Dr. Ken Blanchard discusses integrating psychological and spiritual growth with Robert J. Strock. Blanchard, co-founder of the Ken Blanchard Companies, explains why he prefers clients willing to do both soul and ego work rather than staying at either extreme.
Doctor Ken Blanchard Interplay of the human and higher self Dr. Ken Blanchard is co founder and Chief Spiritual Officer of the Ken Blanchard Companies, an international management training and consulting firm. Including Ken's phenomenal best selling book the One Minute Manager, his 42 books have combined sales exceeding 18 million copies worldwide. A prominent sought after speaker, author and business consultant, Dr. Blanchard is insightful, compassionate and one of the most influential leadership experts in the world today. In Ken's words, he and Robert became like soulmates when they first met due to their mutually inclusive approach to different spiritual orientations. Ken particularly related to Robert's selection criteria of clients who have core integrity and humanitarian values and and loved his unique integration of psychology and spirituality. Ken admires Roberts work and the creative elucidation of soul and ego. While Roberts and Ken's professional and personal paths have been different, they indeed unite in the deep desire to inspire individuals to continually grow and develop compassionate values in pursuit of a better world.
One of the things that attracted me to you right away is that we both are very interested in our own spiritual journeys. But what I loved about talking with you is that you had no desire or need to want to be right about your journey or to make mine wrong. And I've always felt that same way too. And we kind of really resonated over that. And one of the things that fascinated me is a number of years ago you said where it was feasible you were going to try to limit your sessions with people to people who were not only looking at their human side but were also interested in exploring their spiritual side. What was the motivation behind that?
Well, first I really appreciate just even the acknowledgement of not needing to be right. And also I guess for me, being with someone who is so dedicated to your path and it's been a joy to share that with you and have you not want to be right either. And I think it's so rare in the spiritual world that that isn't an underground dimension. So I don't take that lightly. Regarding your question, I really arrived at a point in my life where it was just so painful to have anyone's inner journey that I'm working with be on either extre. So if a client came to me and they really wanted to just talk about their feelings and what they wanted and be just adjusted more to the world, there was something that just felt inherently empty about that. And if on the other hand, there was an individual who, let's say, had strong spiritual beliefs, but they were very unaware of the fact that they weren't very pleasant to be with. And they might have had, let's say, an irritable disposition that they had no interest in noticing that that also felt difficult to be with him in the room. And I felt either extreme left the possibility for integration and healing to be so limited that it left me with a feeling that they'd be perhaps better served with individuals that either were more oriented towards counseling or more oriented towards spiritual. A certain kind of spiritual path. And the interplay between the two has just always been a joy. There's been this experience that when I'm with somebody who's more immersed in the psychological world, just naturally I want to ask them a question like, well, what's really the most inspirational for you? What's the most fulfilling? What allows you to feel compassionate? And if there's someone that's somewhat more on the pious end or more on the end of being just religious or spiritual, and they, let's say, have not any sense of where they are practically personally or a limited sense, I always want to say, well, gee, what are your greatest challenges in life? And just find that going to complete the opposite side is of great joy and fulfillment.
