Leadership & Management: Dr. Ken Blanchard, Best-Selling Author & Chief Enlightenment Officer, The Blanchard Company

This article provides an insight into the groundbreaking proven Leadership research about overcoming adversity and the relationship it has with "Leadership and Adversity" has received extensive endorsements and enthusiastic reviews from well-known prominent business, political, and academic leaders, best-selling authors, and leading scholars who either participated in the study or reviewed the research findings.

The full results of this research are presented in a book by Dr. Howard Edward Haller - "Leadership and Adversity: The Shaping of Prominent Leaders," which was published in November 2008 by VDM Verlag Dr Müller AG & CoKG. You will discover the proven success habits and secrets of people who, in spite of adversity, major health issues or injuries, assassination of a parent in front of you, imprisonment in a Nazi Concentration Camp, discrimination, significant abuse, or difficult or life threatening challenges shaped their own destiny to become successful, effective leaders.

For this overcoming adversity and leadership research, I personally interviewed sixteen prominent leaders in-depth, including - Two Self-Made Billionaires, Seven major company Chairman/CEO's, Four well-known and respected Selp Help Guru's, US Major General (Ret.) & Two current U.S. Senators, on how overcoming adversity has shaped them: Dr. Tony Bonanzino, Jack Canfield, William Draper III, Mark Victor Hansen, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Monzer Hourani, U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), J. Terrence Lanni, Dr. John Malone, Angelo Mozilo, Larry Pino, Dr. Nido Qubein, U.S. Army Major General Sid Shachnow (Ret.), Dr. John Sperling, Dr. Blenda Wilson, and Zig Ziglar.

This overcoming adversity and leadership research was reviewed and Peer Debriefed by Five Major Leadership Scholars and Best-Selling Authors: Dr. Ken Blanchard, Dr. John Kotter, Prof. James Kouzes, Dr. Paul Stoltz & Dr. Meg Wheatley.

This is a short biography of one of the sixteen leadership research participants who generously contributed their time and insight for this important research into the true insights of the phenomenon of how prominent successful individual leaders overcome adversity and obstacles.

I was blessed with the opportunity to interview the well-known and best-selling leadership and management author, Dr. Ken Blanchard for two hours in his offices in Escondido, California. Dr. Blanchard agreed with the idea of looking at adversity or obstacle as an opportunity made sense.

Ken did not experience “tragic adversity” in his life, either. He was raised by two loving parents. His father had been a Rear Admiral in the U. S. Navy. He did agree that overcoming adversity was important in the development of leaders, but that “tragic adversity” was not necessarily required.

Ken and his wife Marge were blessed to have been tutored and mentored by Presidents of five firms. Each of these five mentors from the Young Presidents Organization [YPO] guided the Blanchard’s on how to take their books and seminars as a base to build a very successful consulting business.

Dr. Blanchard observed that “some of the adversity I faced was not really adversity, but God had another plan for me.” Ken Blanchard expressed his deep feeling of the guiding hand of God influencing his life even before he fully recognized it. Blanchard shared with me the story that his friend Reverend Robert Schuller pointed out that the three key lessons presented in Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson’s very successful “One Minute Manager” were all modeled by Jesus Christ during his ministry.

Dr. Blanchard also shared a comment made to him by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale before they wrote a book together on leadership and ethics. Dr. Peale told Blanchard “Ken, the Lord has always had you on his team. You just never suited up!”