Challenge 17: 2021 WFLDP Campaign

Challenge #17: Good leaders are not afraid to have the difficult conversations.

• Learn more about having difficult conversations by listening to Simon Sinek’s interview with David Harris.

#firelineleadership #2021WFLDPCampaign

IGNITE: The Command Climate

 

Command climate is the culture of a team. It is the way a team “conducts business.” The leader of the team is solely responsible for the team’s command climate.

[Photo: Kari Greer/USFS]
#fireleadership

Developing Our People for the Future

Fire leaders are committed to building a high level of competence in team members. Their satisfaction depends on it as does the future of the organization. Some of today’s team members are the leaders of tomorrow; it is the leader’s responsibility to mentor and help them cultivate the right tools and skills that they will need to face the challenges of the future.

[Click here to download a copy of Leading in the Wildland Fire Service.]

L-380 and L-381 - A Word from our CMLs

L-380, Fireline Leadership

L-380 is targeted at leaders whose decisions have immediate consequences in dynamic, high-risk environments. The intent is to provide small unit supervisors with the tools to build and maintain effective and cohesive crews/teams. Beyond a set of tools and techniques, this training experience should be designed to make an emotional and lasting impact. Essential guiding principles for achieving this impact include: enhancing the students’ understanding of the human dimension when leading others in dynamic work environments; utilizing experiential training techniques that will engage students in ways that challenge them to perform under realistic and high-stress situations; and motivating students to examine their role, strengths, and weaknesses as a leader.

IGNITE: From Vision into Intent

Translating vision into clear leader’s intent is at the heart of our command philosophy. ♦ Leading in the Wildland Fire Service, p. 15 ♦

Photo: Kyle Miller, Wyoming IHC
#fireleadership

Situational Leadership

Leaders use a variety of power sources and leadership styles to influence others. Being able to select the most effective leadership tools in a given situation is an application of situational leadership. 

Challenge #16: 2021 WFLDP Campaign

Challenge #16: Leaders read, watch, and follow.

Add the following books to your reading list:

• Make your Bed, Admiral William H. McRaven
• Buddha’s Brain, Rick Hanson
• Tribe, Sebastian Junger
• Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman
• Dare to Lead, Brene Brown

Add the following Ted Talks videos to your watch list:

• Secrets of Resilient People, Lucy Hone

• The Gift and Power of Emotional Courage, Susan David

• How Reverse Mentorship Can Help Create Better Leaders, Patrice Gordon

• How Vulnerability Makes You a Better Leader, Tracy Young

IGNITE: Leadership is a Behavior

Leadership is not a title. It’s a behavior. Live it. – Robin Sharma

[Photo: Kyle Miller/Wyoming IHC]
#fireleadership

Letter to My Captain

("Mailbox" by mrjoro is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0)

Letter to My Captain

e. L. Pelletier

On the eve of a new fire season, excitement, anxiety and anticipation stirs in the soul of every wildland firefighter, young and old. Every year thousands of firefighters come together all over the United States to form the crews, engines and modules that are going to be battling one of the greatest forces in nature, wildfire!

Command and Control

We apply the principles of command and control to effectively reach the leader’s end state while making sure actions remain proactive and reducing risk. 

L-180 & L-280 - A Word from Our CMLs

L-180 and L-280 are the foundational courses of our leadership curriculum. They are both currently being updated to a new format, and to include more information on resilience, self-development, self and team care, and communication.

IGNITE: Rooted in Human Error

Most accidents in wildland fire are rooted in human errors. If we do not anticipate that errors will occur, our ability to detect errors early will be compromised. ♦ L-180, Human Factors ♦

[Photo: Kari Greer]

#fireleadership #humanfactors

Leader’s Intent - Stories From the Fireline

In October 2003, in the midst of the widespread wildland-urban interface fires that came to be known as the California Firestorm, a firing group had been assigned a straightforward task: light a backfire on the west side of a frontage road to head off the main fire and keep it from crossing a major interstate highway. The Santa Ana winds from the east created the right conditions for a successful burn.

Challenge 15: 2021 WFLDP

Challenge #15: Leaders develop themselves and their people.

• Review the Wildland Fire Leadership Levels. 
• Develop or alter your self-development plan to align with the Wildland Fire Leadership Levels.

IGNITE:

 

“None of us can know what we are capable of until we are tested.”- Elizabeth Blackwell

[Photo: Prineville IHC]

#fireleadership

Refining Leader’s Intent throughout the Chain of Command

Each leader goes through the process of understanding and refining the intent from above and expressing their intent to their people.

At the division or unit level, the leader focuses on the incident objectives affecting their assignment, rather than overall management goals; but they use the same process to define task, purpose, and end state. At the crew level, the leader zeros in on the tactical objectives to develop intent.

Leaders narrow their focus at each level, identifying the objectives that apply to each level. We make sure that each person understands the end state and the purpose behind the task.

[Click here to download a copy of Leading in the Wildland Fire Service.]

Leadership Levels

"Tiered" by Nicholas_T is licensed under CC BY 2.0

In fall of 2018, the NWCG Leadership Committee (LC) met to evaluate and align the entire L-course curriculum—look at the course work as a whole and realign the content, audience, and include material that may be missing. From that effort, the LC defined what wildland fire leadership was at each level of leadership and connected all the elements of the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program (WFLDP) beyond the L-course. Thus, the work began on creating the wildland fire leadership levels.

IGNITE: Commitment

 

When you make a commitment, you create hope. When you keep a commitment, you create trust! - John Maxwell

[Photo: Redding IHC]

#fireleadership

Intent Guides Action

Turning intent into meaningful action is both a linear and a circular process.

Challenge #14: 2021 WFLDP Campaign

 

Challenge #14: Leaders engage with their people and their peers.

• Become a member of the “Strengthening Your Tools” Facebook group.
• Contribute to the discussion through a post regarding a leadership tool or through a comment on an existing post.

#fireleadership #2021WFLDPCampaign

IGNITE: A Question

 

Sometimes the best thing you can say is a question. 

♦ Dan Rockwell, The Leadership Freak ♦

[Photo: Midewin IHC]
www.fireleadership.gov

Leader’s Intent

Incidents inevitably create conditions in which it is impossible to project centralized command and control over all actions and events. In fast-moving, dynamic situations, top-level decision makers cannot always incorporate new information into a formal planning process and redirect people to action within a reasonable timeframe.

IGNITE: Leadership Contagions

Leaders’ attitudes and mindset are contagious. As a leader, you get to set the tone for the kind of team you want to build.

• Sandra Younger, “The Fire Outside My Window” •

[Photo: Kyle Miller/Wyoming IHC]
#fireleadership

Ensuring Tasks are Understood, Supervised, and Accomplished

Issuing clear instructions includes a requirement for providing leader’s intent. Leader’s intent provides the foundation for ensuring that tasks are fully understood. To ensure that tasks are supervised and accomplished, leaders apply the concepts of situational leadership.

[Click here to download a copy of Leading in the Wildland Fire Service.]

Challenge #13: 2021 WFLDP Campaign

Challenge #13: Leaders read and write.

• Visit the WFLDP blog and select at least five posts to read that are not memes or challenges.
• Write a blog on the leadership subject of your choice. Submit your work for consideration as a post on the WFLDP blog.

IGNITE: Meeting New People

MEETING NEW PEOPLE

Be honest and humble.

Be curious and vulnerable.

Be appreciative and truthful.

Be a connector and share ideas.

Don’t be judgmental, be welcoming.

Be a listener and ask smart questions.

It’s about them, not you.

♦ Daily Coach ♦

[Photo: Entiat IHC]

#fireleadership