BY ALAN BRUNACINI
I have used most of my monthly visit with you discussing some activity relating to being a functional boss. I have been a student of boss behaviors for a long time and continue to try to understand what leaders must do to effectively care for humans in the workplace. We have in the recent past looked at evaluating boss effectiveness on a vertical hierarchy; listed boss goofs; connected effective boss behaviors to delivering service to Mrs. Smith; and bounced around descriptions of applications of simple, but critical, no-brainer management ideas to support the troops who do the work of our business.
A boss activity that I continue to try to make sense of is what it takes to be an effective incident commander (IC). As a young firefighter, I developed an early curiosity about the dynamics and challenges of managing a hazard zone operation. I observed bosses on the fireground (our only service then) and was fascinated and somewhat bewildered by the range of their effectiveness: A few were very skillful and seemed to do an excellent job based on their natural ability; others, sadly, were just the opposite. The longer I watched them, the more I realized that since the department did not have any sort of preparation, training, or coaching program, the effectiveness of each individual was based on the capabilities of their personal profile. I thought, even at that early age, that this was a weird way to manage the person who was the boss of the most dangerous activity in which we engaged.
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