FireFighterNation

By Marc Revere
Published Tuesday, January 24, 2012

It has been reported that there are approximately 3,000 leadership, management and self-help books published each year. If you read just one percent of them, you will have read more than 30 books. Further, only a handful of these books are bestsellers; some of them are college-level textbooks and reference books that delve into the complexities of leadership.

In fact, although most contemporary leadership books are written to articulate/illustrate a new or different management opinion—how a particular leader succeeded in transforming an organization—they’re often just a repackaging of fundamental leadership and management concepts. The author may not reference it, but they are almost always calling on proven theories, such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Kübler-Ross’ Grief Cycle, etc. Sometimes we forget these models, theories and principles, or we’re just not exposed to them. However, they’re important to know, because they can be used in small or large organizations or at the local level, and are expandable depending upon the complexity, the size of the organization or the issue at hand.

Example: Authors Ken Blanchard and Paul Hersey wrote organizational development college textbooks. One of their textbooks, which I still have from my college days, contains a commonly used model called “Management of Organizational Behavior.” This model highlights the steps necessary to achieve change initiatives and details how long the process takes. But what Blanchard is really known for is his One Minute Manager, and a long line of “one-minute” books that followed. These books were highly successful, profitable and easy to read. They were very useful at the time; however, the Hersey/Blanchard Organizational Change Model is timeless.

Why do I make this point? Just like the fire triangle, management and leadership theories don’t change, but they do build on one another and on core concepts. The model of the fire tetrahedron and several flashover models build on the model of the fire triangle. Thus, it’s essential that firefighters understand the fire triangle before moving onto other complex models. It’s equally important that supervisors understand fundamental management concepts before comprehending complex systems.

But because you may not have been exposed to these leadership and management principles, and you probably don’t have time to read 30 management books this year, I’ve listed below five principles, five models, five statements, five books and five quotes that I believe can enhance anyone’s understanding of leadership.

Principles
1. Habits of the Effective Manager (Peter Ducker)

• The effective leader knows where their time goes.
• The effective leader focuses on outward contributions.
• The effective leader builds on strengths.
• The effective leader concentrates on the few major areas where superior performance will produce outstanding results.
• The effective leader makes effective decisions.

2. Managing with Power (Robert Dilenschneider)

• You need power—more power than the opposition.
• You need to understand power to get it.
• You must be willing to do things to build your sources of power.
• You must try to get power, or you will be less effective.
• To be powerful you must be useful.

3. Creating Positive Organizational Culture

• Create an atmosphere of openness and trust.
• Create a willingness of all individuals to interact with each other.
• Accept change as a way of life.
• Be willing to temporarily set aside personal interest for the benefit of the department as a whole.
• Have an individual preference for team participation over individual contribution.

4. Power and Politics (Marc Revere)

• Recognize that there are many interests.
• Diagnose the political landscape.
• Identify the relevant interests.
• Identify important political subdivisions.
• Do not assume that everyone is your friend.

5. Functions of the Dominant Leader (Marty Linsky and Ronald Heifetz)

• Chooses Direction
• Provides Protection
• Orients Members to Status/Place
• Controls Conflicts
• Maintains Norms

Change Models

1. Hersey/ Blancher—Organizational Change Model
2. William Bridges—Transition Model
3. Nieder and Zimmerman—Resistance to Change Pyramid
4. Coleman—Skills Needed Model
5. Kübler-Ross—Conflict and Grief Model

Books

1. On Becoming a Leader—Warren Bennis
2. Leading Change—John Kotter
3. Leadership Challenge—James Kouzes and Barry Posner
4. Leadership on the Line—Marty Linsky and Ronald Heifetz
5. The 7 Habits  of Highly Effective People—Stephen Covey

Leadership Statements

1. Adversary, Alliances and Allies: Alliances are often temporary and shifting. Stay in touch with everyone, but focus your special attention on those who are “players” in their field and could be valuable allies.
2. Connecting the Dots: The challenge is to operate within a complex environment, by staying alert to the consequences, but focusing on the problems solved.
3. Leader’s Attention: What leaders pay attention to tells everyone what’s really important in the organization. In the end, attention is the currency of power and the foundation of leadership; without it, position is lost and influence is unattended
4. Building upon Strengths: If you staff an organization to avoid weakness, you will end up with mediocrity, at best. Using only well-rounded people is a prescription for mediocrity, if not incompetence.
5. Power and Influence: Have the ability to understand what others fear or desire, then use that understanding to influence their behavior.

Quotes

1. Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.—Warren Bennis
2. The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.—Kenneth Blanchard
3. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.—Peter Drucker
4. Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems.—Brain Tracy
5. Where there is no vision, the people perish.—Proverbs 29:18

Of course, the above is my opinion of what I believe is important, based upon my four decades of education, experience, teaching, observation and mentoring. Max Weber wrote that power is “the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will, despite resistance.” I’m hardly an expert, just a practitioner, but it has been my observation that the quintessential key in leadership is in finding ways to overcome resistance while influencing outcomes.

Best of the Best
I have shared with you 25 models, books, principles, concepts and quotes—a very limited executive brief on a complex subject. If 25 is too many for you, following are my top one from each category:

1. Five Functions of the Dominant Leader—Protection, direction, order, orients members and maintains norm.
2. Hersey/ Blancher’s Organizational Change Model
3. On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis
4. Leaders Attention: What leaders pay attention to tells everyone what is really important in the organization. In the end, attention is the currency of power and the foundation of leadership; without it, position is lost and influence is unattended.
5. “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.”—Warren Bennis

Why five? Most people can only remember between one and seven items at a time; the Incident Command System is built on this concept. And the optimum number is five. This is based upon a long-standing management principle that supervisors should be limited to managing five or fewer direct reports.

1. An incident commander at a fire is responsible for no more than five to seven officers.
2. Strike teams have five engine companies.
3. Alarms have typically have four engines and a truck.
4. Lloyd Layman’s RECEO (Rescue, Exposures, Confinement, Extinguishment and Overall) includes five elements we must look for during size-up:
5. Layman’s classic decision-making matrix outlines five elements: Fact, Probability, Situation, Decision and Plan of Operation.

The last two are classics of all time for the fire service and are the basis for all size-up models  

There is a reason for the number five. I could go on, but my experience has taught me to limit it to no more than five!

 

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  Marc Revere

  Marc Revere, EFO, CFO, is the fire chief of the Novato Fire Protection District, an Internationally Accredited Agency in Marin County, Calif. He has 34 years in the fire service and is a Harvard Fellow. In 2010, Chief Revere became the first recipient of the Ronny Jack Coleman Leadership and Legacy Award from the Commission on Public Safety Excellence. Read Full Bio

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