You Are Worth the Work

We pick up today's blog where my last blog ended. At the end of See, Solve, Scale, Danny Warshay introduced the concept of “ikigai” (pronounced ee-kee-guy). “Ikigai” is a Japanese concept referring to something that gives a person a sense of purpose, a reason for living. – Wikipedia

IGNITE: The Purpose of Life

“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” - Pablo Picasso

[Photo: Jackson IHC]

IGNITE: What are you fighting for?

 

“Be a leader who is fighting for something, not against something.” - Daily Coach

[Photo: Lewistown Interagency Helitack]

IGNITE: To What End?

Leadership is not by itself good or desirable. Leadership is a means. Leadership to what end is the crucial question. - Peter Drucker

[Photo credit: USFWS]

IGNITE - All Things Lead to One

All things lead to one. - Norman Maclean

[Photo: Baker River IHC]

The Rules for Being Human

(Photo: Dynamic Graphics/Thinkstock)

There seems to be a lot of discontent in society, in our workplaces, and our homes right now. I know I have experienced my share of distress in the last few months. I find myself trying to make sense of situations that are either nonsensical or way outside my control and influence.

IGNITE: Help One, Help Others

When you help a person become a better leader, you help all the people that leader impacts. - Perry Noble

[Photo credit: Kyle Miller/Wyoming IHC (Snake Fire, 2015)]

IGNITE: Power for Purpose

You are the one with the power to contribute meaning to your work. – Karissa Thacker

Do your part and share the word.
[Photo credit: National Park Service]

"Transform Yourself...Transform Your People"

(Photo credit: Baptist Convention of New England)

You cannot give what you do not have. ~ John Maxwell

According to John Maxwell, reknowned leadership expert, transformational leadership "influences people to think, speak, and act in such a way that it makes a positive difference int their life and in the lives of others."

Recenty, John Maxwell offered an interactive training session on transformational leadership via a live call. If you are like me and missed the call, have no fear. John offers the recording of the call on his Join John Live! website. He supplements the call with worksheets.

John walks you through his four steps of transformation:

1. Transformation begins with a calling - "I Want to Make a Difference"
2. Transformation stands on a cause - "Doing Something That Makes a Difference"
3. Transformation spreads from me to we - "With People Who Make a Difference"
4. Transformation breathes with urgency - "At a Time When It Makes a Difference"

Transformation begins with you. Take a moment to invest in and develop self.

The Difference Between Good and GREAT Leadership

(Photo credit: Coach Kyle - Action Coach)

by
Jon Gordon

Challenging times require leaders who can lead others through the challenges. Now more than ever we need great leadership in our government, schools, businesses, hospitals and organizations. Good leadership won’t suffice. We need great leadership. There is a difference.

• Good leaders get people to believe in them.
• Great leaders inspire people to believe in themselves.

• Good leaders say “Watch what I can do.”
• Great leaders say “Let me show you what you can do.”

• Good leaders catch fish for others so they can eat today.
• Great leaders teach people how to fish so they can eat for a lifetime.

Having worked with countless leaders over the years in businesses, schools and professional sports I’ve realized that great leadership is really a transfer of belief. Great leaders share their belief, vision, purpose and passion with others and in the process they inspire others to believe, act and impact. Great leaders are positively contagious and they instill confidence and belief in others.

Great sales managers inspire their sales people to believe in themselves and their product/service. Great school principals inspire their teachers to believe they can make a difference. Great teachers inspire and empower their students to believe in themselves. Great pastors inspire their congregations to serve and impact the community. Great sports coaches inspire their teams to believe they can win. And the people who have changed the world have been those who instilled in others the confidence to step up, serve, take initiative and create positive change. You don’t need a title to be a leader. You just need to lead.

To lead others in a powerful way you must invite them on your bus, share your vision for the road ahead and then encourage, empower and inspire them to drive their own bus. In the process, instead of having just one bus that you drive, you create a fleet of buses and bus drivers, all moving in the same positive direction. When you create a fleet of buses and empower people to drive their own bus, you generate an amazing amount of power and momentum that becomes an unstoppable force. This is what great leadership is all about.

What does great leadership mean to you? Share your thoughts on my blog or Facebook Page.

For more leadership tools from Jon Gordon visit www.JonGordon.com.

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FIND YOUR COURAGE TO BE GREAT!

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t.Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t

by Jim Collins

Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider.

(http://www.jimcollins.com/tools.html)

Interconnecting to Make a Difference

I received the following comment from Debbie Wappula via our Facebook page:

"I work at a hotel. I had never dealt with a fire before and when we were home to almost 100 firefiighters over the month of October, I took it upon myself to learn everything I could as quickly as I could to help make the jobs of the overhead team a little easier...I took ICS 100, 700, and 800 online while they were here. I developed a hotel spreadsheet that the logistics guy requested when he was sent to NY for Hurricane Sandy...anything they needed, I became."

Debbie is an example to follow for our fire leaders. She willing went above and beyond her normal job duties to become a part of something bigger. Being in training, my office has addressed more requests to avoid the very classes that Debbie volunteered to take to learn more about our business. That is leadership!

Debbie in now a fan of our social media platforms and provides comments on our pages as well as supports other wildland fire partners. She embraced what many of us take for granted! Debbie became a part of our world when we entered hers. We are interconnected.

Nick Skytland, NASA, shares his experience of being a part of something bigger in an interconnected world. He shares wildland fire's connectedness with NASA during the Columbia Space Shuttle Recovery Operation. He also shares a national effort to "bring together citizens, software developers, and entrepreneurs from all over the nation to collaboratively create, build, and invent new solutions using publicly-released data, code and technology to solve challenges relevant to our neighborhoods, our cities, our states and our country."



Video Highlights:

• We are more interconnected than ever.
• Technology is shifting the way we look at our problems.
• Many citizens want to participate in government.
• Mass collaboration is possible today through technology.

Teamwork and collaboration are core principles within the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program (WFLDP). How can we come together to make the world a better place to live and work.

The NWCG Leadership Subcommittee wants you to be a part of shaping this country and the wildland fire service for years to come. Together with the private sector and this nation's citizens we can grow and learn and be better.

Through an informal partnership with Drexel University's LeBow College of Business students have become a part of government and the development of wildland firefighters across the nation. They saw the benefits of the Leadership in Cinema program and will begin populating our library with new and innovative leadership lesson plans. This is a win-win situation for anyone wanting to grow in leadership whether a wildland firefighter or not.

I have a few questions to ask of our readers:

• How will you make the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program more interconntected?
• How will you lead the wildland fire service to work with others to solve the problems of this great nation?
• Will you participate in the National Day of Civic Hacking in June 1-2, 2013?

For more information on the shuttle recovery effort, read "Searching For and Recovering the Space Shuttle Columbia."

Is Your Vision a View or Purpose?

In this YouTube video, Jesse Lyn Stoner shares her thoughts on the power of vision and how vision is more than a "powerful picture." Leaders present clear purpose that is commonly embraced by their subordinates.



Wildland fire leaders must have a clear vision that is expressed through "leader's intent." Check out what Leading in the Wildland Fire has to say about the topic:

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.

We provide leader’s intent so people closest to the scene of action can adapt plans and exercise initiative to accomplish the objective when unanticipated opportunities arise or when the original plan no longer suffices.

Leader’s intent is a crucial element of effective operations because it reduces internal friction and empowers subordinates—even when chaotic conditions prevent the chain of command from communicating effectively.

Leader’s intent is a clear, concise statement about what our people must do to succeed in their assignments. It delineates three essential components:

• Task—what is the objective or goal of the assignment.
• Purpose—why the assignment needs to be done.
• End state—how the situation should look when the assignment is successfully completed.

At the incident level, the end state places the values at risk within the context of the standing incident priorities: (1) life, (2) property, (3) natural resources, and (4) management goals and concerns for the area affected.

Within the framework of the defined end state, leaders can develop plans that include incident objectives, priorities, strategies, trigger points, and contingency plans.

Texas Forest Service Receives the Pulaski Award

(From left are Associate Director Mark Stanford, Planning and Preparedness Department Head Cynthia Foster, Incident Response Department Head Paul Hannemann, Chief Law Enforcement Officer Les Rogers and Mitigation and Prevention Department Head Bruce Woods)

TEXAS FOREST SERVICE HONORED FOR OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTIONS TO WILDLAND FIREFIGHTING

June 21, 2012 – COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Texas Forest Service was presented last week with the Pulaski Award, a national honor for outstanding service in wildland firefighting.
The award, commending the agency for its response during the 2011 wildfire season, is presented annually by the National Interagency Fire Center. It was announced at the Southern Group of State Foresters annual conference in Louisville, Ky.

The coveted 30-inch bronze statue is named after U.S. Forest Service Ranger Ed Pulaski, who led a crew to safety during the Great Fire of 1910. First presented in 1998, this is the first time the Pulaski Award has come to Texas. It will stay with Texas Forest Service for one year then will be shipped to the next recipient.

Texas Forest Service Associate Director Mark Stanford said the recognition is an honor for the emergency responders who bravely served Texas during last year’s unprecedented wildfire season. More than 30,000 wildfires burned almost 4 million acres, destroying 2,946 homes across the state.   

The wildfires were suppressed with assistance from more than 16,000 emergency responders from all 50 states, along with 239 dozers, 954 engines and 246 aircraft. 

“We accept this award on behalf of all the local, state and interagency firefighters who participated in the 2011 wildfire season,” Stanford said. “They’re the ones who really earned this award.”

Gary Bowers, chairman of the National Interagency Fire Center Governing Board, wrote in a letter to Texas Forest Service that the agency demonstrated “exceptional work in interagency cooperation and coordination, safety of their firefighters and the public, the development of partnerships and group performance in fire management and suppression.” 

“It is our hope that collaboration efforts such as this will increasingly inspire and inform new cooperative efforts across the country,” Bowers wrote. “Congratulations on this award and the excellent work that it recognizes.”  

Contact:
April Saginor, Communications Specialist
979-458-6619, [email protected]  

(Reprinted with permission from Texas Forest Service - The Texas A&M University System)

Shared Purpose

Four-star General Stanley McChrystal shares what he learned about leadership over his decades in the military. How can you build a sense of shared purpose among people of many ages and skill sets? By listening and learning -- and addressing the possibility of failure.

General Stanley McChrystal is the former commander of U.S. and International forces in Afghanistan. A four-star general, he is credited for creating a revolution in warfare that fuses intelligence and operations.

Why You Should Listen to Him (taken from a TED video)

“With a remarkable record of achievement, General Stanley McChrystal has been praised for creating a revolution in warfare that fused intelligence and operations. A four-star general, he is the former commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan and the former leader of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which oversees the military’s most sensitive forces. McChrystal’s leadership of JSOC is credited with the December 2003 capture of Saddam Hussein and the June 2006 location and killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. McChrystal, a former Green Beret, is known for his candor.

After McChrystal graduated from West Point, he was commissioned as an infantry officer, and spent much of his career commanding special operations and airborne infantry units. During the Persian Gulf War, McChrystal served in a Joint Special Operations Task Force and later commanded the 75th Ranger Regiment. He completed year-long fellowships at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1997 and in 2000 at the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2002, he was appointed chief of staff of military operations in Afghanistan. Two years later, McChrystal was selected to deliver nationally televised Pentagon briefings about military operations in Iraq. From 2003 to 2008, McChrystal commanded JSOC and was responsible for leading the nation’s deployed military counter-terrorism efforts around the globe. He assumed command of all International Forces in Afghanistan in June 2009. President Obama’s order for an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan was based on McChrystal’s assessment of the war there. McChrystal retired from the military in August 2010.”

"One of America’s greatest warriors."
----Secretary of Defense Robert Gates


Wildland Fire Perspective
As we reflect on all the losses we've experienced in the month of July…think about what the General has to say about "Shared Purpose". How is our environment similar to those who are serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, or elsewhere abroad? The wildland fire environment changes rapidly, our troops and fire ground leaders must have the ability and empowerment to act with speed and focus, positioning, and simplicity. Our environment evolves faster than people have time to reflect or react…

Leading a dispersed force in the wildland fire environment occurs daily for us…what techniques or technology do you use to communicate and empower your people? How do you build their confidence, trust and faith in you as a leader when you do not have the ability to be face to face during daily operations? How do you empower your people to take advantage of "merging opportunities"?...or as Col. Eric Carlson states, "Fleeting windows of opportunity".

How do we/ you lead a group of firefighters with the current generational differences…or "gap"? Our firefighters have changed…they are smarter, stronger, quicker and need more information…

One question that Gen. McChrystal asks during his speech is similar to the one the "Commander" (Jim Cook) asks during Redding IHC's annual staff ride of the 1994 South Canyon fire: “Where were you in 1994? How many people were fighting fire in 1994?” This year…the answers were similar to what Gen. McChrystal found out….."sir, I was in the 6th grade!" So, where were your firefighters in 1994? Where were they in 2001? It is the 10 year anniversary of the 30-mile fire…how many of your firefighters even know about the 30-mile Fire, or the South Canyon fire?

Similar to our Armed Forces of America (God Bless and thank-you for your service), we are operating a force of firefighters that must have a sense of shared purpose and shared consciousness...they have a different skill set (digital media) that we must capitalize on and which we can learn from this generation.

Through all this, we must also be mindful of the cumulative pressure on ourselves as leaders as well as our fire ground leaders. WE must watch out and take care of each other. We are in the business of Growing leaders and we must give back as our predecessors did for us…get engaged at the entry level, get engaged at the junior leader level, get engaged at the senior leader level…never lose sight of the most important asset the wildland fire service has….our firefighters.

Stress and the IC

(Photo Credit: Frank Cianciola, McDonald Observatory)

Fire leaders bring order to chaos, improve our people’s lives, and strengthen our organizations.” (Leading in the Wildland Fire Service, p. 6)

The pictures coming out of the devastating wildland fires in Texas are incredible and heart wrenching. However, viewing the pictures does not come close to the emotions and stress incident commanders are dealing with to bring order out of the chaos. NWCG Leadership Subcommittee representative Mark Stanford, Texas Forest Service’s Chief Fire Operations, is one of those leaders facing the challenges of an unpredicted fire season.

As fire leaders, we make every attempt to ensure that we can perform our jobs on the fireline. However, as I have discussed in recent blog entries, we may never be fully prepared for the unlikely events that may occur. Fire leaders should be prepared by expecting the unexpected and leading accordingly.

A video on the HBR blog featuring Justin Menkes, author of Better Under Pressure, provides incident commanders with insight into the stressful life of an organizational leader under constant pressure. He explains “why today’s leaders need realistic optimism, subservience to purpose, and the ability to find order in chaos.”

Incident commanders know that increasing complexity is a trigger point to action. Nothing in the world of fire is constant and pressure is constant. How do you handle the pressures or stresses of the job? Are you proactive or reactive?

Additional Reference:
Human Resources IQ podcast with Justin Menkes (approximately 10 minutes)

Motivation – Purpose & You

(This is the final installment of a three-part series on motivation.)

A co-worker that I had the pleasure of working with a few years ago asked his children the following question on a daily basis: What have you done today to make the world a better place? I ask myself the same question and reflect upon my years of experience as to what I’ve done to make this world a better place.

Daniel Pink, author of Drive—The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, believes that “It’s our nature to seek purpose.” A cause larger than self for what we do is purpose. Pink says, “The most deeply motivated people—not to mention those who are most productive and satisfied—hitch their desires to a cause larger than themselves.”

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to help train a battalion of soldiers at Ft. Hood for a wildland firefighting assignment. As I talked with the soldiers, I was amazed to hear fear in their voices. These were individuals, many of who had returned from Operation Desert Storm, had a perception of wildland fire portrayed by major media outlets. Men and women who were willing to lay down their lives for their country found difficulty in facing fire. The purpose to defend their country from a human threat was not easily transferable to a naturally occurring threat.

As wildland fire leaders, we should respect our subordinates by getting to know each one and looking out for his/her well being. Do you know the purposes behind what motivates your subordinates? Do you know the purpose behind what drives your agency or organization?

In conclusion to this series, here are a few motivational resources:

RSA Animate – Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us – this YouTube video is an excellent capstone for bringing the series together. (My apologies for those readers restricted from viewing YouTube videos.)

Mind Tools™ Newsletter 181 – dedicated to boosting motivation skills. Included in the open forum are a few articles of merit to wildland fire leaders:

• Managing People with Low Ambition
• How Good are Your Motivation Skills?
• Herzberg’s Motivators and Hygiene Factors

Look at your leadership as a wildland firefighter. How has your leadership made the world a better place?

Serving with Purpose – A Wildland Fire Example

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with North Zone Fire Management through the Leadership in Cinema program. Beyond their contribution to that program, NZ Fire is committed to doing a great service for the Wildland Firefighter Foundation. In response to the Foundation’s assistance to one of their own, NZ “reversed tool” and has made it a crew purpose to support the Foundation. A quick look at the Foundation’s website shows that many others have acted in kind.

If you have an example of living and working with purpose, share your story here.

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Source:

Pink, Daniel. (2009). Drive--The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. New York: Riverhead Books.

Motivation – The Art of Mastery

(This is the second in a three-part series on motivation.)

Like some of you, I enjoy solving Sudoku puzzles. My first puzzles were so marked up that it’s a wonder I could succeed at all yet alone continue solving them. I quickly developed a system of looking at the puzzle that made solutions seem to jump out of the page without all the markups. Soon, I was cruising through the easy puzzles in record time. I seemed to have mastered the basic concept of solving Sudoku puzzles.

Mastery is what Daniel Pink, author of Drive—The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, believes motivates some people. I work with a number of wildland firefighters who engage in various strength and conditioning programs such as CrossFit and P90X®. These highly driven individuals look forward to their workout, journal their best efforts, and have a mindset that they can get better and better with each attempt. A small bit of friendly competition between individuals and within self adds an extra bit of drive and determination to their quests.

Pink suggests that there are three laws of mastery:

• Mastery is a mindset.
• Mastery is a pain.
• Mastery is an asymptote.

Mastery is a Mindset

According to Pink, “the pursuit of mastery is all in our head.” The way we perceive something determines whether or not mastery is “impossible” or “inevitable.” Take our example above with the fitness workout group. How many times have tried a health or fitness program only to abandon it a short time later? The type of goals you set and how you approach tasks may very well be reasons for your lack of success.

Mastery is a Pain

This past year an adaptation of the movie “True Grit” was released. In the movie, Mattie Ross is determined to capture her father’s killer and hires U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn, a man with true grit, to assist her. The journey together isn't an easy one.

According to Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, grit is “firmness of mind or spirit: unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger.” Wildland firefighting is not a profession that fits everyone. If firefighting was easy or fun, everyone would be doing it. It takes true grit to master our trade.

Mastery, according to Pink, also involves flow. I equate flow to those periods when “time flies” and everything seems to run smoothly. Flow allows us to make it through the process when the pain of mastery would otherwise avert our attempt.

Pink provides a great quote by Julius Erving: “Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don’t feel like doing them.” Flow is what keeps us going.

Mastery is an Asymptote

When I began my present job with the wildland fire service, my ultimate goal was to create error-free documents. Every time someone found an error that I missed, I chastised myself. Luckily, I had a mentor who explained to me that if I truly expected every document to be free from error, we would never get one out the door. The closer I got to a project, the harder it was to see error. Not only that, but my brain compensated for some errors.

Pink refers to the nature of mastery as an “asymptote.” He says that we can get very close to mastery, but will never fully realize it. This can be a source of anxiety for some individuals; however, some find “joy in the pursuit more than the realization,” says Pink.

Ponder a few of these questions:

• Where does flow exist in your life?
• As a leader, do you know your subordinates well enough to know what brings joy to their work?
• How can you work with your subordinates to promote flow and mastery?

In our final installment on motivation, we’ll discuss purpose.

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Source:

Pink, Daniel. (2009). Drive--The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. New York: Riverhead Books.