Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership Flashcards
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p119
What does it take for fire officer to be a courageous leader?
Ambition
the ability to inspire others
courage to push the company towards excellence
skills an effective supervisor
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p120
Why did Thompson attach courage to leadership?
Because the two things that he sees most often lacking from the company officer position is
- the courage to do the right thing, not the popular thing, and
- The courage to get the company out of the recliners and into training, pushing the company towards excellence.
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p121
15 signs you will become a great leader.
- You empower others
- You have emotional intelligence
- You use logic
- You start with why
- You focus on finding solutions to the problems
- You are a learner
- You make others better
- You think outside the box
- You are a good follower
- You listen more than you talk
- You give frank and fearless advice
- You communicate effectively
- Your compassionate
- You’re not afraid to make big decisions
- You’re emotionally mature for your position
(16) You’re able to inspire others to be the best versions of themselves
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p121
What is the difference between the 15 signs you will become a great leader and other leadership list provided by Thompson?
Prior Scott talked about 20 leadership personality traits, this list are
Skills that can be observed, in many cases taught.
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p121
What did Daniel Goleman (some guy who wrote a book) have to say about emotional intelligence?
IQ and technical skills are important, but emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership.
noun
an essential condition; a thing that is absolutely necessary.
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p122
What makes emotional intelligence so important for leadership (quote from Goleman)
… While the qualities associated traditionally with leadership – such as intelligence, toughness, determination, and vision – are required for success they are insufficient.
Truly effective leaders are also distinguished by a high degree of emotional intelligence, which includes self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p122
Emotional intelligence definition
Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, control, and evaluate emotions of one’s self and others.
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p123
Emotional intelligence influences each of the following:
Decision-making change tolerance teamwork social skills customer service trust accountability stress tolerance
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p124
Empathy
The ability to share someone else’s feelings or experience by imagining what it would be like to be in that person situation.
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p124
What is the one dimension of emotional intelligence that is easily recognized?
Empathy
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p124
When at TCFD firefighter states “everyone doesn’t want it their way, but people do strive to be understand”. What is he describing?
Empathy
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p125
As supervisors, we sometimes assume too much we assume that those in charge know what the expectations are and that we shouldn’t have to tell people what we expect.
What is a simple solution here?
Sometimes all you have to do to position the company for success, or to make it fire company functional, is to simply communicate Well Thought Out Expectations and then see to it that an effort is being made to meet those expectations.
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p127
When it comes to the art of leadership, there is no substitute for…
Transparent, two-way, face-to-face communication.
When given the opportunity always choose to talk to people face-to-face.
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p127
What is one of the greatest challenges for company officers when building team chemistry and maintaining family environment?
Competing against all the distractions that technology causes.
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p127
What is such a powerful force that you must always understand how to use it to develop, and not destroy?
Communications
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p128
Unfair, careless communications have the power to damage people you care about. What is a good method to try to prevent such mistakes?
Always reread the things you write, ask yourself is this Motivating a Desired Behavior, or sending a message of Distrust? Sometimes there’s a fine line between the two.
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p128
Your crew knows when you are being sincere in your words, but they don’t always know when you’re being sarcastic. What should company officers be cautious with here?
Company officers began to drift towards failure when they begin to believe that they are so well-liked or so highly respected that they can say whatever they want to who whomever they want – not true. Don’t ever give the team the ammunition to damage her character, her credibility, your integrity, or your career.
You took the promotion and agreed to be held to a higher standard.
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p128
What is a powerful form of respect?
Sincerity. While people will laugh at your jokes they will respond to your sincerity. What they say about a legacy is true: people will remember how you made them feel more than anything else.
Firefighters will come to you if they know they can trust you. If you want to lose their trust treat their issues with sarcasm and further team for laugh and see how fast the trust leaves.
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p128-129
What are the 10 common toxins that invade fire houses across the country?
- Bad attitudes
- Low morale
- Lack of trust
- Rumors
- Downtime
- Lack of maturity
- Entitlement
- Poor performance
- Perception doesn’t match reality
- Lack of leadership and effective supervision
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p129
What are the 10 leadership crushers/kryptonite?
- Choosing to participate in poor behavior
- Using discipline as a threat
- Separating yourself from those you lead
- Forgetting where you came from and what you expect from an officer
- Putting your needs before others
- Thinking that because you are now a captain, all else is pardoned.
- Failure to forgive and move on
- Failure to maintain knowledge, skills, and abilities
- Allowing people under your supervision to drift towards failure
- Failure to listen and learn
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p129
An officer is practicing leadership and is showing signs of an effective supervisor, if he is doing what?
Laying out clear performance and behavior expectations for the house
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p132
Company contribution exercise:
The Excellence Vision and Success Standard
Column 1 contribution: Friction
Action: Eliminate (the friction)
Friction is a negative contribution.
There are usually personal issues that go far beyond the fire company. Have there medical or serious emotional condition, or the possibility of in the back of your mind. Think about employee assistance opportunities.
Work with them using a structured process with follow-up, if all else fails think out-of-the-box.
These members identify problems never offer realistic solutions. Poor attitude. Low average performance.
Eliminate the friction. Review expectations have regularly scheduled coaching, accountability, goal setting sessions.
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Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p132-134
Company contribution exercise:
The Excellence Vision and Success Standard
Column 1 contribution: The Employee
Action: Motivate
Most frustrating/challenging level of commitment. Members who choose to do the minimum to stay employed.
The challenge here is getting these members to a mental and physical position where they are able to do good if they promoted to company officer. A company officer who contributes at the employee level impacts the entire company.
Action steps include encouraging and recognizing company contributions, making success and survival personal. Seek input on interests, and what seems to deter their motivation. Motivate, repeat for duration of career.
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p134
Company contribution exercise:
The Excellence Vision and Success Standard
Column 1 contribution: Undecided
Action: Influence
Common level of contribution, should be the fire company’s highest priority. These employees can go either way depending upon the subculture and influences in the firehouse. Usually lack confidence.
Place them in a positive environment, with very clear individual expectations. The more they are exposed to positive role models/mentors the more likely they are our to see what success looks like. Officers can commit to the success of these members by evaluating their mental positions each shift and taking advantage of teachable moments.
The most important things to not give up when they are being influenced by someone who doesn’t get it.
Action influence
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p135
Company contribution exercise:
The Excellence Vision and Success Standard
Column 1 contribution: Gets it
Action: Train
Where we would like new hires and new promotions to be. Getting it means they have the mental position required for success (attitude, motivation, work ethic, etc.).
Understands the job, committed, passionate, and live the brotherhood; they get it
Action train
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p136
Company contribution exercise:
The Excellence Vision and Success Standard
Column 1 contribution: Effective supervisor
Action: Inspire
Consistently does the right thing. Positions the company and each member for mental and physical success by assuring they are prepared.
Invest in others by modeling the right way and coaching.
Need accurate feedback and continual support they do best in an environment that continually allows them to develop their technical, management, and supervisory skills. Need to be inspired to see if they have the ambition to become a leader.
Action inspire
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Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p136
Company contribution exercise:
The Excellence Vision and Success Standard
Column 1 contribution: Committed to follow
Action: Mentor
Critical leadership development phase. Consistently demonstrate support for the mission, vision, and core values simply because it’s the right thing to do. Consistently deliver on expectations and achieve personal goals. Members have ambition and understand the importance of following. Must follow to lead.
Want to be around people who model the right way. Make success personal for them by providing feedback with specific examples of where specific actions or decisions to led to desired outcomes.
Do not damage ambition
Action mentor
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p137
Company contribution exercise:
The Excellence Vision and Success Standard
Column 1 contribution: Courageous leader
Action: Coach
Practices leadership, inspires others to be the best versions of themselves, has the courage to push the fire company towards excellence. They make a fire company functional.
Require the tools necessary for success, opportunity, and feedback
Action coach
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p137
Company contribution exercise:
The Excellence Vision and Success Standard
Column 1 contribution: Functional Leader
Action: Support
Unique leadership mode, because it focuses on what the leader does instead of who the leader is. Functional leaders make sure the needs of the small group are met so the tactics and task can be accomplished.
Level VIII leadership contributions are more about operations, which is a very important function of the company officer. Functional leader focuses on the needs of the task, the needs of the team, and the needs of the individual. When all three are met tactics began to get complete and the strategy accomplished.
Without a clear vision from above functional leaders will develop their own.
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p138
Thompson views the organization as healthy if contribution, columns one and two makeup less than ___% of the organization.
10%
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p138
What part of the company contribution exercise to members not enjoy?
People don’t like to be measured, but the only way they could track the success of the development of programs and progress is by tracking the development of members influenced by the programs and process.
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p138
When examining the results of the company contribution exercise and seen how the organization is doing overall, what does that tell him about his chosen culture?
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If the organization is doing well it means the chosen culture is truly a learning culture, and values the things that the organization believes will lead to success.
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p138
What is the most important thing to focus on in the results of the company contribution exercise?
Battalion chiefs look to see the contributions of each member’s increase, decrease, or stayed the same. The progress that members make is the most important thing to focus on the exercise.
Coaches use it to coach too
Chapter 7: Courageous Leadership p139
15 success truths I hope my officers know and practice
- Providing feedback, good or bad, best thing can do for each crewmember
- Perception is the truth. It’s important to recognize how people perceive the organization, because that perception is their truth.
- The reputation you earn on your good day, will determine the forgiveness you receive on your bad days
- Training will determine your success and failures
- Many firehouse problems are preventable
- Your firefighters, firehouse, apparatus, firefighting reflector leadership
- If you master the basics the rest will fall in place
- Don’t ever mistake luck for success
- Everyone is responsible for survival and morale
- The mental aspects of survival are every bit as important as the physical aspects
- Letting things slide makes you weak leader
- Know your job better than anyone else and be the best at your job
- It can be a dysfunctional officer and have a functional fire company
- What you condone, you own
- Being fair can set people up for failure. Officers need to do what’s best for the organization not what they consider fair by each individual member.
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