2017 "Leading Authentically" Campaign

Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program Mission

“Promote cultural change in the workforce and to emphasize the vital importance of leadership concepts in the wildland fire service by providing educational and leadership development opportunities.”

LEADING AUTHENTICALLY

The Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program recognizes learning, cutting-edge concepts, and tools as a fundamental process in becoming and remaining leaders. Leaders are focused on continual improvement; they seek out and assimilate best practices that improve themselves and their organizations.

Task: This is an opportunity for personnel at the local level—whether collectively or through self-development—to focus and create leadership development activities relating to the national campaign theme. Some guiding questions to think about when creating leadership development activities for your unit, crew, forest, etc. are:

• What does leading authentically mean?
• Why is leading authentically important?
• What are some ways to develop quality authentic leadership in the self and others?

Purpose:

• To promote leadership development across the wildland fire community disciplines.
• To provide an opportunity and resources that can be used for leadership development at the local unit level.
• To collect innovative leadership development efforts and share those efforts across the community.

End State: A culture that creates and shares innovative leadership development efforts in order to maintain superior leadership in the fire community.

Dates of Campaign: Any time between January 1, 2017, and November 30, 2017.

Length of Campaign: Determined locally to meet the goals and the objectives of the local unit or team.

Audience: All wildland fire personnel—line-going and support.

Implementation: The campaign is flexible. Local units or teams may use or adapt any or all materials contained within this document or develop a program or activity spotlighting the campaign theme. Campaign coordinators are encouraged to think outside the confines of the documents, videos, podcasts, and exercises available for discussion, reading and learning that are highlighted in each section by “Practice – Leadership is Learning” and develop a program that meets local and individual needs. Innovation should fuel your campaign delivery: workshops or tailgate sessions, to kick off staff meetings, as a team activity or self-directed, etc.

Note: The reference guide includes more than enough material to run a campaign. Ample resources are provided to allow for customized programs and varied audiences.

Measuring Success:

• Local: Local unit leaders and managers will determine what “success” looks like and how participation will be recognized by those involved.
• National: A committee formed by the NWCG Leadership Subcommittee will recognize one unit’s outstanding contribution to the campaign through the From the Field for the Field Contest. (See pages 12-13 of the document.)

Recognizing Local Unit Participation:

A sample certificate is available at the end of this document to acknowledge students of fire participating in the leadership campaign at the local level.