Business Services
Chief cheerleader
How to help your employees earn an A
By Abby Cymerman
Smart Business San Diego | September 2008
Page 1 of 2
Ken Blanchard
co-founder and chief spiritual officer, The Ken Blanchard Cos.
When Ken Blanchard was a
college professor, he was always being “investigated by
some of the best faculty committees” because on the first
day of class, he would pass out
the final exam.
“The other faculty members
would say, ‘You’re supposed to
teach these kids, but don’t give
them the questions from the
final,’ and I’d say, ‘Not only am
I going to give them the questions to the final, what do you
think I’m going to do all semester? I’m going to teach them
the answers so when they get
to the final exam, they get A’s.’”
Blanchard’s “The One Minute
Manager” and other best-sellers
written by him are on executive
bookshelves worldwide, and he
plans to explore the final-exam
concept in his next book, “Don’t
Mark My Paper — Help Me Get
an A,” which he is co-authoring
with WD-40 Co. President and
CEO Garry Ridge.
In his “spare time,” Blanchard
leads 293 employees as co-founder, chief spiritual officer
and “chief cheerleader” of The
Ken Blanchard Cos., an international management training and
consulting firm that posted
2007 revenue of $55.5 million.
Smart Business spoke with
Blanchard about how to encourage your employees to thrive.
Get your ego out of the way. The
biggest addiction that most
chief administrators, managers
and presidents have to deal with
is their ego, which I describe as
‘edging God out,’ and somehow
thinking you’re the center of the
universe. When you do that,
you’re pushing and shoving for
money, recognition, power and
status. You forget you are there
to serve rather than being
served.
When leaders want everything
running up the hierarchy, they
create a duck pond. You end up
talking to a duck that goes
‘Quack, quack. It’s our policy.
Quack, quack. I just work here.
Quack, quack. I don’t make the
rules. Quack, quack. I’ll have to
talk to my supervisor.’
In an empowered organization, you’ll be dealing with
eagles, and they will say, ‘I’ll
take care of it. I’ll give you a call.
Consider it done.’ And when
they do that, then you will go
crazy as a customer because
you’re not used to it.
Make a plan to succeed. The first
part of empowering your
employees is performance planning. At the beginning of every
fiscal year, the leaders at WD-40
sit down with each of their
employees and they create a
final examination with goals
and objectives.
If they hit those kinds of numbers, they’re going to get an A.
If the employee doesn’t get an
A and the manager says, ‘I think
I’m going to have to get rid of
this person,’ Garry [Ridge, WD-40 president and CEO] asks,
‘What did you do to help him
get an A?’ If the manager can’t
tell him, he fires the manager,
not the poor performer.
