It looked like a high school reunion, but it wasn't.
Ken Blanchard, management guru and co-author of The One Minute Manager, had engaged the audience in a thought exercise. First, he asked listeners to greet each other as if they were unimportant. Then he asked them to greet each other as long lost friends. The difference was palpable.
"One of [a leader's] main roles is to focus people's energy in a positive way," Blanchard said. "The problem with most organizations is the focus is on the negative, and they wonder why people are not energized and excited."
Blanchard spoke at the university Wednesday and Thursday at the invitation of the College of Social and Behavioral Science and the David Eccles School of Business. His lecture focused on leading with values and service.
Recounting a recent safari trip in Africa, Blanchard compared the fierce, competitive and selfish nature of lions with that of humans, who he said have the ability to "think at a higher level" and choose service and caring.
"As I look at politics, as I look at what's happened in business, . . . unfortunately, we are choosing the flesh more than the spirit."
Blanchard said leaders need to be in organizations to serve, not to be served. He joked about conducting "Egomaniacs Anonymous" meetings to help self-centered executives to learn to be selfless.
"We come into the world self-serving. My [newborn] grandson didn't come home from the hospital and say, 'Can I help around the house?' " Blanchard said. "You know you're an adult when you realize you're here to serve not to be served. . . . It is this tremendous journey to get there."
Arriving at the service mentality often requires a near-death experience, a spiritual awakening or a significant role model, Blanchard said in an interview after the lecture.
Blanchard, who told the audience he "turned [his] life over to the Lord in the late 1980s," has used Christian messages to teach management techniques in recent books such as "Leadership by the Book" and "Lead Like Jesus." At the Ken Blanchard Companies based in Escondido, Calif., Blanchard holds the title "chief spiritual officer."
At Thursday's lecture, he frequently pointed to Jesus Christ as the best example of the "servant leader." He shared four of what he said were Christ's habits that he said can create a good leader: take time to be alone and develop a personal mission statement; pray or meditate daily, while studying Scripture or other inspirational books; love yourself unconditionally; and rely on a small group of people who allow you to be vulnerable and who can give you honest advice.
Attendees, mostly faculty members of the University of Utah, strongly applauded Blanchard at the end of the lecture.
Leissa Roberts, executive director of faculty practice at the school's College of Nursing, said she tries to apply Blanchard's ideas about service.
"He was great - phenomenal," Roberts said.
"Blanchard is sort of an icon in the leadership world. . . . The opportunity to meet him and hear him speak is something you shouldn't pass up."
Steve Ott, dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Science, called Blanchard a personal role model.
"I have responsibility for 140 faculty members," Ott said. "My job is to set the vision, get them to buy into it and try to help them get done what they want to get done. You can't use a command-and-control method."
rwinters@sltrib.com
