By Doug Carroll
Communications Staff
Dr. Ken Blanchard told a convocation audience on Wednesday afternoon that servant leadership involves being a servant first and a leader second.
Speaking to a packed Antelope Gym crowd that included degree candidates from the College of Business that bears his name, Blanchard said Jesus set a leadership standard for all time.
“We need you to go out as a new wave that will lead in a different way,” Blanchard said to the degree candidates. “Self-serving leaders think the bottom line is No. 1. But servant leadership is love in action.”
Blanchard, who turns 72 on Friday, is the co-author of “The One-Minute Manager,” which has sold more than 13 million copies. His San Diego-based management training and consulting firm was founded more than 30 years ago.
Blanchard used John Ortberg’s book “When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box” to make the case that the spoils of life add up to nothing, much like the coveted property holdings in the board game Monopoly.
Ortberg, the senior pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in northern California, played Monopoly with his grandmother as a young boy and draws the analogy in the book.
“The only thing you get to keep,” Blanchard said, “is who you loved and who loved you. That’s all you’ll take out of this world. Go out and be a servant leader who reaches out and loves people.”
While the world values recognition and power, Blanchard said countercultural leaders should value service and relationships.
“The opposite of accumulation of wealth is generosity,” he said. “What will you do with your time, talent, treasure and touch?
“My hope is that you will find your purpose and you will live it as a servant leader.”
Reach Doug Carroll at 639.8011 or [email protected].
