Ready to Launch!

After nearly a year of work and consultation with the field, the NWCG Leadership Subcommittee (LSC) is prepared to launch a nationwide wildland fire leadership campaign. The 2013 campaign, Leading with Courage, runs between January 1 and November 30 with members of the wildland fire community working together to focus on a central leadership theme and begin the process of sharing leadership success stories and resources.

The success of the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program continues to be support from the field. Therefore, all those familiar with the IGNITE the Spark for Leadership initiative are asked to be the hands and feet of the effort and spread the news of this effort like wildfire. What do you say readers? Can we do this? Can we create a movement that makes a difference in the program and the development of our fire leaders? Can you take what those who came before you created to the next level and beyond? What will your legacy be?

Campaign Intent

Task: Provide an opportunity for wildland fire service personnel to focus leadership development activities on a nationally-sponsored, centrally-themed leadership campaign and recognize local leadership participation efforts.

Purpose:

• To foster a cohesive effort to promote leadership across the wildland fire service.
• To provide a template that can be used to encourage leadership development at the local level.
• To provide a mechanism to collect leadership best practices and share throughout the wildland fire service.

End State: Creation of a wildland fire service culture that willingly shares leadership best practices in order to maintain superior service-wide leadership.

2013 Wildland Fire Leadership Campaign - Leading with Courage Reference Guide

The campaign is flexible. Local units and crews may use or adapt any or all materials contained within the Leading with Courage Reference Guide  or develop a program or activity spotlighting the campaign theme and the Wildland Fire Leadership Values and Principles. Campaign coordinators are encouraged to think outside the confines of the template and develop a program that meets local and individual needs.

IGNITE the Spark for Leadership Contest – From the Field for the Field

Throughout the nation, wildland fire leaders are building teams and developing their people using tools they have found or developed themselves. Imagine if our leaders and their subordinates shared their experiences and successes with each other. Consider the possibility of going to the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program website and having a ready-made palette of leadership development tools—items from the field for the field—from which to choose.

Using the spirit of healthy competition among wildland fire crews and personnel, the “IGNITE the Spark for Leadership Contest” is intended to be one of the mechanisms used to collect leadership best practices to be shared throughout the wildland fire service.