Leadership.

I've been thinking a lately about leadership. Thinking about what makes a leader, and more importantly what makes a GOOD leader. 

Leading isn't easy, if often comes with various successes and frequent mistakes. Esspecially leadership in the Fire Service! It's a group of guys (and sometimes girls too), in a high stress environment filled with testosterone, adrenaline and ego. It's safe to say that your not going to make the best desision 100% of the time and that someone is going to begrudge you for it.

So let's take the officer of the truck for example. They are in the front seat of the truck, and by default they are the leader of the crew. There is rules about who is able to sit in this seat we know, and we also know that sometimes it's fought over. Most likely because we all want to lead, it's fun to be in charge. That's where the rule part comes in, it should diminish the fighting right? WRONG. Put two people who are equally qualified there and you'll hear all kinds of reasons about who is really more qualified to do the job. "I'm more experienced!" "I have more certifications!" "I'm older" "I've been a member longer!" I can't tell you what's more important, having knowledge of something an why things are the way they are or having been there and seen it happen. Ultimently that's up to your Cheif officers to decide, they are both good, important and really should just be mixed together! We can stand there all day and agruge that the training is valuable or that you've been there and done that, your both gonna be right. So I say this, Anyone can lead from the front, that's easy. Challenge yourself, lead from the back!  

The part we all miss in leadership is the subtle things that make all the difference. What makes a good leader isn't certifications or your porfolio, it's your ability to handle people. The ability to enable a body of people to do what they do in an organized fasion. Letting people make mistakes or giving them a chance to shine! 

See, you can have the most qualified or most experienced officer of the truck. However that officer is only going to be as good as his crew.  When you sit in the back, you can put your knowledge or experience to work and you can lead by example. When the day is done, a humble leader is typically a better leader.

We all lead, in one way or another. You don't have to be in an offical position to lead, the only thing that really gets you is more gray hair and extra paperwork!

Lessons Learned

If you have a few minutes this is a good video to watch, or even listen to as you go about your day.

It raises some good points about personal saftey and awareness through some hard lessons Denver Fire Department learned.

Denver Fire Department: Leadership So Everyone Goes Home

Different Light

I was talking with a friend of mine the other night, and I made a comment about having had been nervous to walk at graduation commencement that night.  It was something we where all feeling, 13 years of education, hard work, blood, sweat, and tears all came down to that one final moment.  So to be nervous was rather understandable!  However she says to me "you run into burning building and its totally chill but that made you nervous?" and in my half asleep state of mind I thought to myself "when you put it that way..." It was a good point.

As we go through life there are so many things we focus on, dwell on, and worry about.  There is even a few things we decide not to do simply because we are afraid of what might happen if we do.  Often we miss opportunity, and miss the chance to enjoy a moment in life because we are so caught up in the "what if" of something else.  Some things that we do like running into burning buildings or working an accident scene on the side of the highway one would think we'd be more afraid of, after-all the stakes are higher. If your like me you don't think about it; rather you just do it because it needs to be done.  When we put things in our lives into different prospective or different light we may begin to see that there isn't so much to worry about. So rather than missing your chance to do something great or to make a memory; take a chance. Live a little and see what happens.