The Perils of Leadership...Part 2

Chief John M. Buckman

The Perils of Leadership: Making Chief is the Easy Part

by Chief John Buckman

Here is the 2nd installment of Chief John Buckman's Leadership Series.....

SUSTAINING LEADERSHIP

How can one develop as a leader in such a way so as to effect change within the organization as well as growth within the individuals of that organization?

Leaders can expand their individual capacities. People can learn, grow and change but they must first realize the need and have the desire. I do not debate the extent to which effective leaders are born or are developed. No doubt, leadership capacity has roots partly in genetics, partly in early childhood development and partly in adult experiences. The core question about sustaining leadership is: "How do I go about it?" How can you acquire the right leadership capacities and how can the organization you belong to help the process?

Leadership development requires both a variety of developmental experiences and the ability to learn from experience. Experience is the element that the individual brings to the development process. In the course of our fire-service experience, people learn from similar kind of experiences to differing degrees and in different ways. The ability to learn is impacted by a variety of complex motivational factors, personality factors, and learning tactics.

Well, that's it for today. Tomorrow I will present you with the 3rd part of this Leadership Series, "Leadership Drivers". So stay tuned and check in tomorrow.

Until next time....