The Fire Chief of the Future

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The Fire Chief of the Future

• Developing Authentic Leadership

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Study of Great Leaders

• 50 years and1000 leadership studies
• Determine definitive styles
• Determine characteristics
• Determine personality traits
• Still no clear profile of the ideal leader

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Discovering Authentic Leadership

• No one can be authentic by being a copy
• People trust a genuine leader
• Leadership has many voices. Being who we are
  and cultivating our purpose is more important
  than emulating someone else.

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Authentic Leadership

• Cloning successful leaders from history or even
  cloning successful fire chiefs of the past and
  present will not assure successful fire service
  leaders in the future.

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Authentic Leadership

• If we were able to take the best of all
  character and personality traits of the best of
  fire chiefs and inject them into each aspiring
  chief officer of the VCOS, we would set that
  chief officer up for failure.

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Authentic

• Definition--Conforming to facts and therefore
  worthy of trust, reliance or belief
• Authentic leaders are always in the process of
  conforming
• We are all a work in progress

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Authentic Leaders

• Demonstrate a passion for their purpose
• Practice their values consistently
• Lead with their hearts and heads
• Establish long-term meaningful relationships
• Have self-discipline to get results
• Authentic fire chiefs know who they are.

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Authentic Leaders

• To Become an Authentic Leader You
• ___________________________________
• Do not have to be born with specific character
  and personality traits
• Do not have to wait for approval
• Do not have to be at the top
• Can discover your potential and fulfill your
  leadership destiny

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Authentic Leaders

• Five areas of focus for Authentic Leadership
• __________________________________
• Life stories
• Practicing your values and principles
• Balanced motivations
• Building a strong support team
• Living an integrated, grounded life

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Authentic Leadership

• Learning From Your Life Story
• ___________________________________
• Provides the context for experiences
• Inspires our dreams and destiny
• Your bio and resume are not the essence of who
  you are

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Your Life Story

• The Full Spectrum of Experiences
• ___________________________________
• Impact of parents
• Athletic coaches
• Teachers
• Mentors

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Your Life Story

• Transforming Effects of Crucibles
• ___________________________________
• Poverty
• Loss of a job
• Personal illness
• Death of a relative or friend
• Being excluded
• Discriminated against
• Rejected by peers

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Knowing Yourself

• Self-awareness--the most important capability for
  leaders to develop
• Most common tendencies
• Strive to achieve success money, fame, power,
  status
• Achieves unsustainable success
• Knowing our authentic selves requires courage
  and honesty to openly examine our experiences

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The Value of Feedback

• Fire/Rescue Article
• Two things I should stop doing
• Two things I should start doing
• Two things I should continue doing

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Practicing Values and Principles

• The values that form authentic leadership are
  derived from beliefs and convictions, but you
  will not know what your true values are until
  they are tested under pressure.

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Practicing Values and Principles

• It is easy to list your values and live by them
  when things are going well. When your success,
  your career or even your life hangs in the
  balance, you discover whats important, what you
  are prepared to sacrifice and what compromises
  you are willing to make. Leadership principles
  are values translated into action.

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Balancing Motives

• Because authentic fire chiefs need to sustain
  high levels of motivation and keep their lives in
  balance, it is critically important for them to
  understand what drives them to do what they do.

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Balancing Motives

• Extrinsic Motives
• ___________________
• Recognition
• Social Status
• Promotions
• Financial rewards
• Peers, Parental Expectations

• Intrinsic Motives
• ___________________
• Personal growth
• Helping others
• Social causes
• Making a difference

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Building Your Support Team

• Authentic leaders build their networks over time,
  as the experiences, shared histories, and
  openness with people close to them create the
  trust and confidence they need in time of trial
  and uncertainty.
• Leaders must give as much to their supporters as
  they get from them so that mutually beneficial
  relationships can develop.

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Building Your Support Team

• Authentic Fire Chiefs Build Support Teams
• ___________________________________
• Counsel during uncertainty
• Help in times of difficulty
• Celebrate in times of success

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Multifaceted Support Structure

• Spouses/Significant others
• Families
• Mentors
• Close Friends
• Colleagues

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Personal and Professional Support Groups

• Professional
• Volunteer and Combination Officers Section
• Chiefs Associations
• Personal
• Community service organizations
• Civic groups
• Golfing, hunting and fishing buddies
• Small group meetings

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Integrated Life Staying Grounded

• To lead a balanced life, leaders need to bring
  together all of its constituent elementwork,
  family, community, and friendsso that you can be
  the same person in each environment.

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Integrated Life Staying Grounded

• Think of your life as a house, with a bedroom for
  your personal life, a study for your professional
  life, a family room for your family and a living
  room to share with your friends.
• Can you knock down the walls between these rooms
  and be the same person in each of them?

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Integrated Life Staying Grounded

• Steady and confident presence
• No zero-sum game personal and professional
• Resonates in high stress conditions
• Model a fitness culture
• Spiritually connected
• Community service oriented
• Returns to The Hood

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Empowering Others

• There is no success without a successor
• Develop leaders at every level
• Empower others to step up and lead
• A reputation for building relationships
• Attracts talented people

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Rewards of Authentic Leadership

• Pleasure of group achievement
• Crossing the finish line together
• Satisfaction of empowering others
• Making the world a better place

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References

• The Fire Chief of the Future
• Chief Fire Officers Desk Reference
• Chapter 25, by Kelvin J. Cochran
• Discovering Your Authentic Leadership
• Harvard Business Review, February 2007
• Authentic Leadership Rediscovering the Secrets
  to Creating Lasting Value
• Bill George, 2003

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• Comments and Questions?