Informal Leadership is Always Available

(Photo: Aaron Bartz)

Over a year ago, I dove into the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program self-study leadership level courses on the Wildland Fire Learning Portal. These courses have been a huge help in guiding me along on my current path. One of the first lessons I came across was the idea of informal leadership (specifically, leading up). At first, I didn’t understand or even know how to lead informally. With more reading, a lot of trial and error, and bumping and locking horns along the way, I felt ready to try to lead up and share what I learned with others. 

The conversation that repeatedly came up from me explaining informal leadership with my co-workers was, “Well I can’t do that” or “It won’t have an impact.” Leadership is a daunting task, let alone leading up the chain of command; however, the impact you can have reaches further than you could ever imagine. Leading up requires a person to seek unconventional ways to apply ideas. I have a long way to go in mastering the art of leading up, but I can tell you my experiences with trying. Hopefully you find an inspiration to draw upon. 

An out-of-state assignment this summer was riddled with extremely long travel days and long drives to and from base camp! You know, ones that come prior to the caffeine fully setting in or when the crew needs dinner and sleep and lead to rising tensions amongst the crew. Our fun engine was turning into a terrible 14-day prison. I decided take this opportunity to implore my leadership skill of leading up to improve crew morale. 

I conveniently found my way to the driver seat (the smile on my face of shear joy and excitement probably allowed me to stay) and promptly began the slow and painful drive to the line, a place nobody wanted to be. My skillful use of the brake and gas (no traffic laws were broken or risks taken) and choice of music drew the attention of all the crew! I became a lightning rod for emotions. Instead of becoming more frustrated with each other, the crew directed their frustrations towards my exquisite driving and eclectic taste of music, to which I promptly pushed one step further with a loud yell, “But did you die?” The crew had a new lease on life that day with more joking, less snippiness, and more cohesion. I was not allowed near the driver seat the rest of the roll which suited me just fine; but the course was changed never the less. I had taken the lead to improve morale.

Leading up isn’t always about giving orders or directing the operation. It has more to do with focusing on taking care of the people around you, like making and extra trip to the truck so everybody has a cold water or being sure your people are getting enough to eat. Pressing your Engine Boss for the store trip that’s a little further out of the way because they didn’t have someone’s brand (I know you know). It’s the small intangible things that occasionally get overlooked that people can step up and make a situation better or lead to get the mission done with a little less stress. It’s not giving orders and telling people what to do, its guiding from the bottom to accomplish the mission. 

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Christopher Ayer is a Firefighter/Firefighter Type 1/Paramedic for Corona De Tucson Fire Department in Tucson, Arizona. The expressions and views are those of the author.