A forum where students of fire and leadership come together to discuss, debate and exchange leadership development concepts, experience, and thoughts with an intent to promote cultural change in the workforce and strengthen the wildland fire service and the communities they serve.
Fire leaders show respect by keeping people informed—describing leader’s intent for assignments, providing timely briefings and debriefing, identifying hazards, and answering questions at appropriate times. By keeping our people informed, we consciously create a command climate that fosters appropriate initiative by subordinates. – Leading in the Wildland Fire Service, page 50
Do you have what it takes to make a tough decision--a decision that could put your career on the line, yet save lives? Even if lives are not at stake, we all experience tough decisions throughout our lifetime. We never really know what we are capable of until we are placed between a "rock and a hard place."
Wildland Fire—A High-Risk Operational Environment
We are asked to make tough decisions under a compressed time frame, given limited information, in a complex and high-risk environment. This operational environment routinely brings together people, machinery, and the destructive energy of wildfire in the close, three-dimensional space of the fireground and its airspace.
Wildland fire operations have inherent risks that cannot be eliminated, even in the best of circumstances. Incident management and response is a competition between human beings and the forces of nature; leaders struggle to manage the effects caused by wildfire and other natural and man-made events. The environment can rapidly and unexpectedly change from normal to emergency conditions to complete chaos.
The environment requires a variety of missions across the operational spectrum, ranging from education and prevention to prescribed fire and fire use to full fire suppression. Increasingly, fire leaders find themselves responding to all-hazard incidents.
Although most danger is close to the fireground, many others besides firefighters have important mission roles. The operational environment is akin to that of an aircraft carrier: although only pilots and aircrew routinely fly into combat, everyone on the ship makes significant contributions to the successful mission—and all aboard have to be prepared to respond to any unfolding emergency.
In the wildland fire service, firefighters, dispatchers, managers, technicians, support services, medical staff, law enforcement, the military, and others are brought together in rapidly assembled temporary teams to accomplish a given mission. These teams have unique capabilities, limitations, qualifications, and experience.
Fire leaders must have the ability to integrate these varied resources into effective and responsive temporary teams.
Watch the History Channel's The Man Who Saved the World and PBS's Secrets of the Dead - The Man Who Saved the World about two incidents that could have changed the course of human history during the Cold War.
Discuss how critical thinking and courage can bring calm to chaos.
Share personal experiences or historical examples of similar situations.
Wildland Fire Leadership Challenge - Digging a Little Deeper
Work with your team to develop a lesson plan for either of the above videos or the movie motion picture The Man Who Saved the World and submit to the Leadership in Cinema steward for consideration in our library via email at BLM_FA_Leadership_Feedback@blm.gov.
Do you know what motivates and engages those you lead? Society has
changed from being motivated by biological drives and rewarding the good
and punishing the bad to more outwardly driven motivators.
One of the principles of a mission-driven culture is "service for the common good."By focusing outward instead of seeking internal rewards we can make a difference in the world around us.
Wildland Fire Leadership Challenge - Digging a Little Deeper
Read Daniel Pink's book "Drive."
Develop a discussion guide to use by small groups for "Drive."
Read and share our three-part blog series on motivation and "Drive."
Have you lost your situation awareness and experienced mission creep? Is your worst-case scenario playing out in front of you? Dan Pickard, Entiat Interagency Hotshot Crew, shares personal stories from the fireline. There is a fine line between success and failure in our business. How can you increase your margin, accept risk, and fulfill the mission? Most importantly, should you even be fighting the fire?
Operational tempo is the speed and intensity of our actions relative to the speed and intensity of unfolding events in the operational environment. Within this context, fire leaders plan, prepare, and execute operations proactively, rather than continuously being forced to react to the environment.
Successfully maintaining operational tempo is not solely about speeding up to match or exceed the pace of the environment. It is also about knowing when operations should slow down and why.
Fire leaders balance activities such as planning, preparation, and action. Too much time spent planning increases the potential for missing opportunities. Too little time spent planning increases the potential for error. A judicious assessment encompasses the capabilities and endurance of resources.
When employing people, leaders weigh expected gain against potential risks. Using too few resources keeps teams from building the momentum needed to gain the advantage. Using too many resources can lead to confusion. Tasking resources beyond their capabilities leaves the team exhausted and unable to respond to an unexpected change in the environment.
We are most vulnerable to accidents and errors when the operational tempo is changing, especially when it changes quickly. Maintaining good situation awareness in spite of change in operational tempo represents a considerable challenge.
The key to managing operational tempo successfully is monitoring the changing environment and capabilities of the team, and then applying good judgment to determine whether to push forward or pull back while making necessary planning and resource adjustments.
Have you ever thought about the size and impact of your handprint and your footprint?
I am not talking about the physical measurement of your hand or foot. Nor am I talking about your "personal impacts and the sum total of your better ecological practices"* (although that was actually the inspiration for this blog). I am talking about the positive or negative influences you have on those around you--both those you do and do not know.
Similar to Newton's Third Law of Motion where every action has an equal and opposite reaction, our actions may be felt directly or indirectly, be intended or unintended, and have a positive or negative effect. Awareness of how our actions impact others is a skill every leader should develop and develop well. This requires that we not only take a critical look at ourselves, but also seek and respect feedback from others.
In a previous post "Leaving Your Fingerprints Behind," I spoke of the decision to lead and the impact we have on those we lead. My inspiration for that post was General Mark Welsh's quote "The only 'fingerprints' that last are the ones you leave on your people." As a leader we have the opportunity to "touch" a lot of people. What do your "handprints" and "footprints" have to say about your leadership? Here are a few idioms/phrases or titles/lyrics that come to mind. (Some could be either positive or negative, however.)
The Positive Print
"Reach Out and Touch Someone"
Walk the talk.
"Show Me the Way" or "Walk This Way"
Lend a helping hand.
"He ain't heavy; he's my brother."
"Walk a mile their shoes."
Land on one’s feet.
"I'd like to build the world a home and furnish it with love..."
Having one’s finger on the pulse.
Reaching across the aisle.
Tear down the walls.
Hand it to someone.
Keep one’s feet on the ground.
"If You're Happy and You Know It"
Put one’s best foot forward.
All hands on deck.
Knowing something like the back of one’s hand.
The Negative Print
Pull the rug from under one’s feet.
Ruling with an iron fist.
"Under My Thumb"
Rule with a heavy hand.
"I'm gonna walk all over you."
Kick 'em when they're down.
The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
Put one’s foot in one’s mouth.
Dig in one’s heels."
Biting the hand that feeds you.
Force someone's hand.
Wash one’s hands of something.
What idioms or titles can you add?
The impacts of the prints you leave on those you lead can last a lifetime. Leading with authenticity and heart creates trust. Trust builds teams. Teams work together to change the world.
**************************************************** About the Author: Pam McDonald is a writer/editor for BLM Wildland Fire Training and Workforce Development and member of the NWCG Leadership Subcommittee. The expressions are those of the author. Inspiration for the blog came from Daniel Goleman's A Force for Good: The Dalai Lama's Vision for Our World.
*"Handprint" concept of Gregory Norris of Harvard School of Public Health.
In these short videos, The Smokey Generation asks Nick Glatt, Wolf Creek Interagency Hotshots, Dan Garcia, U.S. Forest Service FMO, and Dirk Charley, U.S. Forest Service Sierra/Sequoia Tribal Relations Program Manager, what makes the ideal hotshot. Check it out what they have to say.
Our position as leaders requires us to take people into unpredictable situations where mediocre leaders can be quickly overwhelmed in a crisis and make dangerous errors in judgment.
We accept the responsibility to demonstrate fitness for command as leaders in the wildland fire service. Fire leaders prepare for command by learning the applicable technical and leadership skills, by gaining the requisite experience, and by developing the physical, mental, and emotional capabilities through training, certification, and evaluation of behavior.
******************************************* What is your story? We challenge you to become a part of this amazing project and share your leadership stories. Bethany Hannah began The Smokey Generation: A Wildland Fire Oral History and Digital Storytelling Project for her master's thesis. All members of the wildland fire service, not just hotshots, can share their stories by following her example. Click here for potential leadership questions. Visit The Smokey Generation website for complete information.
Although some may judge that leading ethically compromises short-term gains, leading ethically allows us to accomplish more than our mission. – Leading in the Wildland Fire Service, page 64
