John Hersey Leadership Blog

Frank Shankwitz, Founder, The Make-A-Wish Foundation with John Hersey & Beverly Belury

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.

In 1980 Frank was contacted by a fellow-officer about a 7 year-old boy named Chris who was dying from leukemia and only had a few days to live.  Frank learned that Chris’ hero’s were Ponch and Jon from the television show, “CHIP’s”, and that Chris had a wish; he wanted to be a Highway Patrol motorcycle officer when he grew up.

Frank was one of the primary officers from the Arizona Highway Patrol responsible for granting Chris’ wish, which actually went way beyond the little boys expectations. Chris, is the first and only Honorary Arizona Highway Patrol Officer in Arizona. Frank attended Chris’ funeral in Illinois and on the way home thought about how he and a few others had made this little boys last few days very happy. He wondered why it couldn’t be done for others. Within six months The Make-A-Wish Foundations was operational and was in the process of granting it’s first official wish.

Nearly 30 years later The Make-A-Wish Foundation has 65 U.S. Chapters, 31 in other countries. Over 3500 wishes have been granted in Arizona alone since then while over 230,000 have been granted worldwide, one every 40 minutes.

We have said many times before that great leaders, what we call Contagious Leaders, come from a place of contribution. We can’t think of a better example than Frank. So, if you still believe that one person cannot make a difference, let us suggest that our new friend Frank would disagree.

Leaders are just as inclined to be resistant in certain areas and issues as anyone else. The difference is Contagious Leaders work through their resistance.

We can work through our resistance by:

1. acknowledging the resistance in the first place
2. calling it what it is, resistance to something we should be doing or working on
3. stop avoiding it and work in the resistance, nothing else, just the resistance we are experiencing
4. share our resistance with others
5. journal about it, meditate on it or otherwise do whatever we have to do to begin calling it out
6. change the story we have about that which we are resistant to. How do we do that? Simple, create a new one with a happier ending.

The “Why We Can’t ” Conversation is all around us. We must create a supportive environment to exercise the “How We Will” muscle.

“Why We Can’t” is an attitude that exists in every profession, every organization. Our job as Contagious Leaders is to make ourselves so fit that it does not get through to reduce the effectiveness of our organization. We must stay in the “How We Will” conversation all the time by surrounding ourselves with “How We Will” thinkers, doers, believers. Otherwise, our “How We Will” muscle atrophies, we become weak and we revert to the “Why We Can’t” conversation.

The good news is that with some time the “Why We Can’t” conversation just doesn’t stop by anymore. Defeated and deflated it just goes away leaving us and our teams to achieve greatness.

Be Well and Be Contagious,

John

We have an epidemic of people beginning a conversation with “why they cannot” do or accomplish whatever it is they are being asked to do or accomplish. Contagious Leaders focus conversations on “How We Will” not :Why They Can’t”.  “Why We Can’t” is a deadly attitude that kills creativity, innovation and contribution from the best employees while driving the weakest for cover behind the noble claims “proving it (the task) is impossible is my job and it’s for the good of the company”.

As Leaders our most important job is to stamp our WWC wherever we find it and not allow the WWC conversation. Here are some tips for stamping out the deadly “Why We Can’t” conversation:

• When someone begins a conversation with “Well, why we can’t is ….” we must stop that conversation in its tracks. Tell your team “we are not going down that road. Today, we are going to focus our attention on “HOW WE WILL”, not “Why We Can’t.”

• Watch your own conversations and your tendency to focus on “Why We Can’t”

• Acknowledge that a particular project may be a challenge while encouraging your team to focus its energy on “How We Will”.

• Practice Involved Recognition — acknowledge those on your team who focus on “How We Will”, particularly when they are surrounded with “Why We Can’t.

• We have to believe in our How We Will focus. We worked with one company that so believed in this approach that they rose from a ranking of 22 of 28 regions in their company to #2 in 12 months, just by shifting their conversation from WWC to “How We Will”.

• As for our leaders they must also root out the proponents of WWC and mentor them. If they wont let go of the WWC conversation we must help them find a new home, someplace more suitable for a WWC attitude.

Nothing stops an organizations forward movement faster or more solidly than a “Why We Can’t” attitude. Allowing the conversation to take place is the same as agreeing with it– agreeing with it will ruin your company, your organization — even your town.

Be Well & Be Contagious,

John

Sometimes even the best contagious leaders find themselves waiting for inspiration even though we know that the best tactic is to just get on with getting it done. Read what our friend and mentor Steve Chandler says about waiting for inspiration– go to http://tinyurl.com/yf2bzg5

Twitter is a required course for journalism majors at Griffin University, see http://tinyurl.com/yfkbzj4

How many organizations have failed for lack of leadership focus? Contagious Leaders pick a course and remain focused, even when it is a bit uncertain at first.

What used to work doesn’t. What does work is new to many of us and can be intimidating. What is a Contagious Leader to do?

Pass this Leadership Video on to your team members, friends and colleagues. And let us know what you think about our new video format by cpmpleting the reply box below.

Make it a great day!

Be Well & Be Contagious,

John

Nido in action

Nido Qubein has been a friend and business coach for John and me. He has a strong vision of leadership. Nido came to this country at 17 years old, with $50 bucks and unable to speak English. He is now a multi-millionaire. He is a sensitive and insightful leader who creates success in every project he takes on.

• You cannot give that which you do not possess.

• Relationships break down when there is a preoccupation with self.

• Winners compare their achievements with their goals, while losers compare their achievements with those of other people.

• The practical side of dreaming is being willing to pay the price to make those dreams come true.

• If you work only on days you feel like working, you’ll never amount to much.

• Are you a thermometer or a thermostat? A thermometer only reflects the temperature of its environment, adjusting to the situation. But a thermostat initiates action to change the temperature in its environment.

• Those with a strong self-image realize that the only way to keep from making mistakes is to do nothing — and that’s the biggest mistake of all.

• The process of growing and learning always involves risk. No one ever becomes perfect; but anyone can improve.

• Whether you are a success or failure in life has little to do with your circumstances; it has much more to do with your attitude.

• If you could view your life as you do a highway from an airliner, many of the detours and curves would make more sense.

• The practical dreamers know the harder they work, the luckier they get.

• No failure, misfortune, or mistake is ever so great that nothing good can come from it.

• Only when your memories are more important to you than your goals are
you old.

• Fixing the blame is never important, and fixing the relationship is never unimportant.

• You can’t think your way into acting positively; but you can act your way into thinking positively.

• People who are looking for something to make them happy, somehow never seem to find it. Yet those who find a way to be happy while they are looking for something, typically find what they are looking for.

• What matters is not so much how you got to be the way you are now, but what you do with the person you have become.

• A strong awareness that you are loved by God provides the most solid foundation for building high
self-esteem.

• Your best bet for a good job is to do the best you can with the one you have right now.

• Those who spend their lives searching for happiness never find it, while those who search for meaning, purpose, and strong personal relationships find that happiness usually comes to them as a by-product of those three things.

Dr. Nido R. Qubein is president of High Point University and
chairman of Great Harvest Bread Company.

We have had a tremendous response and some frustration to last weeks teleseminar,
HowTo Thrive in Tight Times . It is not surprising to us that most of
your questions, comments and concerns were around Action 1,
Focusing on the top 20% of your income and/or impact producing
activities.

We never said it would be easy. Nor did we say to not do those
“other activities” that were necessary to the running of your
business.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson said:

“As the gardener, by severe pruning, forces the sap of the tree
into one or two vigorous limbs, so should you stop off your
miscellaneous activity and concentrate your force on one or a few
points”

We all have necessary and important activities to perform in the
normal course of keeping our businesses going in the desired direction.
However, all too often we do these instead of the critical income and impact
producing activities.

We have heard people say, “I can’t possibly do that top 20%
thing. It is a great idea but won’t work for me. There is just too
much to do around here, and I am the one to do them.”

All true! However, doing many of these activities keeps us from
zeroing in on those that produce big results.

Think of it this way; if you had an emergency that required you
to leave your office and only spend 20% of your time working, what
would you focus on? Who would you delegate those “other important
activities” too? Which of these “important” activities would you
let go off?

We hope you find this deeper dive into the subject helpful. Let
us know by commenting below.