The Perils of Leadership...Part 8

Chief John M. Buckman

The Perils of Leadership: Making Chief is the Easy Part 

by Chief John Buckman

Here is the 8th and last installment of Chief John Buckman's Leadership Series.....

SET THE EXAMPLE: LOOK UP!

I believe the people we deal with can be divided into two categories: those who lift you up and those who pull you down. Don't we all know people who only open their mouth to deprecate someone else? 

Feel sorry for those poor souls. They tear down only to build themselves up. 

We must teach them by example that the greatest responsibility each of us has is to raise the life condition of everyone we touch. Encouragement breeds success; discouragement breeds contempt. No one can deny the law of cause and effect. Your subordinates and superiors will not think well of you unless you think well of yourself. You cannot think well of yourself unless you think well of others. 

Most negative people are only envious. If you malign people in the hopes that you will look better nothing but the opposite is true. You are actually degrading yourself and bringing misery to those around you. 

I have survived as a Fire Chief by maintaining a positive attitude about my life and my person. No one will tear that down as my opinion on those matters are the only ones that do matter. There are so many people out there that belittle others so that they might appear bigger. The sad fact is that those people only belittle themselves. I believe that I do what is right at the right time and in the right place. Do I make mistakes? Yes, I am human and as such I will make mistakes, but they are not for a lack of trying. I believe action requires one to make a mistake once in a while.

Well, as previously mentioned, this is the last of this series of articles on Leadership by Chief John Buckman.

I hope you were able to get something out of the series.

For more articles on Leadership, visit Fireengineering.com.

Until next time....

The Perils of Leadership...Part 7

Chief John M. Buckman

The Perils of Leadership: Making Chief is the Easy Part 

by Chief John Buckman

Here is the 7th installment of Chief John Buckman's Leadership Series.....

CHANGE: PROACTIVE IS BETTER THAN REACTIVE 

Organizations fall out of favor when they fail to keep pace with their customers' changing needs. Once you reach an elite level of your profession, you must continually adapt to maintain or improve your position.

It is so much easier to hide among the pack instead of being the lead dog. When you are working toward that top spot, you are never satisfied. You are open to any changes that might improve your organization. You can evaluate yourself against the performance of whoever is running ahead of you.

When you finally reach “Number One,” you're all alone. There's nobody left to chase. So there's a temptation not to run quite as fast as before. You forget that the time to shift into overdrive is when you are the hunted not the hunter. You have to show some extra foot so the competition doesn't gain on you.

The top perch in any field carries a weighty responsibility. Once you attain it, everyone expects you to dominate your competition; you are supposed to be the best. Should your customers discover that your product or service is short of dazzling, they will shop elsewhere. A competitor may get away with selling them an inferior product because the customers come to it with lowered expectations. However, if you're “Number One,” no one will cut you that kind of slack.

But change usually fails when it is a response to panic. Always remember that no matter how well things are going, you can always improve something. Making voluntary changes now saves you from being forced to make mandatory changes later. However, never alter anything simply for the sake of doing something different. Any modifications you attempt must have clear, productive goals.

Next will be part 8 and the last part of Chief Buckman's Leadership Series, "SET THE EXAMPLE: LOOK UP!".

For more articles on Leadership, visit Fireengineering.com. 

So check back tomorrow.

Until next time....

The Perils of Leadership...Part 6

Chief John M. Buckman

The Perils of Leadership: Making Chief is the Easy Part 

by Chief John Buckman

Here is the 6th installment of Chief John Buckman's Leadership Series.....

SACRIFICE: VOLUNTARY OR INVOLUNTARY? 

You will only succumb to stress if you are ill-prepared. All the hours spent in preparation will help you make it through your career. You can be just as cool and productive as anyone else in any situation if you approach your life with similar dedication. 

Every time you put a dollar in your savings account, you're making a sacrifice. Any mention of sacrifice reminds me of the story told about the gentlemen whose oil well caught fire. He put out an all-points bulletin for assistance. To ensure a heavy response, the oil baron also offered a $30,000 reward to whoever could quench the flames. All the large fire departments in the area sent help. They dispatched their best companies accompanied by their most modern fire fighting equipment. However, none of their trucks could get within 200 yards of the blaze. The heat was too intense. 

Finally, the Little Township Volunteer Fire Department appeared on the scene. 

They had only one rickety truck equipped with a single ladder, two buckets of water, three buckets of sand, and a blanket. It didn't even come with a hose. When that old truck reached the point where all the others had stopped, its driver didn't hesitate. He kept barreling ahead until he and his crew were on top of the blaze. Little Township volunteers leapt out of the truck, threw two buckets of water and three buckets of sand on the inferno and then beat the fire out with the blanket. 

That oil man was so impressed by this display of courage. He gave the driver $30,000 in cash on the spot and asked, "What are you and your men going to do with all that money?" 

The driver didn't hesitate. "The first thing we're going to do is get those gosh-darn brakes on that truck fixed." 

The lesson here is that not all sacrifices are voluntary. Sometimes circumstances force us to make them. However, in the long run, we're grateful we did.

Next will be part 7 of Chief Buckman's Leadership Series, "CHANGE: PROACTIVE IS BETTER THAN REACTIVE".

For more articles on Leadership, visit Fireengineering.com. 

So check back tomorrow.

Until next time....

The Perils of Leadership...Part 5

Chief John M. Buckman

The Perils of Leadership: Making Chief is the Easy Part 

by Chief John Buckman

Here is the 5th installment of Chief John Buckman's Leadership Series.....

CHECK YOUR ATTITUDE

How do you maintain your personal enthusiasm? After you become chief, the stresses and the wear-and-tear can take its toll on even the most idealistic among us. Don't take your attitude for granted. Reevaluate yourself constantly to ensure you are maintaining your edge.

What should you do if you don't have a positive outlook? Find one. Instead of thinking "I can't," start saying "I can!" It takes just as much time and energy. If you are surrounded by a lot of negativists, think about putting some distance between yourself and them. Surround yourself with people who encourage rather than discourage. Remember, every day some ordinary person does something extraordinary. Today it's your turn! Take it!

We will always encounter crisis. Life is full of crises and if we realize that up- front and expect crises our attitude will be different when we confront those emergencies. Every person, group and department will face setbacks. It's not enough to overcome them. You must also learn from them. The great jazz musician Miles Davis once said, "Don't be afraid of failure. There is no such thing." I support that thinking. "Don't let what you don't have keep you from using what you do have."

All of us should adopt the attitude of the blind man who was being led down the street by a seeing eye dog. When they came to the corner of a busy intersection, the dog crossed against the light. The blind man had no choice but to follow. Cars swerved to avoid the blind man, drivers honked their horns and swore loudly. Somehow, the duo reached the other side unharmed. As they stopped on the corner, the blind man reached into his pocket pulled out a dog biscuit, and offered it to the reckless canine. Having just watched the two as they crossed, a bystander tapped the blind man on the shoulder and said, "Sir, that dog almost got you killed. The last thing you should do is give him a biscuit as a reward." The blind man smiled and said ."I'm not giving him a reward. I'm trying to find his mouth so I can kick him in the ass."

Whenever you find yourself moaning about some difficulty, remember that blind man. Give adversity a swift kick in the rear end. Drop the self-pity, throw out the crutches, trash the excuses. Do something positive. Welcome the most daunting challenges.

Next will be part 6 of Chief Buckman's Leadership Series, "SACRIFICE: VOLUNTARY OR INVOLUNTARY?".

For more articles on Leadership, visit Fireengineering.com.

So check back tomorrow.

Until next time....

Leadership under Fire: Rowing with One Oar

Brought to you by Firehouse.com

Leadership, like rowing, is done best through good technique rather than brute force

By Joseph L. Krueger and David F. Peterson, Firehouse.com Contributors

Web Exclusive included with this article

Posted: Fri, 08/12/2011 - 08:00am

Updated: Fri, 08/12/2011 - 08:00am

Command and control has been the name of the fire service leadership game for decades, maybe even centuries. That is, when it comes to how decisions and directions are given at most fire departments, it is "my way or the highway" and "do as you are told" that flows from the higher ranking people down to the lower ranking people. In essence, this equates to rowing with only one oar in that efforts to move a fire department forward are minimal at best, sometimes things go round and round, and the decision-making process is wholly one-sided (we all know that many chiefs have been accused of only having one oar in the water!). It does not have to be that way and the modern, progressive fire department will find that rowing with two oars is by far easier, much more productive, and many times more empowering for all employees. Leadership is a lot like rowing in that it is done best through good technique rather than brute force. 

The act of rowing a boat is all about power, not as much in the sense of the physical action required as much as it is about motivating the workers who are doing the work. In this sense, "power" refers to the means available to leaders to move or motivate others in order to achieve organizational goals and objectives. Power, then, is all about influence and that goes back to our series definition of leadership. 

The traditional forms of power are called "positional" power and they include legitimate, coercive, and reward power. Legitimate power is found completely in the leader's position or rank in the organization. In other words, I will obey your orders because you are my superior officer. An example of this source of power in use would be when rank is the reason for someone acting on an order. Coercive power is used when a person is in position to inflict some type of harm on another person if a request is not honored. This can come in a number of different forms and actually be transferred both up and down the ranks. For example, a supervisor can administer sanctions such as corrective action or unattractive work assignment. Conversely, a subordinate can use coercive action towards a supervisor by badmouthing him amongst peers. Finally, reward power can also be used by higher-ups to reward a subordinate's behavior some way if an order is completed satisfactory. A payback for doing a task could be a promotion or pay raise. 

The problem with these positional sources of power is that, for the most part, they are all one-sided where the leader subjects the influence on the follower without any input. While the request may get accomplished, the follower, over time, will become resentful and most likely will develop waning loyalty. Positional power is not effective in the long-term and because it is one-sided it is also extremely inefficient as a leadership tool. 

Much more effective forms of power come from "personal" power sources such as expert and referent power. These forms of influence are developed through effective communication and relationship building over time. Expert power is born out of influencing others through personal knowledge and skills in a specific area – in other words, knowing your department and your job. People listen to those who are consistently demonstrating their subject matter expertise. Referent power is the natural attraction that people have to a charismatic leader. It is derived from treating people with respect and dignity and through consistent authentic and sincere relationships. Numerous studies verify that followers engage with leaders whom they like and trust. 

The trust component must not be overlooked! As trust takes time to develop between leaders and followers, it requires consistent attention, effective communication and above all, honesty, to accrue. Trust cannot be rushed and it is best when developed a little at a time. Trust is also a critical component of effective leadership because it is absolute. That is, trust is ether all or nothing. It is not so simple to say you can trust someone a little or even a lot. Trust is an intangible that is black or white: trust is either present in a relationship completely or it is not. And there is no such thing as leadership without trust, but, in the absence of trust, leadership becomes merely authority. 

In reflection of the personal power sources and their effectiveness, the best examples most likely can be found in your own experience. We'll bet that every fire service veteran can recall someone in their career who treated them with respect, took them under their wing, and shared their knowledge in order to serve as a mentor. Most likely fond memories have survived from those caring and trusting relationships. Trust is the secret ingredient of leadership and one component that is commonly ignored by far too many fire service leaders. Indeed, the modern fire service leader does well to foster and nurture trusting relationships through effective use of the personal power sources of expert and referent power. 

Whether a leader is rowing a boat or running a fire department, it is very inefficient to use one oar or rely on the old, staid approach of telling others what to do. Those old forms of position power are simply not effective in today's world at motivating and sustaining the best efforts of followers (quite frankly, even in the "old days," they weren't very effective!). A much better leadership approach is to use two oars by empowering followers to help with the rowing through the use of personal power and the development and nurturing of respectful and trusting relationships!

JOSEPH L. KRUEGER is a 31-year veteran of the fire service who is currently an assistant chief with the McHenry Township Fire Protection District in McHenry, IL. Joe has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois-Chicago. He is also a graduate of the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officer Program. Joe also has extensive experience in leadership and management in the private sector and is a principal partner of White Helmet Innovations.

DAVID F. PETERSON is a 31-year veteran of the fire service who is currently an assistant chief with the Milton and Milton Township Fire Department in Milton, WI, and a fire officer with the City of Madison. Dave has a B.S. in fire service management from the University of Southern Illinois and is also a graduate of the National Fire Academy's Executive Fire Officer Program. Dave is a graduate student in leadership through Grand Canyon University's Ken Blanchard School of Business and is a principal partner of White Helmet Innovations. You can reach Krueger and Peterson by e-mail at:whitehelmetinnovations@gmail.com.

The Perils of Leadership...Part 4

Chief John M. Buckman

The Perils of Leadership: Making Chief is the Easy Part 

by Chief John Buckman

Here is the 4th installment of Chief John Buckman's Leadership Series.....

WHAT HAPPENS TO UNDERDEVELOPED LEADERS

Over the years, I have asked chiefs and officers to identify what they have learned that has made a difference or a lasting change in how they manage others. I asked them to think about experiences on the job, outside of work, in formal leadership development programs...and isolate the critical lessons they've learned.

The results are clear: development comes from many kinds of experience. These chiefs learned from challenging jobs, from significant people, from hardships, from training and course work, and from a miscellaneous variety of other events. The lessons they learned involved new skills, values, abilities, and knowledge. Over time people who failed to learn became stuck--in their personal lives or in their jobs.

Tomorrow, I will post the 4th part of Chief Buckman's Leadership Series, "Check Your Attitude".

For more articles on Leadership, visit Fireengineering.com.

So check back tomorrow.

Until next time....

The Perils of Leadership...Part 3

Chief John M. Buckman

The Perils of Leadership: Making Chief is the Easy Part 

by Chief John Buckman

Here is the 3rd installment of Chief John Buckman's Leadership Series.....

LEADERSHIP DRIVERS

Three key drivers of leadership development are assessment, challenge and support. Developmental experiences are most effective when all three elements are present. 

These elements serve dual purposes in the development process. First, they motivate people to focus their attention and exert effort toward learning, growth, and change. Second, they provide the raw materials or resources for learning: the information, observations and reactions that can lead to a more complex and sometimes quite different understanding of the world. To enhance the development of leaders we need to help them find, create, and shape a wide range of learning experiences, each of which provides assessment, challenge and support. 

Assessment: The best developmental experiences are rich in assessment data. Assessment is important because it gives people an understanding of where they are now, what an individual’s current strengths are, the level of their current performance or leadership effectiveness. 

In the context of their everyday work, people may not be aware of the degree to which their usual behaviors or actions are effective. In the face of a new challenge, they may not know what to continue doing and what to change. Even if they do realize that what they are doing is ineffective, people may believe the answer is to just work harder, or it may not occur to them to try a new strategy. But when an experience provides feedback on how they are doing and how they might improve or provides other means for critical self-reflection, then people are more likely to understand their situation and to capitalize on a learning opportunity. 

Challenge: Experiences that can be most potent to development are those that stretch or challenge us. Individuals develop certain strengths--ways of thinking and acting that work for them, become comfortable for them, and lead them to habitual ways of thinking and acting. As long as conditions don't change, people feel no need to move beyond their comfort zone and develop new strengths. 

In a comfortable assignment, they use their familiar strengths well in serving the needs of the organization, and they do not learn very much from the assignment. The same is true for a comfortable relationship, with incoming feedback that confirms a training program or skills that have already been mastered. In all such cases, comfort is truly the enemy of growth and continued effectiveness. 

Challenging experiences force people out of their comfort zone. They create an imbalance, causing people to question the adequacy of their skills, frameworks and approaches. These experiences require that people develop new capacities if they are to be successful. Consider a task-force assignment in which the task is critical to the business...in which success or failure will become known...and after which task-force members will present an action recommendation to senior officers within that department. Such an assignment can be thought of as developmental because challenge is embedded deeply in it. However, this type of assignment will prove particularly developmental for people who have not faced such challenges before. 

People feel challenged when they encounter situations that demand skills and abilities beyond their current capabilities, when the situation is very confusing or ambiguous or when the person in question is confronted with a situation they would rather not deal with. The challenge might be negotiating the resolution of a conflict between two divisions with opposing views on how something should be done, or it might involve confronting people with the fact that they are not going to get the promotion they think they deserve. 

Some challenges are due to a lack of experience. They require the person to broaden and acquire new skills and perspectives. Other challenges require changing old habits; either the situation has changed and old responses are no longer adequate or old responses were never that effective in the first place. 

Support: Developmental experiences stretch people and point out strengths and weaknesses, but are more powerful when they also have an element of support. While the element of challenge provides the motivation to change, the support elements of an experience send the message that their efforts to learn and grow are valued. If people don't receive support in the form of confirming messages, and if other people do not allow and encourage them to change, then the challenge inherent in a development experience may overwhelm them, rather than opening them up to learning. 

Support helps people handle the struggle and pain of developing; it actually helps them bear the weight of the experience. It is needed to help them maintain a positive view of themselves as people capable of dealing with challenges who can learn and grow, who are worthy and valuable. Seeing that others place a positive value on their efforts to change and grow is key for people to stay on-course with development goals. 

Perhaps the largest source of support is other people: bosses, coworkers, family, friends, professional colleagues, coaches, and mentors--even a favorite author. Support can also take the form of organizational norms and procedures. Organizations that are more supportive of development have a closely held belief that continuous learning and development of the staff is a key factor in maintaining organizational success. They emphasize helping people identify development needs and working out plans for addressing those needs. These organizations use a variety of development strategies, make resources available for learning, and recognize and reward efforts to learn and grow. Feedback, cross-group sharing of knowledge and information, and learning from mistakes are all parts of the organizational culture.

Tomorrow, I will post the 4th part of Chief Buckman's Leadership Series, "WHAT HAPPENS TO UNDERDEVELOPED LEADERS".

For more articles on Leadership, visit Fireengineering.com.

So check back tomorrow.

Until next time....

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....

The Perils of Leadership...Part I

Hey everyone. I will be posting one of my favorite leadership articles by Chief John Buckman.

I will present his article in 8 parts for the next 8 days. Each day I will post a different chapter. Below is the listing of each chapter. So hopefully, those interested can follow along.

Well, on with the show as they say.....

The Perils of Leadership: Making Chief is the Easy Part
By Chief John Buckman

CONTENTS

1.An Allegory for Those Who Would be Leaders
2.Sustaining Leadership
3.Leadership Drivers
4.What Happens to Underdeveloped Leaders
5.Check Your Attitude
6.Sacrifice: Voluntary Or Involuntary?
7.Change: Proactive Is Better Than Reactive
8.Set The Example: Look Up! 


AN ALLEGORY FOR THOSE WHO WOULD BE LEADERS

A young fire officer in a small rural department observed that the fire chiefs in many departments sometimes had a short life span. After many years of pursuing the top position in the department, some of those who attained this coveted position left it after only a year or two. Others would remain at the helm for a while longer, but seemed to accomplish little in the position but maintain the status quo. They were not respected. Their departments stagnated; membership dwindled. Eventually, these chiefs, too, were replaced.

But there was one particular chief who stood out in his region. This chief had sustained his leadership of this volunteer department for many years--as long as anyone could remember. During his tenure, his department had evolved into one of the finest fire departments in the nation. Membership in this department was a sought-after badge of honor.

Not wanting to suffer the fate of the other chiefs, the young officer went to this wise old chief to learn what had enabled him to prosper in the down-and-dirty world of leadership. He wondered if the chief had always been a leader or if his years of experience had molded him. If it had molded him into a leader, why had experience not helped the others? If leadership was something he could learn, he wanted to know how.

The young officer was interested in learning from the senior fire chief how the experiences of leadership could make him a better leader. Let's listen:

"Is experience the best teacher?" the young captain asked of the fire chief. "Can I develop as a leader from experience?"

"Some people have said that experience is the best teacher," replied the fire chief. "But I believe that some experiences don't teach us much and in some cases experience may teach us wrong."

"So experience is not always the best teacher?"

"Not exactly," said the fire chief. "It is just that not every experience offers important leadership lessons."

"So where do I learn? What experiences will be helpful to me?"

"It is the experiences that challenge you that are developmental," explained the

chief. "The experiences that stretch you, that force you to develop new abilities if you are going to survive and succeed."

"When I am really pushed to my limits by my experiences, I will learn. Is that it?"

"Not exactly. Challenge is important. Our limits need to be tested. But even when we are challenged we don't necessarily learn."

"You mean that I can have the right experiences--challenging experiences--and still not learn?"

"That's right," said the chief. "You only grow from challenging experiences when you have the ability to learn from them. Not everyone does. Some people have the experience and miss the meaning. There are some people who learn hand-over-fist from a challenging experience. Others learn little, if anything from experience. Growth, learning and education are not automatic."

"I think I'm getting it," said the young officer, who suddenly understood that we don't learn or grow in a vacuum. Most of us are part of a larger group or organization where we have the good fortune of receiving feedback and support for our personal growth; sometimes we don't. We need to get feedback from someone who will take the time to reflect in our own experiences. Feedback and reflections won't allow us to assess how we are doing, what's working and how we need to change. We also need acceptance, advice, and encouragement from others and support from our organizations if we expect to grow. We simply cannot do it all alone.

"When I avail myself of challenging experiences, when I take seriously learning from those experiences and when I get support and feedback from key people in my department, I can then learn the important lessons of leadership that I need in order to survive and prosper. Right?" asked the young captain.

"Right! As far as it goes," answered the chief. "But there is still the question of what develops in leadership development."

"What does that mean?" he asked, feeling that there are some things that are developable and other things that appear to be hardwired or innate. Intelligence (for example) and certain personality traits appear to be set by the time we are adults, remain consistent over time, and provide some limits to our development. But there are those skills and capabilities that can be developed.

"It is a bit complicated," admitted the chief.

Being stretched and challenged is not easy. Diversity and adversity are the keys to growth, and both challenge us. None of us like to operate out of our comfort zone. And it takes time...years, in fact. And a lot of pieces have to fit together just like a puzzle--challenging experiences, organizational support and individual readiness. We used to think it was easier, that single events were developmental--a single event of training, for example. But that understanding was inadequate.

Development happens over time as part of a process or a system. There is

still a lot we don't know about how leaders develop. But we have learned a lot and we are learning more all the time. And the good news is that we can learn and grow and change.

The young officer thanked the old chief for his time and insight. "Given all that you've said, it's becoming clear that I must understand development in a longer time frame, requiring several elements to support it and having different outcomes in different contexts.

"Exactly," said the senior fire chief. "Good luck on your journey."

Article and photo courtesy of Fire Engineering.com.

Until next time....