Article
Ken Blanchard on giving 'legendary service'
The key is to create a culture in which employees truly care, says one of the world's most respected authorities on leadership.
June 10, 2014 by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance
Ken Blanchard is one of the living legends of the business world. His book "The One-Minute Manager" has sold more than 13 million copies — and that's just one of the more than 60 books written or co-written by him. In 1979 he founded The Ken Blanchard Companies, which today offers management consulting and leadership training to companies around the world.
Among many other things, he is the co-creator of the Hersey-Blanchard situational theory, often referred to as the situational leadership theory, which holds that leadership is never a one-size-fits-all discipline and that there is no one "right" way to lead. That idea is one of the underpinnings of his new book, "Legendary Service: The Key is to Care." He's a busy fellow, but he was kind enough to chat with me via email about the book, and about how he's seen retail change over the course of his career.
JB: You've written more than 60 books, and have been researching the topics of customer service and organizational excellence for many years. What would you say is the biggest change that you've seen take place over that period?
KB: To me, the biggest change is that we've moved away from a command and control leadership model where all the brains were considered to be at the top of the organization and all the energy flowed up that hierarchy. As a result, customers very often were dealing with ducks who would say "Quack quack, it's our policy," "Quack quack, I just work here," "Quack quack, do you want to talk to my supervisor?" "Quack quack, I didn't make the rules," "Quaaaaack quack quack quack." Frontline people weren't empowered to make decisions.
Today, there's much more of a situational leadership mindset, where people at every level within the organization are encouraged to use their best judgment when serving customers. The result is a higher probability that you'll get eagles who will soar above the crowd and solve problems. That doesn't mean this approach is universal. There are still a lot of self-serving leaders out there who think leadership is all about them and who want everybody to continue sucking up the hierarchy.
JB: Which retailers do you feel are currently delivering the best customer experiences, and what is it about them that you admire?
KB:To me the best ones out there are places like Nordstrom, Zappos, and The Container Store. They permit their frontline people to bring their brains to work so they can solve problems and get things done without constantly checking with their manager. In fact, young people today can't believe that we talked about managers as superiors and direct reports as subordinates. There was the head of the department and the hired hands—the head and the hands. That all seems archaic now. But everyone still uses the word supervision—whichliterally means super + vision, as if supervisors can see things better than anybody else. It's not accurate.
JB: One of the lessons in your new book is that it's more important to give ideal service than to close the sale—that is, give the best service even if it means losing the sale. Can you talk a little bit more about this?
KB:What people don't realize is that if you think more about caring for the customer than worrying about each sale, you're going to create raving fan customers who will brag about you and want to come back. It's in the best interest of the customer, and it's going to create a lot more sales in the long run than if you had tried to push the sale in the short run.
One of my favorite examples of Nordstrom's service was when a friend of mine went there to get some special earrings for his wife. The woman at the jewelry department said "We don't sell that kind of earrings here, but I know where I can get them in the mall. How long are you going to be here?" My friend said he'd probably be there another 45 minutes. The woman said, "Good. When you come back, I'll have them for you." When he came back, not only did she have the earrings for him, she had also gift-wrapped them. And she charged him the same amount she had paid for them at another store at the mall. Nordstrom didn't make any money on that sale—but they gained a loyal customer. My friend has bragged about them ever since. He told me this story and now I tell it whenever I can.
JB: A culture of service can be so difficult to create, especially in larger organizations. After all these years and all the companies you've helped, what have you learned about instilling a culture of service within a business?
KB:I've learned it's a lot easier to build a positive culture than to turn around an ineffective one. I wrote a book with Colleen Barrett, the former president of Southwest Airlines, called "Lead with LUV." Southwest started out with a culture of service. If you ask anyone at Southwest what business they are in, they'll say, "We're in the customer service business. We happen to fly airplanes." They've said that all along. It's much easier to start with that kind of culture than it is to change one that's not working.
I wrote another book called "Helping People Win at Work" with my friend Garry Ridge, president and CEO of WD-40 Company. When Garry took over as president, before he could introduce a new performance review system he had to change the whole culture. It wasn't an easy job—it took several years. To shift people's mindset about learning, he asked his people to think of the company not as a team but as a tribe.Although the concepts of teamwork are important, he felt tribal terminology was a much richer approach to the new philosophy he wanted to implement. He went around the world, asked people to be part of the WD-40 tribe, and got them to buy in to the concept. Now instead of managers and direct reports, they have tribe leaders and tribe members.
Garry also initiated a policy that there would be no mistakes at WD-40, only learning opportunities. That simple change in phrasing made a huge difference. People now come to him and say "We had a big learning opportunity yesterday"—which usually means a lot of people goofed up. Garry's typical reply is "What can we learn from it?" These changes were all necessary before WD-40's performance management system could make its dramatic shift. Now it's the job of managers to help their people get As and work with them to accomplish goals, not sort them into a normal distribution curve. So you can easily see how much easier it is to build a culture from the start than it is to turn one around.
JB: In "Legendary Service," you also stress the importance of empowerment. Retailers are often scared to empower frontline staffers too much, for fear of losing control and ending up with spotty execution. How does a retailer find the balance between "do it this way" vs. "do it the way you think it needs to be done in the moment"?
KB: To me the way you find balance between those two is to set boundaries. There are two parts to servant leadership. The first is the leadership part, which is setting vision, direction, and goals. Your people need to know what business you're in, where you're heading, the values that will guide your journey, and your goals. Responsibility lies with top management to establish these guidelines and be sure people understand them. I remember interviewing Max De Pree, the legendary chairman of Herman Miller, Inc. He said his main job as chairman was to be like a third grade teacher and tell his people the vision, values, and goals "over and over and over again" until they got it "right, right, right."
Once everyone understands the leadership part of servant leadership, you can turn the pyramid upside down. As a leader, you now serve your people and are responsive to their needs. This is the servant part of servant leadership. Now your people are empowered to bring their brains to work and do things the way they think they need to be done—within the guidelines that have been set. It's not a free for all. It's guided empowerment where frontline workers know they can be trusted to make decisions that are in the best interest of the customer.
