spiritual Self. One's spirit, when integrated with one's emotions,
intellect and body, results in a new way of being and acting in
the world. Spiritually empowered actions are more elegant, accurate
and powerful.
KB: Yes, I think that's really true. The essence
is to let this spirit into your heart so you become a different
person from the inside out. When that's true, you do things differently,
because you have become somebody who really can't stomach doing
something other than what is driven by your inner self. What you're
teaching in the Process is so very powerful: reaching a truce between
the Intellect and the Emotional Child, and then agreeing that the
Spiritual Self will be in a powerful leadership role.
RI: What impact has the Process had on your business
life? Through the Hoffman Process, I brought my faith into my daily
actions.
KB: It made my spirituality come alive. I had
all these wonderful spiritual thoughts, but I still had behaviors
that were getting in my way. Through the Hoffman Process, I actually
brought my faith into my daily actions. It gave me a way to have
my spirituality be at the center of my life, rather than something
I call on when I'm in trouble and it's too late. That is what the
Process does for people.
RI: What importance do you find that tithing,
service, or charitable giving can have in a person's business life?
KB: I think it is all important, it is about energy.
If all you do is take energy, you're an energy drainer. Tithing,
giving back, being thankful, sends energy out and you get more energy
back. John Templeton tells people that the best money practice in
the world is to give 10% of what they earn away. Last year was a
very successful one for my business so my wife and I tithed 10%
of the profit, and we divided it among the employees in the company,
from the highest paid to the lowest, and let each of them tithe
a percentage of it. The only requirement was that the money had
to be tithed to a non-profit organization. One of our lowest paid
employees came up to me with tears in his eyes, telling me he had
given $1000 to his Catholic parish. Others donated to hospices,
and so on. We feel that by empowering others to give, we're spreading
this energy out much more significantly than if we just did it ourselves.
I absolutely believe in the power of tithing and giving back. My
own experience about all the blessings I've had in my life is that
the more I give away, the more that comes back. That is the way
life works, and that is the way energy works. ø
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