COMPONENTS OF EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP

No one article can identify all the components required be become an effective leader. That would require a book the size of the NFPA Handbook. This article will focus on the qualities of effective leadership.

What are some of the qualities of effective leadership? Some say you have to be a company man and others say you need to be Mr. Nice Guy. Yet, many believe you have to be a strong disciplinarian. If you choose any of these roles, you are just asking for trouble. Being a supervisor will not be fun for you.

The truth is, you don’t have to be an autocratic leader, one of the boys, or a company suck-up. What is required is solid technical skills, character, and qualities that people want to emulate. Some say that leadership is an “art”. Others say leaders are born with natural ability to lead. Don’t believe either. Effective leadership requires skill. And skills can be learned. Therefore, effective leadership can be learned.

One way to learn the skill of effective leadership is to watch supervisors who are successful, productive, and respected. You will find they all have in common some of the  leadership characteristics that will be identified in this article. They use supervisory techniques that have been proven to work. They don’t keep on trying and re-trying the techniques that continually fail. They have learned to apply these techniques at the right time to the right people. These are techniques that we all can learn.

Let’s start with technical competence. The technically competent supervisor has advanced knowledge of firefighting strategy and tactics, goal setting, time management, motivating people, how to communicate effectively, how to build a team, how to coach, counsel, and  discipline when necessary.  All these components of effective leadership can be learned and practiced. There are many leadership workshops, seminars, and books that will provide information on becoming a technically competent leader. All it takes is the time and energy to learn these shills.

Many have said that “the biggest leadership gap in today’s work world is credibility.” This statement has been echoed time and time again with the behavior of CEO’s of ENRON, World-Com and other companies that have deceived the public and even its own employees. Despite bold rhetoric about the indispensability of credibility, many hard driving private organizations are willing to be “flexible” on the credibility issue to get a person perceived to be exceptionally competent. Having credibility as a leader is also a requirement in today’s fire service.

As we should, we look for leaders that demonstrate competence, have good knowledge and experience, are intelligent, have a vision, have excellent communication and relationship skills, and have the ability to motivate. However, we should look for qualities such as honesty, moral courage, accountability, and fairness.  In reality, good character is an essential aspect of competence.

Since it’s easier to train a person of good character to do a job well, than it is to develop character in a skilled but unprincipled leader, when we have a choice, we should promote a supervisor for character and train for skills.