1. The Fire Chief of the Future
Developing Authentic Leadership

2. Still no clear profile of the ideal leader
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
After over fifty years and over one thousand studies on leadership and great leaders an exact model of the perfect or ideal leader still has not emerged. Great work has been produced on leadership styles. Situational leadership suggests certain leadership styles are appropriate on a given situation, and that the leader must choose between directing, coaching, supporting and delegating based on the development level of subordinates. Situational leadership also suggests that the leader must be flexible, able to fluctuate from one style to the next and must be capable of communicating effectively within the chosen style. Likewise, leadership characteristics and personality traits are often studied to determine those closely correlated to successful leaders. There is still no clear profile of the ideal leader.

3. 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.”
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. 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 BCOC, we would set that chief officer up for failure.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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

7. Authentic fire chiefs know who they are.
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.
It’s got to be real: what you think, what you know, what you feel has got to be real!

8. Authentic Leaders To Become an Authentic Leader You:
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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
Most of us did not grow up with leadership on the forefront of our minds. When we decided we wanted to become firefighters most of us did not set an immediate goal to become a fire chief. As our career advanced and our involvement and passion for certain causes grew; or when we experienced the injustices of the early days of fire service integration, or experienced three and four successions of fire chiefs, somewhere along the way we felt compelled to become fire chiefs. You do not need to wait for your department to develop a succession plan. Take responsibility for developing yourself.

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

10. Authentic Leadership Learning From Your Life Story
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Provides the context for experiences
Inspires our dreams and destiny
Your bio and resume are not the essence of who you are
Novelist John` Barth: “The story of your life is not your life. It is your story.” In other words, it’s your personal narrative that matters, not the facts of your life. Your life narrative is like a permanent recording playing in your head. Over and over, you replay the events and personal interactions that are important to your life, attempting to make sense of them to find your place in the world.

11. Your Life Story The Full Spectrum of Experiences
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Impact of parents
Athletic coaches
Teachers
Mentors
Growing up with one or both parents; Being raised by grandparents; the impact of athletic coaches and teachers; the number and caliber of mentors encountered in your life.

12. Your Life Story Transforming Effects of Crucibles
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Poverty
Loss of a job
Personal illness
Death of a relative or friend
Being excluded
Discriminated against
Rejected by peers
Rather than seeing themselves as victims, authentic leaders used these formative experiences to give meaning to their lives. They reframed these crucibles to rise above their challenges and to discover their passion to lead.

13. 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
How am I coming across to others? How am I perceived by others? Do I have ways and habits that may be offensive or annoying to others? Am I too passive, too aggressive, too assertive?

14. 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
Denial can be the greatest hurdle that leaders face in becoming self-aware. Learn to take criticism without offence. Learn to tolerate personal failures and disappointments. Learn to forgive yourself. Learn to stretch yourself. Learn to reinvent yourself by developing new knowledge and new skills.

15. 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.”
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 what’s important, what you are prepared to sacrifice and what compromises you are willing to make. Leadership principles are values translated into action.

16. 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 what’s important, what you are prepared to sacrifice and what compromises you are willing to make. Leadership principles are values translated into action.

17. 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.

18. Balancing Motives Extrinsic Motives Intrinsic Motives
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Recognition
Social Status
Promotions
Financial rewards
Peers, Parental Expectations
Intrinsic Motives
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Personal growth
Helping others
Social causes
Making a difference
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. Intrinsic motivations are congruent with your values and are more fulfilling that extrinsic motivations.

19. 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.

20. Building Your Support Team
Authentic Fire Chiefs Build Support Teams
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Counsel during uncertainty
Help in times of difficulty
Celebrate in times of success
Leaders cannot succeed on their own; even the most outwardly confident executives need support and advice. Without strong relationships to provide perspective, it is very easy to lose your way. During their hardest days, leaders find comfort in being with people on whom they can rely on so they can be open and vulnerable. During low points, they cherish the friends who appreciate them for who they are, not what they are. Authentic leaders find that their support teams provide affirmation, advice, perspective, and calls for course corrections when needed.

21. Multifaceted Support Structure
Spouses/Significant others
Families
Mentors
Close Friends
Colleagues
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.

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

23. Integrated Life: Staying Grounded
To lead a balanced life, leaders need to bring together all of its constituent element—work, family, community, and friends—so that you can be the same person in each environment.
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?

24. 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?

25. 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”
A leader will not reach their full potential without spouse and children.

26. 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

27. Rewards of Authentic Leadership
Pleasure of group achievement
Crossing the finish line together
Satisfaction of empowering others
Making the world a better place

28. References The Fire Chief of the Future
Chief Fire Officer’s 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

29. Comments and Questions?