Bob Pike recently interviewed Ken Blanchard highlighting questions asked by those participating in the teleseminar as well as current projects Ken is involved in. Here are a few highlights from that interview.

Bob: Ken, you recently wrote another book. What is it about?

Ken: Leading at a Higher Level ties into curriculum we’ve been doing for 30 years. It talks about taking take care of customers, taking care of your people or they won’t take care of your customers; and that the right kind of leadership is servant leadership.

How can you help managers realize the potential of employees and collective value?

Involve your people. People look to you as leader for where we’re going, but that doesn’t mean you don’t involve them. As a servant leader, you work for them. You help them get an “A” on what they’re working on. You’re on their side helping them develop.

One of the key ideas at The Pike Ascent is that training is dead. Management wants to know it’s producing results, helping us move to where we want to be. It requires we be change agents. That begins with ourselves. What are the biggest challenges to change?

Peter Drucker said nothing happens by accident. You have to provide structure around change. If you really want people to get excited about training, you have to tie it into the bottom line. You need to answer “What do we hope to fix? What is the present level of behavior? What would look like good behavior? Let’s really track results over the next year.” Change occurs when there’s a difference between actual and desired; the gap is the area you want to have change.

What strategies have been successful in motivating Gen Y in the workforce?

With our generation, if someone wasn’t walking their talk, we’d talk in hallways and bathrooms. [With Gen Y], they’ll tell you to your face. They want a partnership. When you talk about coaching and working with them, they need to know you’re a partner, not superior. They want recognition. That’s not just pats on the back. They want to be recognized for who they are as a person.

What suggestions do you have for someone trying to lead up? When people tell me the wrong person’s at the training, I say, “That might be true, but you’re here and I bet there are a lot of people back at work that are glad you’re here.”

   If the wrong person is there, go back and be willing to teach people what you learned. Make a lot of I statements. “I really got this out of this” and share with them. “Do you see any pieces of what I’ve learned that we could apply to the organization?” Share in a way that’s not judgmental. They’ll be much more open to learn if you approach in a different way.

How do you handle managers who send everyone else to training to get them “fixed”?

That’s where [the Blanchard Companies and The Bob Pike Group] come in. Sometimes they’ll listen to an outsider more than they will insiders. Make sure you’re measuring results of training so they get a sense it’s not a fringe benefit, but an important part of the organization.

At The Pike Ascent in September, we’re putting together a comprehensive assessment. We’re expecting the top 2 percent of trainers and directors are going to want to be there. We want people to be very intentional when they come. Your focus is on leadership and coaching, and ours is on developing the best training so we can have the right training at the right time for the right people. I think that’s going to be a unique thing.

A one-two punch is an important thing. We don’t want to stop our intention at the end of training. How can we maximize the use of that?

What is one big suggestion you could have for people as leaders, trainers that would make a difference?

Remember the first line of Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven Life: it’s not about you. It’s about them and what they’re getting out of it. If it’s all about us, it’s not going to have the effect.

What do you do when coaching is not enough?

Then share the people with the competition. Some people have deep-seated issues they need to break through them, but we’re not qualified to help them with that. You can’t take your operation down by going into the therapy business. No matter what you do, some people just can’t get it together.