John Hersey Leadership Blog

Each week, we will be highlighting (or “spotlighting”) someone we think demonstrates the actions, thoughts and mindset of a Contagious Leader.  This week’s spotlight is on Frank Shankwitz.

 Frank Shankwitz is a Prescott, Arizona resident and a 37 year veteran of the Arizona Highway Patrol. He’s a cop, always has been, probably always will be. He has seen bad things happen everyday for 37 years and you would think his outlook on life might be colored by that.

Not Frank Shankwitz!

This big man has an even bigger heart. That’s how he was able to make the world a better place for 230,000+ kids with life-threatening diseases since 1980.

Frank is a contagious leader. He saw a need, knew he could make wishes come true for kids if he found the right people to pull it together. And he did with a ‘can do’ attitude, a clear vision and uncompromising focus.

Read more about Frank here and also here.

If you would like to nominate someone, feel free to send us an email by clicking here, and we would love to consider them!  Please tell us a bit about them and what makes them Contagious in their leadership.

Each week, we will be highlighting (or “spotlighting”) someone we think demonstrates the actions, thoughts and mindset of a Contagious Leader.

Noah Plumb is an inspiring GoDaddy.com employee. When Eric Keosky-Smith arranged for the Fountain Hills Leaders Institute to meet with Warren Edelmann, COO of GoDaddy.com and to tour the facilities last year, we had no idea that we would still be thinking about Noah. Noah gave us the tour.

It occurred to us that we rarely hear an employee so enthusiastically rave about their company, passionately engaged with the success of GoDaddy.com as he constantly offers up suggestions to grab more market share, expand products and boost morale even more. And GoDaddy.com has had something to do with this relationship as they warmly embrace and encourage even more suggestions from Noah. Noah proclaims that he is a lifer at GoDaddy.com, he drank the cool-aid!

Noah is a Contagious Leader!  Congratulations, Noah!

If you would like to nominate someone, feel free to send us an email by clicking here, and we would love to consider them!  Please tell us a bit about them and what makes them Contagious in their leadership.

Yes, it is no longer enough to see someone’s resume to know if he or she is the best person for that meeting planner or assistant’s job.

Long gone are the days when people were rotated through a position to find a match, or when a competitor’s star player signed on for the big bucks only to fail miserably in meeting very high expectations.

A bad hire today implies such high costs, that the future of a company may very easily be in the hands of the person in charge of hiring the best candidate for the job.  

Today, you have to look beyond the resume when hiring a leader, because normally that piece of paper is more filled with air than a hot air balloon. 

Presently, you have to hire leaders by measuring their cultural compatibility.  Instead of regarding only a certain set of skills, first you have to consider the person’s behavior and attitude towards the meeting planner’s environment.

In fact, there are 4 criteria that are crucial when hiring or promoting someone to a meeting planner or assistant’s job:

Attitude

It is not easy, but is a must, to identify a “can do” leadership attitude.  This requires observation, open-ended scenario questions, and self-confidence demonstrations.

Behavior

This one also requires lots of observation and assessment, because it impacts everyone within the company. 

You have to decide if you need an aggressive, results-oriented, fast-paced leader, or a stable, dependable, and caring one; this based on what the meeting planner or assistant’s job requires, not on your personal preference.

Competencies and cultural compatibility

Every job needs a given set of competencies.  Define the competencies and behavioral attributes that best fit the position and see which candidates have them. 

 The candidate who best fits the competencies needed is the most compatible with your company.

 Skills

You should hire a skilled meeting planner or assistant, but do not make his or her skills the decisive factor. 

Most candidates will be able to learn most skills; however, not everyone is capable of changing or learning a new leadership attitude, behavior, or competency.

A leader should develop a system that measures a combination of these 4 criteria to find the right candidate. 

This process is so vital that many companies hire a renowned leadership speaker and consultant to guide them through it as well as to help them design the right behavior, values and competency assessments, to conduct email and face-to-face interviews, and to thoroughly analyze resumes when hiring and promoting individuals, all of this in order to lower the chances of making a bad hire.

One of the easiest ways to promote a contagious leadership culture in your company is to be constantly aware of the obstacles that hinder it. 

Intelligent leaders work on eradicating the conducts and actions that discourage the behaviors of contagious leaders in order to make the good arise by itself.

Here are 4 wise and simple strategies to stop energizing the contained and to start turning your company’s ways into contagious leadership ones:

Stop praising erroneous behaviors. 

True contagious leaders are congruent; constantly, in every decision they make. 

Let’s say a director whose style emulates that of a tyrant, who cares only about the bottom line, who is three-times divorced because work is his religion and expects it to be everyone else’s, gets promoted to vice-president.  What do you think is being praised here?        

Make it right to be a contagious leader.

In order to develop contagious leaders you have to commit to doing it.  

Just decide that contagious leadership is the right way to go, decide that it is ok to be a leader instead of just a manager, and embody that decision every single day and in every single thing you do. 

Before you know it, your behavior will become… contagious. 

Get personally involved in the process. 

Developing a contagious leadership culture project cannot be delegated; you have to be deeply involved in the process if success is your goal, even though this may not be your only role. 

In order for such an initiative to work, you must be a contagious leader yourself, you have to honor and reward contagious leadership behaviors and examples, and you should teach others to become such powerful leaders.

This is basic, because the contagious leadership approach implies a big cultural change for the majority of companies, and it doesn’t work hands-off, as management does.

Select a CLO- Contagious Leadership Officer

Give a hand-picked someone¾as advised by in the lines of a leadership speaker and advisor¾ a meaningful title, a big office, a lot of money, and unlimited authority to put into action, measure, and honor success all the way through your organization.

Contagious Leaders know that they have to help their teams find passion, energy and excitement for the vision. People get excited by people who are excited. So, find ways to get excited and you’ll see the excitement around you change. It really is that simple.

Be Well & Be Contagious,

John

So many of us long for the “good old days” when the good guys finished first. It seems as though those days have been replaced by all the “bad boys” winning the big games and gaining all the notoriety and huge pay days. Well, we have news for you; the good old days may still be with us.

We recently traveled to Baltimore to visit relatives and participate in a fund raiser for the Baer School, which Bev’s sister Debbie Kastendike, her uisband Graham and their sons Eric and Christopher and his wife Ashley are deeply involved with.  The plan was to have an affair at the Legends of Sport Heroes right near Camden Yards where to Baltimore Orioles still play. A special treat would be an appearance by Joe Flacco, Quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens. With all the controversy about and around “star athletes” these days I wasn’t so sure that the QB’s appearance was anything worth getting all excited over. Boy, was I wrong!

Joe Flacco impressed each of the 200 people there, including the biggest doubting Thomas of all, me.

Joe Flacco and the Kids of The Baer School

Joe and more Kids

Eric Kastendike, Joe Flacco and Christopher Kastendike

Joe Flacco and Ashley kastendike

Joe and another Baer School Charmer

To watch him was to learn about him. He began quietly, appearing a bit shy at first. Then as we entered the room where the kids were he began to be more lively. For the last picture above he actually asked if the little girl would like to have a picture taken. He didn’t presume she wanted the shot, nor did he walk away relieved that he avoided yet another inconvenience. No, he asked if she would like a picture.

Most of these kids had no idea who Joe Flacco is, nor did they care. They only knew that he enjoyed being with them, paying attention to them, talking with them, smiling with them. They loved him for that and so did the delighted people that came to help the Baer School.

That night, we all saw a side of Joe Flacco, and perhaps other “star athletes” that made us revisit our attitudes toward all athletes. Perhaps they are not all thugs and bad boys. Perhaps a few, like Joe Flacco, are really good guys that just dress up like athletes and happen to get paid a lot of money for doing so. This doesn’t make them bad. In fact, it just helped prove a really important point for all of us. Despite what the world may look like from time to time, good guys really do finish first.

Be Well & Be Contagious!

John

Spend your day looking to peoples greatness instead of trying to find fault and see the results:
* More fun
* More Productivity
* More Trust
* More Confidence
* More Results

Most people have a long list of IRRITATIONS that continue to bother them, over and over again. They learn to accept them as part of life. The IRRITATIONS may come from relationships, violations of boundaries, the work environment or annoying things that for some reason people allow to remain in their lives. Sometimes, IRRITATIONS are a result of our own behavior. We allow these IRRITATIONS to become sources of stress and frustration. When our lives are full of IRRITATIONS, it is impossible to break away and take the journey towards mastery in our lives. You cannot ride a horse with burrs under the saddle, at least not for very long. Similarly, you cannot have a smooth ride in life while accepting the IRRITATIONS you currently allow.

The first step in conquering your life IRRITATIONS is to identify them. The next step will be to develop strategies to rid your life of all IRRITATIONS. What I want for you is to have an IRRITATION FREE LIFE. Is it possible? Absolutely!

Instructions:

Make a list of the IRRITATIONS in your life.

1. ___________________________
2. ___________________________
3. ___________________________
4. ___________________________
5. ___________________________
6. ___________________________
7. ___________________________
8. ___________________________
9. ___________________________
10. ___________________________
11. ___________________________
12. ___________________________
13. ___________________________
14. ___________________________
15. ___________________________

Describe your top 3 IRRITATIONS in detail.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Decide today to do something about your top 3. You can either accept them, change them or rid yourself of them. Whichever way you choose, it is up to you.

Be Well & Be Contagious,

John

Passion Counts, it sells, it inspires and people respond to passion. So, if you are not naturally passionate how does an aspiring leader get passionate. The 3 E’s of a Passionate Leader are:

• emotion,
• energy, and
• enjoyment.

Practice them and watch your passion rise.