IGNITE: Ethos

 

Ethos—who we are—is the most important factor in persuasion. – Aristotle quoted by James Sipe and Don Frick, Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership


[Photo: Kyle Miller/Wyoming IHC]

What Defines Us?

 

In this blog, we revisit a post from Shane Olpin, former NWCG Leadership Committee chairman and leadership development specialist for the USFS. Shane retired in October, but was honored this weekend for him many contributions to the wildland fire service. Shane's influence and legacy will last for many years to come. Best wishes, Shane.

Challenge 18: 2021 WFLDP Campaign

Challenge #18: Leaders help their people establish strong staff value systems, team cultures, and command presence.

• Lead your team through the following values exploration exercise.

What Defines Your Team?

Ethos n. The distinguishing charter, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group or institution. (Merriam-Webster)

Ethos defines how crew members embody the values of the mission-driven culture within the leadership environment. This ethos represents a professional code of conduct clarifying expectations for member behavior and forming the foundation for relationships. A team committed to exemplify these values stand the best chance of building synergy and successfully achieving their mission. Examples include:

What Defines Your Team?

Ethos n. The distinguishing charter, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group or institution. (Merriam-Webster)

Ethos defines how crew members embody the values of the mission-driven culture within the leadership environment. This ethos represents a professional code of conduct clarifying expectations for member behavior and forming the foundation for relationships. A team committed to exemplify these values stand the best chance of building synergy and successfully achieving their mission. Examples include:

• Service for the common good
• High trust state
• Pursuit of truth
• Form function defined by the end state
• Individual initiative
• Continuous improvement

What Defines Us as a Wildland Fire Service

The following values and principles define the wildland fire service:

Duty

• Be proficient in your job, both technically and as a leader. 
• Make sound and timely decisions. 
• Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised, accomplished. 
• Develop your subordinates for the future. 

Respect

• Know your subordinates and look out for their well-being. 
• Keep your subordinates informed. 
• Build the team. 
• Employ your subordinates in accordance with their capabilities. 

Integrity

• Know yourself and seek improvement. 
• Seek responsibility and accept responsibility for your actions. 
• Set the example.

For the complete list and downloads visit our website.

An Example Within Our Organization

The following example was taken from the 2011 Standards for Interagency Hotshot Crew Operations:

Professional Ethics

IHCs acknowledge their responsibility to sponsor agencies and to the wildland fire community as a whole. IHCs subscribe to a Code of Ethics to guide them in their practice as wildland fire professionals. IHCs will:

• Perform only services they are qualified, trained, and equipped in which can be accomplished safely. Continue to educate themselves in order to improve their qualifications and performance. Give earnest effort and provide their best professional advice in the performance of their duties.
• Build their professional reputations based on the leadership values of duty, respect, integrity. Ensure the quality and cost effectiveness of our programs. Be accountable to host unit supervisors, incident management teams, other IHCs and to any hosting unit as a safe, productive and professional resource.
• Conduct themselves and their programs in accordance with the Standards for Interagency Hotshot Crew Operations, relevant Agency, State and Federal policies and all required operational and safety procedures.
• Ensure the civil rights of constituents and employees by treating every person with respect. Hazing, harassment of any kind, verbal abuse or physical abuse by any employee toward any other person will not be tolerated. Professional behavior will be exhibited at all times. 
• Endeavor to enhance public knowledge and promote understanding of the functions and achievements of the wildland fire community.

Benchmarking Another Organization

Wiss & Company, an East Coast accounting firm, created a clever way to present their ethos. 

(Photo credit: Wiss & Company)

Wildland Fire Leadership Challenge

• Review the Wildland Fire Leadership Values and Principles with your team.
• Identify the characteristics that define your group as individuals, as a team, and as members of your community.

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

Thank you Shane Olpin, USFS Leadership Development Specialist and NWCG Leadership Subcommittee representative, for this blog submission. 

Ethos - Our Guiding Beliefs

"Directed inward, the Warrior Ethos grounds us, fortifies, us, and focuses our resolve." - Steven Pressfield in Warrior Ethos

During the latest NWCG Leadership Subcommittee meeting, discussion revolved around the term ethos. Merriam-Webster defines ethos as "the distinguishing character, sentiment, moral nature, or guiding beliefs of a person, group, or institution."

Fellow blogger Billy Schmidt showcased Steven Pressfield's new book, The Warrior Ethos (available for free in Lightbox format on his website). Many will recognize Pressfield from his book Gates of Fire which is featured in our Professional Reading Program library. Pressfield does an incredible job of explaining the "warrior ethos" concept. I suggest that all wildland firefighters read this short, 112-page book filled with understandable vignettes as a background for understanding our own wildland fire leadership ethos--Leading in the Wildland Fire Service.

Here are some thoughts/quotes from Warrior Ethos for consideration and discussion here or with your team:

• The Warrior Ethos is not, at bottom, a manifestation only of male aggression or of the masculine will to dominance. Its foundation is society-wide. It rests on the will and resolve of mothers and wives and daughters--and, in no few instance, of female warriors as well--to defend their children, their home soil and the values of their culture.
• No one is born with the Warrior Ethos, though many of its tenets appear naturally in young men and women of all cultures.
• Courage--in particular, stalwartness in the face of death--must be considered the foremost warrior virtue.
• Courage is inseparable from love and leads to what may arguably be the noblest of all warrior virtues: selflessness.
• The group comes before the individual.
• The interesting thing about peoples and cultures from rugged environments is that they almost never chose to leave them.
• Selflessness produces courage because it binds men together and proves to each individual that he is not alone.
• The feat that inspires witnesses to honor it is almost invariably one of selflessness.
• The will to fight, the passion to be great, is an indispensable element of the Warrior Ethos. It is also a primary quality of leadership, because it inspires men and fires their hearts with ambition an the passion to go beyond their own limits.
• A warrior culture trains for adversity.
• “This man was a fighter when he was my age. He has taken the lessons he learned as a warrior dueling external enemies and is turning them to use now as he fights internal foes to achieve mastery over himself.”~Alexander the Great
• The hardest thing in the world is to be ourselves.

Source: The Warrior Ethos. Steven Pressfield. Black Irish Entertainment, LLC. 2011.