First Couple of Management Consulting Counts Blessings

Kenneth and Margie Blanchard have been partners in business and in life for more than half a century.

The two met during their college years and in the intervening decades, grew their careers together. They co-founded their management consulting and training firm in 1979. Margie Blanchard served as president of the company from 1987 to 1997, a time of rapid growth and success. The Ken Blanchard Companies eventually rebranded as Blanchard and today, son Scott Blanchard is CEO.

Kenneth Blanchard, 83, is a teacher, lecturer and business consultant. He has authored more than 70 books about leadership that have sold a combined 21 million copies. (In 2005, he was inducted into Amazon’s Hall of Fame as one of the top-selling 25 authors of all time.)

His best-selling book is “The One Minute Manager,” which he cowrote with Spencer Johnson in 1982. A revised 2015 version is still a bestseller.

Margie Blanchard, who is also 83, is a motivational speaker, management consultant, trainer and entrepreneur. She has also been a literary partner to her husband.
Collaborating with a third author, D.W. Edington, the Blanchards wrote “The One Minute Manager Balances Work and Life,” addressing topics such as exercise, stress management and balance.

She still works at the company but describes her title as “internal facilitator.”

Several years ago, Ken Blanchard joined Morton Shaevitz to write a book very relevant to his career situation. It is called “Refire! Don’t Retire: Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life.” In that book, Blanchard argued that people should use their senior years to intellectually stimulate their minds, keep themselves physically vital, get out of their own way spiritually, and improve their most significant relationships.

The San Diego Business Journal recently caught up with the Blanchards, asking about their work life and their off-hours pursuits.

So it’s safe to assume that you’re refired now, not retired?

Ken Blanchard: Why would I ever retire when I just love what I do? I mean, that’s the stupidest thing in the world. People say, “Aren’t you tired of working?” And I say that I haven’t worked in 45, 50 years. I’m just playing.

I guess when I die, I’ll retire.

Your title there is Chief Spiritual Officer. What responsibilities come with that?

I’m the head cheerleader, that’s my main responsibility. And a writer. I’ve written 70 books, but only two by myself – one on golf. The rest I wrote as a co-author because I love to learn from others.

How did you start your career?

I was working as assistant dean for the Graduate School of Business Administration at Ohio University. My boss told me he wanted me to teach a leadership course. And so I started teaching, and it was just so much fun. I came home and told Margie that this is what I should be doing.

But Paul Hersey had just come on as chairman of the Department of Management, which was the department I was teaching in. Hersey came into my office, in 1968 or 1969, and said, “Ken, I’ve been teaching leadership for 10 years. I think I’m better than anybody, but writing is not my big skill area and they want me to write a textbook. And I’ve been looking for a good writer like you. Would you want to write it with me?”

And so I went to the dean and I said now that I have a book coming out, I’m going to quit as an administrator. He said I can’t quit because he was going to fire me for being a lousy administrator. And I said, “Well, great” and our textbook, “The Management of Organizational Behavior,” was published through its 10th edition in 2012.

Margie and I came to San Diego during a sabbatical she took and we ran into the Young Presidents’ Organization. I did sessions for them and they said that we should
start our own company. They helped us get it going, and it was really kind of fun. But I knew right away that I shouldn’t be running anything that Margie should be president.

And so I got a chance to work with people like Norman Vincent Peale, with whom I wrote “The Power of Ethical Management.” What an amazing guy he was. I also wrote “Helping People Win at Work” with Garry Ridge, who became president of the WD-40 Company. I wrote “The Generosity Factor” with S. Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A. And then I wrote “Everyone’s a Coach” with Don Shula, the Miami Dolphins coach. I just have had such a wonderful time working with other people.

What’s the best thing about working past the age when most people retire?

I’m just really excited about continuing to write and learn. And Zoom has just been tremendous for me because I get called by people in our company to go and talk to clients. And I don’t have to travel and I’m really good on Zoom. And so I’m having a lot of fun with that.

What’s the worst thing about working into your 80s?

You know, I think the reason most people are unhappy is because they’re doing something they don’t love to do. That’s true at any age.

Are you putting in fewer hours now?

We’ve hired other people to have relationships with the clients, but I still keep myself busy. Right now, I’m writing a book with my son. Scott’s the president of our company. Our book is called “It’s Always the Leader,” because if things are going well, it’s the leader, and if things are going lousy, it’s the leader. And so, it’s always the leader. When I get up in the morning I’m always going, “Wow, this is going to be a great day!”

What advice would you give someone contemplating whether to continue working past retirement age if they don’t have to?

I think the advice is to really look at what you really enjoy doing. What gets you up and gives you excitement? Can you organize your life around doing that? And if you didn’t do that in the world of work, well, how can you do it into retirement so that you won’t really be retiring? You’ll be refiring your life in a direction that that excites you.

If you had the chance to do everything again, knowing what you know now, would you change anything?

Not really. I think life is what happens to you when you’re planning on doing something else. My faculty had always said that I should be an administrator. Then I got an opportunity to actually do some writing and found out that that was really what I was meant to do instead.

What’s the biggest lesson your career path has taught you?

The biggest lesson was to find out what you love to do and then create opportunities to get to do that.

Kenneth Blanchard
AGE: 83
WORK HISTORY: Writer, motivational speaker, management consultant, entrepreneur
CURRENT OCCUPATION: As Chief Spiritual Officer of Blanchard, he serves as the company’s “head cheerleader”
NOTABLE: Blanchard is the author or coauthor of 70 books, which have been translated into more than 42 languages

Are you retired?

Margie Blanchard: Not really. I’m an internal facilitator for a couple of areas that really benefit from having attention. So I’m training managers, training people to have great conversations about their careers with their employees, and also to have them with themselves and their own bosses. I work with the HR department and I have somebody that helps me produce the programs we do.

I’m also on the board, I do special projects within the company that I still love, and I’m teaching a career development class in the company that about 80 people have gone through. I instruct people in the company how to look at their own careers and how to become more conscious about what they need to do to be happy.

I found a wonderful niche that I love, that allows me to get to know some of the new people even better and it stays out of the way of our son and the leadership. It really doesn’t have a lot to do with the running of the company, which is great.

What motivates you to work past the age when most people retire?

I love teaching. I love facilitating. I love watching. The lights go on. I love being helpful and I think there are ways I can be helpful that might save people from being in a dead-end job or from taking something that someone offers rather than something that’s actually appropriate.

I believe in what we do in our leadership work and I particularly believe in what I do in my career development work. I think that leaders are reluctant to have real discussions, to ask real questions. What would make you leave? Why do you stay? These are uncomfortable questions. But you can get used to them, and so I feel that I’m actually helping the company, but also helping the individuals who I teach.

You’re putting in fewer hours than when you were president, right?

My goodness, yes. The nice thing about these classes is that they’re virtual. I teach two classes that are three two-hour virtual sessions a month, something like that.

What’s the best part of working into your 80s?

I think having some kind of purpose – something that is beyond. Teaching is something I love. It’s something I really enjoy, because I get to not only meet the new people coming into the company, but I also get better acquainted with some of the people who have been with us for quite some time. So it’s a people thing.

What’s the worst part?

I think there can be a big challenge when you’ve been involved heavily in something and have enjoyed the work. To move from that to less than that, I think there can be a huge challenge to figure yourself out when you’re not in as much demand. What do you really love doing and can you still do part of it? Not everyone figures it out.

Do you think you’ll ever retire?

Our company has been our ministry for a long period of time, but at some point either through health or through other people that have a job like yours, it may change.

When do you think that might happen?

It wouldn’t be so much an age as it would be if the company got sold or something like that, or I had a health issue that would make it difficult.

What would you do with your time?

I think I would continue what I’m currently doing, within our company, for other people. As an example, my students in the career development course say, “My kids need this. Could you do a class for my kids? They’re 20 years old, they don’t know what they want to do, and they’re not happy at their job.”

I would be open to working with kids, maybe through a high school or something like that, or maybe somewhere else where it would be welcome and helpful. We already have a foundation, The Blanchard Institute, that I’m very interested in that helps high school kids learn some of these leadership principles.

Technology is great because you don’t even have to drive anymore. It used to be you had to be able to travel to pursue anything, and now that this requirement has gone away, that makes a lot more opportunities available.

What advice would you give someone contemplating whether to continue working past retirement age if they don’t have to?

To get really clear on what do you enjoy most and make sure you continue doing it as long as you can, or start doing some of the things that that you know make you want to get up in the morning.

Four or five years ago, I started watercolor painting. I have a class I attend, and when I’m there, I lose track of time.

If you had to do it all over again, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently in your career?

I can’t think of anything. I’ve had a very blessed life. I’ve packed a lot into it.

What’s the biggest lesson your career path has taught you?

That if you really believe in what you’re doing, and you’re matched well to what you’re good at, that life goes by very, very fast and you enjoy it. So many people aren’t matched to the things that are the most important. Nobody really helped them figure it out.

Also, I would encourage people who have the opportunity to travel, to do so while they feel really good, not to wait until your 80s. To quote my financial advisor, there are three stages of life – go, go slow and no go. And I’m very glad Ken and I traveled during the “go” stage.

Margie Blanchard
AGE: 83
WORK HISTORY: Motivational speaker, management consultant and trainer, author, entrepreneur, administrator
CURRENT OCCUPATION: Internal facilitator with Blanchard
NOTABLE: Blanchard served as president of the company from 1987 to 1997, leading its rapid growth and success.