In thinking about the election I came up with three leadership tips for President-Elect Obama, and they all focus on in him modeling servant leadership.  The country is in desperate need of a servant leader as President.  This is a President who thinks of the country first and himself second.    The first tip has to do with the leadership part of servant leadership.  Leadership is about going somewhere.  If people don’t know where they are headed, leadership doesn’t matter and becomes bogged down in politics and self interest.  What President-Elect Obama needs to do is develop a compelling vision that helps us as a nation know who we are (our purpose), where we are going (our picture of the future), and what will guide our journey (our values).   Once there is clear direction, my second tip has to do with the servant part of servant leadership.   Now President-Elect Obama has to move to the bottom of the hierarchy and become the cheerleader, supporter, and encourager of everyone in Washington and around the country by working on making that vision a reality.  Now it is not about him, it is about the vision.    My third tip for President-Elect Obama makes servant leadership come alive.  He has to lead with his ears.  As Abraham Lincoln did, he needs to gather around him a team of rivals who are the best thinkers; a team who can help us solve the major problems that confront us today.  We know President-Elect Obama is a great speaker, but if God wanted him to speak more than listen, he would have given him two mouths.  I hope the theme of his presidency is to listen, listen, and listen some more, and then make the best decisions possible.

With the way things are right now, I hope we’re all wishing the best for President Obama, whether we voted for him or not, because we have so many problems and we really need a leader who can deal with them. You might have seen that two of his top cabinet appointments resigned because of tax problems. I love what Obama did on NBC News and on CNN —  he said, "I screwed up."  He said that part of the era of responsibility is not never making mistakes, it’s owning up to them. This is really all about The One Minute Apology. He said, "I campaigned on changing Washington and bottom-up politics. I don’t want to send a message to the American people that there are two sets of standards—one for powerful people and one for ordinary folks who are working every day and paying their taxes."  I admire that. I’ve talked with some of my friends recently about the idea of serving two masters or two kingdoms or two worlds—the two worlds are really ourselves and others - Ourselves and the highest good - Ourselves and leading at a higher level. It’s a constant battle, because that little ego is waiting there to kind of snap us up periodically and make us think that the world really centers around us, rather than saying, "Gee, I wonder how I can help. I wonder how I can support. I wonder how I can reach out to make a difference to somebody else." I think we need to recognize that there are these two worlds and these two focuses. How do we balance those two, or at least be aware when our self is in charge? And then watch it—so that more often than not, we can be serving others and making a difference in other people’s lives. It’s a constant battle—a constant conflict between serving ourselves and serving others. You have to recognize that it’s not always an easy task. So my thought for you today is: Watch out. Get out of your own way as much as you can, and recognize that you really, finally, become an adult when you realize you’re here to serve rather than be served, and to give rather than get. But also recognize that little "self" that sneaks up once in a while.

We did a pretty good webinar recently. Twenty-five hundred people signed up for it. Do you know what the title was? "Leading in Uncertain Times." Of course, we don’t have any uncertain times here, do we? Ha! Let me tell you three points I shared in the webinar, because maybe it could help us, because we’re all hitting times that are interesting. The first point is: You have to be a bearer of hope. Some of you might think, "Blanchard, will you stop this? These are hard times." Hey—I’m going to be a bearer of hope. I thought you could be a bearer of hope, too. Is that always tied into reality? No. But what difference does it make—if you don’t hope, then why don’t you just lie down and we’ll throw some dirt over you. The second point is that you have to make people your business partners. I want to tell you—in our company in this kind of economic situation we’re going to keep on asking our people whether they have any suggestions. Where can we cut costs? Where can we increase revenue? Our people are our partners. We need everyone’s input. That is so important now. The final one is to be a servant leader. This is not the time to be self-serving and say that it’s all about me, even though you’re concerned and you have some fears and all. But if you realize that life is about how to serve, not be served, in the process of reaching out to help others and maybe forgetting your own problems for a minute, you know what? Your own problems might be helped. It’s a real simple fact, but I have found it true. A couple of friends of mine were saying how you can’t deal with hard times if you don’t embrace the good times, and the laughs. Good times are an example of hope. A lot of people are saying how things are really rough. A friend of mine says, "Don’t waste a crisis!" This is a time to change our attitude even when people around us aren’t having the same feeling. Another friend of mine said, "If you can see the future, then what’s the use of faith?" I think that’s really so true. In my locker room in high school, my coach said, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." And he also said, "Winners never quit and quitters never win." So what we really need to do is remember that we have the capability to do anything. Together, together, together! And that’s what we’re going to do this time, okay? So put your chins up—put your smiles on. Go out and make a difference in people’s lives. And in the process I think we can all continue to make a difference in our own lives. To be bearers of hope, we have to catch people doing things right and celebrate when people go beyond the moment, beyond the circumstances. You know, sometimes in life, you get "in the zone," where positive things are happening and you can’t explain it. So I was just wondering—how can we encourage each other to get into the zone? How do we help each other go beyond where we ever thought we might be in what we do? Every job is important, whether you’re a visiting professor, or director of first impressions, or shipping, or doing sales, or whatever. Get in the zone. Think about it. How can you get yourself in the zone?

In the last couple of weeks at our company, we’ve had our own special March Madness going on down on the basketball court at lunchtime. Next week, we’re going to start to get into the semifinals of this great tournament. One of the things I was thinking about was how, in basketball, the team that really wins is the one where all the players are really contributing. One star can’t be enough, and we saw that even in our own games. When there were two people who were both playing well, they tended to win. If you depend on one person, you can’t win. It applies to basketball and everything in life. I remember when Michael Jordan was the big star in Chicago. They never really got winning when it was just Michael scoring 30 or 40 points, but then he got some other teammates who contributed and made a difference. We need everyone to contribute. This is the way it is as we work together through this tough economic time. It’s not going to do us any good if a few people are putting in 150 or 200 percent and other people are only giving 60 or 70 percent. We need everybody giving 100 percent if we’re all going to really be a winning team in this effort. I was talking to a friend who is in the automobile industry through advertising, and they are a big user of Gung Ho! with us. They have shared with their customers the whole Gung Ho! framework and he thinks it’s a perfect message as we manage through these tough times. It’s really interesting if you look at it: The Spirit of the Squirrel is about worthwhile work, and the first thing that all of us have to recognize is that what we do is really important. We make a difference with our clients. Those who can’t work with us are really sad because they recognize what we do. The Way of the Beaver is to be in control of achieving the goals. One of the things that we need to do in our organization, and every organization, is that everybody has to take responsibility for asking, "How can we help? Who can I help? What can we do?" The Way of the Beaver has got to be an operation. And the last one, which is what we all ought to be doing with each other, is The Gift of the Goose, which is to cheer each other on and applaud each other and catch each other doing things right. Let’s keep on pulling together and knowing that no matter what happens, we can get through tough times because we’ve done it before.

You know, I was thinking the other day about how in the news they are saying that we’ve got this problem and that problem… I’ll never forget when I worked with Norman Vincent Peale and he told this story. He was walking down the street one day and he saw his old friend, George. He said to George, "How are you doing?"  Norman said he meant it as a casual greeting, but George took it as an opportunity. Twenty minutes later, Norman said, George dropped his last problem at Norman’s feet. Then George said, "Norman, it’s problems, problems, problems. If you could only solve all my problems, I would write a check right this moment for $5,000 for your church."    Norman said he could never turn down such an opportunity and a challenge, so he meditated and cogitated and agitated. Then he said, "George, I was just at an organization yesterday where no one there has a problem. Would you like to go there?" And George said, "Absolutely! That’s where I want to be, Norman." And Norman said, "Well good, George, tomorrow we’ll go to Woodlawn Cemetery. Because people who are dead don’t have problems."  Norman always said that if you don’t have any problems, race home, run into the house, run into the bedroom, get on your knees, and say, "Good Lord, send me some problems! What’s going on? Don’t you like me anymore?"              So you know, there’s always a different perspective on things. And remember, problems are a way of life, and if we hang in there together, maybe we can solve them.

You know, there’s a big movement in Europe, and we’re way behind here, on sustainable leadership. The talk there is about people, prosperity, and the planet. When they talk about prosperity they mean of all people, not just financial, but plenty of food and water and a place to sleep and things like that—the importance of people and also of saving the planet.  I think it’s really an important thing for us to take into consideration. We have a partner in Holland who is really doing good work in this area. So sustainable leadership—people, prosperity, and the planet. It all starts with taking a look at yourself. How do you treat people? Do you help people? How do you look at prosperity? How do you treat the planet? It’s an important, wonderful day. So have a great one and remember, life is a very special occasion. Don’t miss it!    I’ve also partnered with 2LEAD4US on a sustainable leadership project.  Find out more details at http://howwelead.org/planet/.

Margie and I wrote a wonderful book with Dee Edington years ago called The One Minute Manager Gets Fit. And then we reissued it as The One Minute Manager Balances Life and Work. The whole concept was that we need to take care of our health. We need to take care of our bodies. We had a wonderful little saying in there about how, early in life, you give up your health to gain wealth—in other words, we work hard. We want to accomplish goals. We want to take care of our families and all, and we don’t exercise, and we overeat, and we drink too much, and all. And then later in life—you know, health costs at the end of people’s lives are amazing—people give up their wealth to regain their health. They’re trying to patch things up and all that. So one of the things I’ve really decided is that we have a lot of good wellness activities in the company and I really want to start getting involved in those. We have our room where we can go on the treadmill and exercise and things like that, and I’m sure your company is the same way. We really need to take care of ourselves—particularly in these tough times. You need to think about your health and what you can do to take care of it.          So my thought today is to take a look in the mirror and be honest with yourself—are you eating right? Are you drinking right? Are you exercising? Are you taking care of yourself? Because you owe it not only to yourself, but to your family and to your company.

You know, I was thinking today about the San Diego Padres. They’re 7 and 2 now and it’s interesting to hear the analysts. At one point they were 1 and 2, and they were down by 3 runs to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the eighth inning, and somehow they rallied and won the game and made 2-2 and split with a team that’s supposed to win the championship in our league outright, and suddenly the team started to belief in itself. And they started saying, "Well, we really hang together," and all that kind of thing. And suddenly they’ve just pulled off all these wins in a row. So what would have happened if they had lost and they had been 1 and 3? Would they have been able to hold their heads up?  So often how you feel about yourself is completely a choice. One of our problems is that how we feel about ourselves is usually related to our performance. So if we don’t have such a good day, or if we lose an account, or think we did something wrong, all that kind of thing—what we have to recognize is that performance will go up and down. People’s opinion of us will go up and down. You have to believe in yourself. You have to choose that we’re doing good things and you’re doing good things. So let’s just see what happens to the Padres - if they keep it up, or if they suddenly lose a couple of games and start staying, "Maybe we’re not as good as we thought," and all of a sudden their attitude changes.  Life is really a series of choices. Norman Vincent Peale used to say, "When you wake up in the morning, you have two choices in life: You can feel good about yourself or you can feel lousy. Why would you choose the latter one?"  So today, make the choice to feel good about yourself!

You know, in these tough economic times, I’ve been thinking about what’s the best financial advice I’ve heard.  I was once talking with the great financial advisor Sir John Templeton. Somebody asked him about the best financial advice he had ever given anybody, and he said, "Tithing." He said, "I’ve never known anybody who has tithed (given away) at least ten percent of their income to good causes who didn’t have it coming back tenfold. Just reaching out and helping others brings that energy back to you." And I firmly believe that. Templeton said, "Don’t wait until you have a lot of money. Reach out and help somebody now."  I think we all know people who are hurting, and maybe you could do something special for them—maybe even pay the rent for them or get them some meals or do something like that. Tithing is not necessarily giving to a church. It’s really the whole process of sharing what you have with others. I know some people are pretty tight at this time financially and all. But you know, my belief is that this is the time—maybe more than ever—to really reach out and see if you can help somebody else. I love the whole concept that we’ve talked about, "Each One Help One."