By Frank Viscuso
A firefighter who worked on an engine company his entire career was recently promoted to the rank of lieutenant. On his first day working in his new position, the other officer at that station called out sick and the newly promoted lieutenant was assigned to the ladder company for the first time. A few hours into his shift, his company responded to a fully involved warehouse fire. Their assignment was to set up an elevated stream so the engine crew could pour water on the fire from a distance. It was a defensive attack.
他告诉司机去哪里position the apparatus。这driver整个职业生涯曾在一家梯子公司工作。他还与中尉一起工作了。他是该部门最有经验的空中梯子运营商之一。长大了放置空中hundreds of times, he felt the suggested position was incorrect, so he did what a good driver is supposed to do—he spoke up: “Lieutenant, the stream will not reach from this location. We should move the apparatus in about 20 feet.”
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这lieutenant heard the driver’s opinion but decided to discard it. He did what so many others in leadership positions do: He treated the suggestion as a personal challenge to his authority.
“将其定位在我告诉你的地方，”他严厉命令。
梯子公司的驾驶员和其他两名消防员做到了他们的告知。在举起空中并建立供水后，他们开始流水，并错过了20英尺的火。
This newly appointed officer made a classic mistake of confusing position with experience (see #7 below). These types of mistake happen, but people in leadership positions need to learn from them. If they do not, they may not be ready for a leadership role.
Not every member of a team is ready to lead. In fact, some departments have a bad habit of elevating uneducated and sometimes incompetent individuals to the highest level within the organization. This needs to be corrected. A fire service leader must be educated, competent, and prepared.
你可能不知道,如果你愿意的话on the role of a team leader. I believe you are, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this article. Don’t be fooled into thinking you need to have it all figured out. One of the best ways to develop your leadership skills is to take action before you feel ready. We learn, grow, and change by doing, not by thinking about doing. I was once asked if I knew of any good leadership exercises. The truth is that the best way to practice being a leader is to lead others in a mission of some sort. I often speak about Leadership 101. If you are unfamiliar with it, here is a summary. There are four steps to leading:
1. Identify a problem.
2. Assemble a group of people.
3. Develop a solution together.
4. Solve the problem.
If there were a step 5, it would be rinse and repeat. Do this enough times and people will begin to see you as an effective leader.
To lead a team, you also need other people who are ready to lead at various levels within your organization. To successfully lead, you have to identify your key players–your critical few. Leaders have distinguishing characteristics, and so do people who are not ready to lead others. In my bookStep Up and Lead, I thoroughly cover leadership traits and skills. Let’s take a moment to talk about the opposite side of the coin. It’s important that we are able to determine who is ready to take on a leadership role and who is not. The list below can help you make that determination.
10个迹象表明，一个人可能没有准备好领导
1. Can’t handle pressure.领导者经常受到钦佩，但他们经常受到批评，有时甚至被嘲笑。真正的领导者理解这一点，并能够将其视为视角。西德尼·格林伯格（Sidney Greenberg）曾经说过：“一个成功的男人（或女人）是一个可以与其他人扔给他的砖头坚定的基础。”在消防服务中，不难看到有人如何应对压力。我们定期处理高压情况。但是，当一个人扮演领导角色时，压力会加剧。领导者不再仅对他的行为负责。他负责团队的行动。注意一个人如何应对挑战和争议。他扮演受害者还是怪别人？ By definition, victims aren’t leaders. Leaders step up and take charge during difficult times.
2.不足的人技能。大多数没有足够或穷人技能的人都不知道。当您周围的人具有强大的人际交往能力时，该人有能力使他人感到重要，并且是其他人喜欢在附近的人。领导者聆听，注意，提供建议，并以身作则。关于领导者致力于提高与人的技能的人很受欢迎：“领导者是读者。”提高人们技能的最佳方法之一是阅读正确的书籍。当您看到团队成员阅读自助和个人成长书籍时，您就会知道他们的头在正确的位置。
3.值不与组织的价值保持一致。Leaders are culture creators. They are passionate about developing the right culture. Passion comes from values and beliefs. If a person clearly does not believe in the mission of the team, he is not the right person to help develop the culture you are trying to create. One way to determine if a person believes in your mission is to determine if the individual has been a good follower. Often, good followers become good leaders because they have learned to adopt a vision and move toward that direction for the betterment of the team.
4.不喜欢不舒服。Leadership is about change. The fact is, if you are not achieving your desired results, change is the only option. Change is uncomfortable. There is no way around it. When people avoid change, they become trapped in their own comfort zone, and no one will ever achieve anything significant without stepping outside of that familiar zone and into unfamiliar territory. Leaders realize this. They also acknowledge that the only constant is change.
5.将个人需求推向团队。A person who refuses to give credit where it is due is not ready to lead others. Leaders know that for them to become important they have to consider themselves the least important person on the team. Trying to take the spotlight all the time is a sign of immaturity and selfishness. Others recognize this flaw immediately and tend to hold back from giving their best performance. A strong leader understands that everyone on the team has needs and tries to accommodate those needs along the way. Leaders realize that the shortest least significant words in the English language are “I” and “me.”
6. Sets bad examples.这是显而易见的，但需要提及。即使一个人是一个强大的生产者，如果他在此过程中树立了不好的例子，其他人也会遵循这些例子。以定期使用犯规和冒犯性语言的人。当他达到领导职位时，团队中的每个人都会认为这是可以接受的。如果团队成员在午餐室周围以这种方式说话足够舒适，那么在工作场所以外的错误时间说错话只是时间问题。
7. Confuses position with experience.Title, position, and rank represent something significant and should not be diminished. That being said, many people in leadership positions need to stop trying to act as if they have more experience in every area than all of the other members on their team combined. The fact is that we can all learn something new from every member of our team. Even if you do have more experience than most, don’t discount their personal experiences that may provide valuable insight when you need it. The fire service does not need more officers who lack experience. We need more leaders.
8. Is inconsistent。A team leader cannot afford to be on one day and off the next. Yes, personal challenges will happen and there will be times when a person isn’t on top of his game, but that’s different. When inconsistency is the norm, the individual is not stable enough to lead a team on a regular basis. This quality and all of the others listed above can be overcome as long as the individual doesn’t have the ninth and tenth signs.
9.优柔寡断。An indecisive person is described as “not having or showing the ability to make decisions quickly and effectively.’ Leaders make decisions, period. They don’t sit on the fence and wait for everything to be perfect. They look at the options, make a decision, and act on it. When a person takes too long to make decisions, rules often change and opportunities are lost. The “politically correct” thought process of “I feel strongly both ways” can take its toll on a team of people hungry for a clear decision and a precise action plan. A person simply cannot make progress without making decisions.
10. Is unable or unwilling to take corrective action.When a person is unaware that he is doing things incorrectly or showing poor judgment, sometimes all he needs is a little guidance. The real problems occur when the person is unable or unwilling to take corrective action. If the person is unable to do so, most of the time this weakness can be overcome with training and effort. Being unwilling to do so, however, is a completely different animal. People unwilling to do the things that need to be done have no place on your team and certainly should not be put in a leadership role. In the fire service, we have a word for people who are unwilling–insubordinate.
在您接受需要个人责任和问责制的角色之前，请问自己：“我准备好担任领导职务吗？”考虑一个人在您的团队中担任领导角色时，请考虑同样的问题。如果该人具有上面列出的一些特征，请对其进行处理或重新考虑为团队的利益。
别忘了，您的大多数技能都会来自做。如果您觉得自己具有其中一些非领导力特征，那么承认弱点是增长的关键。教育自己。看书。参加研讨会。环顾四周，找到您欣赏并研究领导角色的人。效仿他们所做的事情，这给您留下了深刻的印象，但不要失去您的个人才华或风格。
BIO
弗兰克·维斯库索（Frank Viscuso）是新泽西州科尔尼的主题演讲者，副总裁兼旅行指挥官。他是Fireopsonline的共同创始人，也是六本书的作者，包括Step Up and Lead.
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