Today we’d like to introduce you to Carl Blanz.
Hi Carl, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in a traumatic environment, dropping out of school in the 9th grade. I was lucky enough to be pushed by my mom to try cooking school so, I lied about my age and enrolled in cooking school when I was 17. I got an early start in kitchens and discovered I was really good at creating systems, by age 23, I was the executive chef of the Tampa Club in Tampa Florida. Due to my upbringing however, I was not good with people, using intimidation when under stress. I started to see that because of the way I treated people, I was becoming more isolated. At age 24 I decided to change that and set out to get good at leading people. I’m 60 now and have been on the same path ever since.
I had a 35-year career in Hospitality; private clubs, restaurants, and then hotels. In the hotel business, I moved up and out of the kitchen into corporate positions, opening new hotels and leading task force teams to take over “distressed” properties. I had many leadership positions in all disciplines except accounting. Eventually, I became a director of sales and marketing. That promotion just so happened to coincide with an economic upturn that, combined with my improved leadership skills turned out to be a great success. After some time, I’d been recognized and promoted to a General Manager’s position. In that position, I hired a Cultural Anthropologist/Consultant and his partner to help create a vision based on serving and I was the head servant! The consultant and his partner, (William Stockton and Marjorie Herdes) taught me a process for sharing leadership they developed called the Mobius Model (which I’ve been a disciple of ever since). In that work, I learned about this new concept of shared leadership which starts by creating a shared vision. The eventual shared vision the team created was; We serve each other first and then our guests. It turned out to be highly effective and living into that vision was the most fun I’d ever had in my career. Our guests were what we called “Loyal beyond reason” By all measurements our success was off the charts; revenue growth, profit, employee engagement, and customer satisfaction – all consistently at the top or close to the top in the entire company. After being part of this extraordinary experiment in leadership, I decided that what brought meaning to me was sharing this tool with other leaders. I quit my hotel career, and took the Mobius Model out into the world as a consultant.
It took me 3 years to deplete my savings and think about going back to the hotel business. Turns out I was not very good at selling myself. After telling Will this, he asked me to give it some time and not decide until he got back to me. After a couple days, he called me back and asked me to meet someone he knew; Patrick O’Brien. Patrick was a Mobius practitioner too and had a consulting practice doing exactly what I wanted to do – coach and facilitate. During most of my 50’s I was Patrick’s partner and apprentice. in 2021, I bought the business from him. He is still engaged in a founder type role and, I have another partner in the work; Michelle Nordhougen.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As a response to my childhood experiences, I created some ineffective habits around relationships; isolation, defensiveness, anger… These have been my biggest challenges.
I’m also sure that I am the only obstacle to my own happiness.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Growing Edge’s purpose is to guide leaders and teams toward sharing power, claiming purpose, and creating belonging.
Our vision is that all leaders and teams have the courage and confidence to pursue their own growing edge.
We are of the belief that businesses need to be fluent in two languages, one is the language of business, this is about being able to set, adjust and meet goals and performance metrics and, it’s the easier of the two to learn. We speak this language pretty fluently, particularly in the hospitality industry.
The second is the language of relationships. this is by far the harder language to learn. Most of us have been rewarded for our individual achievements and ability to solve problems and, like me (maybe to a lesser extent) most people learned some destructive habits in terms of interacting with each other when we don’t get our way. Relationships – is the messier, less perfect, and ever-changing language that we focus on. Nowadays, people are less apt to work for leaders and managers who don’t consistently show care and concern for their individual and collective well-being.
We work with all types of businesses, but… we come from, and all have in our hearts, a special place for the hospitality business.
What do you think about luck?
I have been so fortunate to find mentors along the way. looking back, it seems as though people appeared in my life at exactly the right time!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.growing-edge.com
Image Credits
Libby Anderson
