Wyoming’s Paul Hohn Wins BLM National Wildland Fire Safety Award

Paul Hohn, Assistant State Fire Management Officer for BLM Wyoming, received the National Wildland Safety Award for 2014. This award is presented each year for outstanding leadership and service in wildland fire safety. The award was personally presented to Paul by BLM Deputy Director of Operations Steve Ellis, and awarded by Acting Assistant Director for Fire and Aviation Ron Dunton.

Paul Hohn accepts the BLM National Wildland Fire Safety Award from BLM Deputy Director of Operations Steve Ellis.

"I am truly humbled to have even been considered, let alone to be selected as the recipient," said Paul. Paul's work to develop an Emergency Medical Services program for the state has resulted in BLM Wyoming becoming a Fire Protection Service with fully qualified EMTs. "The focus of the BLM Wyoming EMS program is to provide quality, standardized emergency medical care. Despite several challenges, Paul has demonstrated his passion for firefighter safety and resilience to administrative setbacks," said Kyle Cowan, BLM Wyoming State Fire Management Officer.

Paul works on the Montgomery Pasture prescribed fire.

Working with a local medical director, Hohn was able to develop a program to train BLM employees as EMT basics through the Laramie County Community College. The training was distance-based, so employees could still conduct their daily duties and take the EMT course. Eight BLM Wyoming fire employees from across the state have completed the course.

Paul, and former coworker Ty VanKueren, on a remote fire west of Montrose, CO.

Dunton, a strong proponent of safety throughout every aspect of the BLM's national fire and aviation program, praised Paul's work and accomplishments. "I can't stress enough how important it is to foster and maintain a culture of safety in this business," Dunton said. "On behalf of the management and employees of the BLM national program, we are proud of Paul's work and proud to have him as a leader in the BLM."

Story by Carmen Thomason, Fire Mitigation and Education Specialist.

*************************
Reprinted from BLM Daily, February 12, 2015. Paul Hohn is also the BLM Representative on the NWCG Leadership Subcommittee.

Food for Thought - It's What You See That Matters

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see. – Henry David Thoreau

IGNITE the Spark for Leadership and SHARE throughout your networks. ‪#‎fireleadership‬ ‪#‎fireminis‬

2015 Professional Reading Program Challenge

The WFDLP is issuing a reading challenge for 2015! The book chosen for this year is “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption” by Laura Hillenbrand. The book is focused on the story of Louis Zamperini during World War Two, but also looks at his life before and after the war, and the tragedies, challenges and triumphs that he experienced.

The intent of the challenge is to promote the reading and discussion of the book throughout the spring and summer. Discussions are encouraged on the WFLDP Facebook page, the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center Fireline Leadership Reading Room, and ready rooms, engine bays, and fire caches across the land.

 As a value-added feature, readers are encouraged to venture into the Leadership in Cinema realm and watch and discuss the film version currently in theaters and estimated to be released on Digital/DVD/Blu-ray later in 2015.

There are several themes in the book that carry over into our realm of leadership and wildland fire. Two in particular spring to mind: Resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity; and being a leader, even when you have nothing to lead but yourself. This theme, of leading oneself, ties in to the WFLDP’s 2015 campaign of “Followership is Leadership.” Even when we’re not in command or even in control, we can still lead ourselves. To quote William Ernest Henley, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”

 Happy reading!

Permission to Act

(Photo credit: Jupiter Images)

I am 100% on board with the concept of SOP’s and SOG’s, so please don’t misinterpret this message. I also believe that in the absence of rules, people make their own. In a structured and dangerous profession like ours it’s important to have rules, regulations, policies and procedures. It's equally important that we train on our procedures and create muscle memory so that we can improve our chances of success and reduce the amount of unnecessary decisions that will need to be made on the fireground. That said, I find it a bit concerning that some organizations have chosen to replace high-quality training with words on paper.

Food for Thought - Leadership is About Responsibility

Leadership – it’s not about rights, it’s about responsibility. – Denis G. McLaughlin

IGNITE the Spark for Leadership and SHARE throughout your networks. #fireleadership #fireminis

The Four Levels of Leadership

Followership is Leadership: Are you up for the challenge?

The Four Levels of Leadership

“A leader is not necessarily someone who holds a formal position of leadership or who is perceived as a leader by others. Rather, a leader is one who is able to affect positive change for the betterment of others, the community, and society. All people, in other words, are potential leaders. Moreover, the process of leadership cannot be described simply in terms of the behavior of an individual; rather leadership involves collaborative relationships that lead to collective action grounded in the shared values of people who work together to affect positive change.” – Higher Education Research Institute

Regardless of their place in the organization, every wildland fire professional reports to or follows someone or something (board, committee, etc.). Therefore, every wildland fire profession is a leader. Each assumes one of four leadership roles within the wildland fire service:

• Follower
• Leader of People
• Leader of Leaders
• Leader of Organizations

Wildland Fire Leadership Challenge

• Read about the “Levels of Leadership” on page 33 of Leading in the Wildland Fire Service.

“Followership” – The Flipside of Leadership?

The Follower Stigma

I’m intrigued by the statement “Followership is leadership” because I think that there is a stigma associated with the term “follower.”

“Followership” is sometimes defined as a negative and demeaning word like passive, weak, and conforming. I think our culture has in a sense devalued followers. “Always a leader, never a follower!” has gone a long way toward adding to the stigma of being a follower.

For some reason or another it is accepted that there is no leadership without followers, yet followers are very often left out of the leadership equation.

Do we really understand the role of the follower and the importance this role plays in the success or failure of a team or organization? We will better understand the significance of the follower role when there is more emphasis put on this topic when teaching leadership. Maybe we should be teaching more emphasis on the art of followership rather than leadership in our L-180 and L-280 courses. I know L-380 has some discussion about followership. But is that enough?

I think followership is rarely discussed when organizations seek to better themselves. Instead we turn the focus to developing leadership skills. Much attention is paid to what makes a leader successful because the thinking is that as the leader succeeds so does the organization. However, this view ignores the fact that leaders need followers to accomplish their goals.

The followers make or break the leader! The leader can set high standards, and provide motivation, energy, drive, and direction. However, it is the followers that carry out that intent. Without a strong commitment from the follower there is no leader success.

Being Courageous

The statement of “leading when it’s easy” is true. Everyone can lead when things are going well. True leadership comes when things are not going so well. To me this is when the followers need to step up. Most of the time in these situations the mind and body follows the path of least resistance. So we accept the easy wrong versus the hard right.

As I think of all the tragedy we have had in the fire culture, I truly believe followership could have saved some lives. One of the most important characteristics of an effective follower may be the willingness to tell the truth. As the quantity of available information has increased exponentially, it has become imperative that followers provide truthful information to their leaders.

Good followers speak up even to the point of disagreeing with their leaders. The truth is that the follower who is encouraged to and is willing to speak out shows what kind of leadership we the fire culture should be instituting. Not only is it important for our organization to know what followers think, but leaders need to respect followers who will speak up and share their points of view rather than withhold information.

It’s interesting as I work to bring together agency line officers and incident management teams that both are looking for followership as part of leadership. The line officer is looking to lean on the IMT for their experience and the incident commander looking for the line officer to provide intent. Who is leading and who is following? Both need to be courageous. Without the eyes, ears, minds, and hearts of followers, neither will function effectively. Both can be followers and leaders at the same time.

The follower-leader relationship does not operate in a vacuum. Leaders sometimes function as followers, and followers sometimes function as leaders. As leaders move back and forth between the two roles, this makes it even more imperative that the teaching and learning of followership continue. Followers and leaders are linked together in interrelated roles and are dependent on each other.

Good Followership

How does one become a good follower?

Followership is no less important than leadership. In fact, followership enables good leadership. Moreover, it is likely that all of us will be followers more often than we will be leaders.

The follower makes or breaks the leader! Active followership means the leader’s authority has been accepted which gives legitimacy to the direction and vision of the leader. Good followers should be able to reflect, adapt and take responsibility for their own actions. Once the follower has understood a decision and had their questions answered satisfactorily, they should back the decision of the leader.

Many leaders have realized that developing their follower skills is critical for creating high performance organizations. Motivation is generated internally, and a leader merely taps into the internal power of the follower.

“Being the last shovel on the crew” – it just doesn’t get more important than that. Think of the impact to those who are leading the charge if in fact the fire jumps the line behind that last person. In fact that position is more critical than any other on the crew at that critical time and place. More burden and weight is placed upon that person than any other.

Values and Trust

I have been amazed over the past couple of years by the amount of time in discussion on “values.”

Values are important in determining follower preferences for different types of leaders. Follower’s values, in addition to other personal characteristics, can influence both their own effectiveness and the climate in which they work.

When a leader communicates trust and respect for the values of the followers, the motivation of the followers takes over and drives them to succeed. A key to motivating followers is the concept of having them realize how important their function is in a broad sense.

Summary

While organizations continue to devote time and money to the development of leadership, followership is what enables that leadership the opportunity to succeed. We need to be spending more time and effort on the real impact of followership on leadership.

As a follower I most often use the advice from a bison: stand your ground, have a tough hide, keep moving on, have a strong spirit, then let the chips fall where they may!

***********************************

(Photo credit: Rowdy Muir)

About the Author: Rowdy Muir is the U.S. Forest Service Flaming Gorge District Ranger, L-380 Lead Instructor, and former Type 1 Incident Commander.

We thank Rowdy for his regular blog contributions and taking the challenge to share his thoughts on followership with us. All expressions are those of the author.

 Take the challenge today!

Food for Thought - Leave a Trail

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. – Ralph Waldo Emerson.

IGNITE the Spark for Leadership and SHARE throughout your networks. #fireleadership #fireminis

A Framework of Leadership

A Framework for Leadership
The wildland fire service's framework is built upon the following foundational concepts:

• The Authority to Lead versus the Decision to Lead
• The authority to lead is established by law. 
• The ability to lead is something that cannot be legislated.
• A leader's journey is a perpetual cycle of acquiring, shaping, and honing the knowledge and skills of leadership. 
• Leaders choose to sacrifice their own needs for those of their teams and organizations.
•  Art of Leadership
• Committed leaders can inspire others and make an enormous difference in people's lives, on the results of the team, and in the progress of the organization.
• The art of leadership requires a constant interchange of theory and application.
• The art includes being able to view the larger picture.
• The art of leadership requires successfully balancing many factors in the real world, based on the situation at hand, to achieve a successful outcome.
• Wildland Fire - A High-Risk Environment
• We are asked to make tough decisions under a compressed time frame, given limited information, in a complex and high-risk environment.
• Fire leaders must have the ability to integrate varied resources into effective and responsive temporary teams.
• Leadership Environment
• The leadership environment is made up of four elements: 
• The leader
• His/her people
• The situation
• The consequences (short- and long-term effects of the leader's actions)
• Command Philosophy
• Command Based on Intent
• Describing the task, purpose, and end state is the prerequisite for empowering out people to exercise individual initiative an take appropriate risks and actions as the situation requires.
• Unity of Effort
• Leaders must employee multiple leadership skills to influence decisions, forge effective relationships, facilitate cooperative efforts, and ensure that objectives are achieved.
• Command Climate
• Command Presence
• Character is the foundation of command presence.
• Effective leaders project an image that is calm, organized, and focused on success.
• Fire leaders take charge when in charge; we lead from the front and act decisively.
• Communication
• Communication is the primary tool for establishing an effective command climate.
• Communication is the foundation upon which we build trust and enable our teams to develop cohesion.
• Communication enables us to convey objectives and intent, break error chains, and improve situation awareness.

********************************************************

Be sure to download a FREE copy of Leading in the Wildland Fire Service.

Food for Thought: Driven

IGNITE the Spark for Leadership and SHARE throughout your networks. ‪#‎fireleadership‬ ‪#‎fireminis‬