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Building an Urban Culture

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band_webA couple of the responses to December’s confrontation at Task Force 1 included a reference to the HBO series “Band of Brothers.”

The ten episode series covered Easy Company during World War II, an adoption the book written by history professor and biographer Stephen Ambrose.

MENTORING EAGER EDDIE

Eddie has five years with your department. One of the most enthusiastic firefighters you have met, “Double E” has a reputation of outworking almost anyone on the job.

He seems tone-deaf when it comes to supervision and leadership. Expects everyone else to work as hard as he does. Could use some tactfulness when dealing with the public.

He comes to you for advise. How can be prepare to be the best fire officer he can be? The promotional exam is two years away.

DEVELOPING AN APPROPRIATE FOUNDATION

What movies should Eddie see? What fictional or real characters should be study? Any good books? We have two years to build an urban fire officer culture that Eddie can stand on to excel as a fire officer and, probably, as a senior command officer.

What would YOU recommend?

Mike “FossilMedic” Ward

URBAN COMMANDER is an irregular feature aimed at career staff working in metro-sized fire departments. It will cover topics that were too esoteric, short-term or “sharp” for the Fire Officer: Principles and Practice textbook. Click “Urban Commander” under Categories to get all of the articles.

Also on FireGeezer…

Posted by on February 8, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, culture, education, Fire Rescue Topics, Training & Development, Urban Commander • Tagged: , , ,
  • http://twitter.com/firehat firehat

    I believe leaders are readers and there are a couple of books I'd name right off the bat. The first book on my list teaches the leader to spend most of his reading time on classics that teach the nature of people and organizations; the promotional exam will take care of the fire books for Double E.
    -The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership by Steven Sample is a leadership book that is in no way common or cliche. For people who roll their eyes at academic or professional leadership coaches this book is a refreshingly out-of-the-box approach.
    -The Fire Inside by Steve Delsohn is the most poignant and forceful illustration of why we do what we do. Better even than Pride & Ownership, TFI shows the young member what it means to be a firefighter.

    I believe these two books will point the way toward other books That Double E might explore on his own. The importance isn't so much placed on specific titles as it is that he reads quality books and reads them regularly. Some books that directly influence me as a fire officer are A Plague On Your Houses (Wallace & Wallace), Deep Survival (Gonzalez), Our Own Worst Enemy (Larsen), and This Kind of War (Fehrenbach). I'm reading Normal Accidents (Perrow) right now and hope to gain a lot of use out of it in my career. Double E needs to find out what interests him, preferable in history or social contexts, and explore it through text. The sharper he hones his critical reading skills the better off he'll be when he is challenged with something new as an officer.

    The question about movies and fictional characters is interesting; I haven't thought much about those. Dick Winters from Band of Brothers springs to mind, even though he's obviously a real person. The fictionalized Winters we know from the book and movie is a great example to follow. FDR is a great exemplar of an important trait for an effective leader: he wasn't afraid to step on toes. I love his line, referring to his opponents, “They all hate me. Well I welcome their hatred.” Perhaps one of the most instructive historical figures to study is Abraham Lincoln, both in terms of leadership and in more personal areas.

  • http://www.firegeezer.com Mike "FossilMedic" Ward

    Wow, thanks for a generous post. Great suggestions and I appreciate that you shared your point-of-view.

    I have Normal Accidents somewhere on my “gotta read” pile.

    Mike

  • topv7051

    The biggest piece of advice I could give Eddie is that not everyone sees the job like he does, but that doesn't mean that they cannot do it well. He will have to temper his expectations of others. Next is, you have to care about people to do this job right. Not just the citizens, but your subordinates, peers, and even the chiefs.

    I'll save some room on the post by not copying them all, but I'd give him a copy of the Marine Corps' 11 Leadership principles and 14 Leadership traits. They can be found here:
    http://classes.engr.oregonstate.edu/eecs/fall20…

    I would also recommend a few books and movies, Band of Brothers foremost among the movies. Glory, with Matthew Broderick, is also good. For books, Norman's Fire Officer's Handbook of Tactics, Salka's First In, Last Out, any of Leo Stapleton's books, the previously mentioned Pride and Ownership. If he's a sports fan, Bo's Lasting Lessons, by Bo Schembechler (Univ of MI football coach) is a fun read and demonstrates a unique leadership style-an authoritative leader who can demand results with ruthless accountability but also demonstrates limitless compassion. Max DePree's Leadership is an Art is a short one but full of lessons.

  • http://twitter.com/firehat firehat

    I believe leaders are readers and there are a couple of books I'd name right off the bat. The first book on my list teaches the leader to spend most of his reading time on classics that teach the nature of people and organizations; the promotional exam will take care of the fire books for Double E.
    -The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership by Steven Sample is a leadership book that is in no way common or cliche. For people who roll their eyes at academic or professional leadership coaches this book is a refreshingly out-of-the-box approach.
    -The Fire Inside by Steve Delsohn is the most poignant and forceful illustration of why we do what we do. Better even than Pride & Ownership, TFI shows the young member what it means to be a firefighter.

    I believe these two books will point the way toward other books That Double E might explore on his own. The importance isn't so much placed on specific titles as it is that he reads quality books and reads them regularly. Some books that directly influence me as a fire officer are A Plague On Your Houses (Wallace & Wallace), Deep Survival (Gonzalez), Our Own Worst Enemy (Larsen), and This Kind of War (Fehrenbach). I'm reading Normal Accidents (Perrow) right now and hope to gain a lot of use out of it in my career. Double E needs to find out what interests him, preferable in history or social contexts, and explore it through text. The sharper he hones his critical reading skills the better off he'll be when he is challenged with something new as an officer.

    The question about movies and fictional characters is interesting; I haven't thought much about those. Dick Winters from Band of Brothers springs to mind, even though he's obviously a real person. The fictionalized Winters we know from the book and movie is a great example to follow. FDR is a great exemplar of an important trait for an effective leader: he wasn't afraid to step on toes. I love his line, referring to his opponents, “They all hate me. Well I welcome their hatred.” Perhaps one of the most instructive historical figures to study is Abraham Lincoln, both in terms of leadership and in more personal areas.

  • http://www.firegeezer.com Mike "FossilMedic" Ward

    Wow, thanks for a generous post. Great suggestions and I appreciate that you shared your point-of-view.

    I have Normal Accidents somewhere on my “gotta read” pile.

    Mike

  • topv7051

    The biggest piece of advice I could give Eddie is that not everyone sees the job like he does, but that doesn't mean that they cannot do it well. He will have to temper his expectations of others. Next is, you have to care about people to do this job right. Not just the citizens, but your subordinates, peers, and even the chiefs.

    I'll save some room on the post by not copying them all, but I'd give him a copy of the Marine Corps' 11 Leadership principles and 14 Leadership traits. They can be found here:
    http://classes.engr.oregonstate.edu/eecs/fall20…

    I would also recommend a few books and movies, Band of Brothers foremost among the movies. Glory, with Matthew Broderick, is also good. For books, Norman's Fire Officer's Handbook of Tactics, Salka's First In, Last Out, any of Leo Stapleton's books, the previously mentioned Pride and Ownership. If he's a sports fan, Bo's Lasting Lessons, by Bo Schembechler (Univ of MI football coach) is a fun read and demonstrates a unique leadership style-an authoritative leader who can demand results with ruthless accountability but also demonstrates limitless compassion. Max DePree's Leadership is an Art is a short one but full of lessons.