Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Blaine Bartlett. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Blaine, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.
Role models… Father was a serial entrepreneur, started and successfully exited a number of businesses. One was a trucking firm during the first gas embargo in the 1970s. He was left holding about $300K in uncollectable receivables and rather than declaring bankruptcy he and my mother decided they would “honor their word” to their suppliers and pay off the debt in full…which they did.
At the age of 12 my mother sat me down and, in regards to religious education, said she and dad had given me what they knew to give and that they realized there was FAR more available. They essentially said, “we trust you to learn and to accept or reject what makes sense to you for your life.”
Net of the lessons in myriad forms was self reliance, integrity, continual discovery, not settling.
Blaine, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Always intrigued by the “human condition.” Learned to read by the time I was 5 and used this as a gateway to learning about how life is and/or could be created. Got involved in the emerging “human potential” movement in the early 1970s and have been involved in exploring the nature of potential – personal and organizational – ever since. Founded my company in 1987 and built it to where we had a presence in five countries in the US, Asia and Europe working with some of the largest companies in the world. I’ve spent the last 40+ years working with senior executives, solopreneurs and entrepreneurs and their teams on leadership development processes and have come to define leadership as being the activity of “influencing in order to co-create coordinated movement in pursuit of a worthy ideal.”
In the process I’ve personally delivered programs to and worked with more than 300,00 individuals, directly impacting more than one million people worldwide. I co-host of Office Hours on AppleTV as well as being featured in the TV series World’s Greatest Motivators and the movie and book Think and Grow Rich: The Legacy. I am also an Adjunct Professor at Beijing University, Managing Director of the Global Coaching Alliance, a longtime member of the Transformational Leadership Council and serves as a member of the teaching faculty of the American Association for Physician Leadership. As well, I sit on numerous Boards including the Board of Directors of the World Business Academy and the Unstoppable Foundation and in 2012, was formally invested as a Knight of the Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem Knights of Malta, the world’s oldest humanitarian organization.
As part of my work I’ve author of five books including the #1 international best-seller Compassionate Capitalism: A Journey to the Soul of Business; His newest book is The Leadership Mindset Weekly.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
The company is almost 40 years old. Resilience is probably the best descriptor of why this is so…particularly if you define the word as “grit.” We’ve needed to re-invent ourselves a number of times over the years with some of the “re-inventions” being less successful that what we hoped for. Revenue misses resulting in delayed payroll and finding ways to keep our employee group (particularly overseas) engaged was a challenge. Making hard choices in service of our value core that, on the surface, were at odds with the company’s needs.
The most recent re-invention occurred during the Pandemic. In March, 2020 over 95% of our revenue base disappeared seemingly overnight. In person consulting and coaching was not coming back for what turned out to be at least 18 months. We had literally no online presence, no digital programs or products, and no “mailing lists” we could market to (not that we had anything to sell!).
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Emotional employee engagement is the Holy Grail of every entrepreneur and business leader. This is accomplished not through any motivational process but through the process (and it is a process) of inspiration. People emotionally engage to that which is meaningful to them. All behavior is organized around meaning. Leaders and managers that learn how to bring meaning to what they are asking of their people will always excel. This is rooted in my definition of the purpose of business which is to provide the opportunity to thrive to any and all who come into contact with my service or product.
Contact Info:
- Website: blainebartlett.com and avatar-resources.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blainebartlett
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialBlaineBartlett
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blainebartlett
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/blainebartlett
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/blainebartlett1