Editor’s Opinion | By David Rhodes
There are leadership books covering every principle, style, trait, strategy, mistake, and everything in between. When we read these books, we interpret them based on our personal experiences and, in the case of desired self-improvement, we most often use them as confirmation bias, as we believe we already do the wonderful things covered in the material. We all suffer from an overinflated self-assessment of our own leadership skills. It is the perception of our abilities that becomes the reality of others impacting our influence.
I don’t believe there are any perfect leaders out there, although it is safe to say that some are better than others. Just like fires, it’s very situational, and a person may exhibit strong leadership skills in one area and come up flat in another.
At the core of leadership is trust. Trust is defined as a strong belief in something or someone. You can’t get anywhere as a leader without establishing trust. In his book The Speed of Trust, Stephen M. R. Covey relates low trust and high trust as taxes and dividends. The lower the level of trust, the higher the tax on your time and success. The higher the level of trust, the more payoffs in dividends and the faster things are accomplished.
To build trust, you must have credibility. Credibility is established by the leader’s competence and character—competence being determined by your capabilities and results and character being determined by your integrity and intent.
Low trust taxes include an unhealthy work environment, unhappy employees, an intense political atmosphere with clear camps and parties, excessive time wasted defending positions and decisions, painful micromanagement and bureaucracy, and hidden agendas. Examples of high trust dividends include high levels of collaboration and partnering, effortless communication, positive transparent relationships with employees, fully aligned systems and structures, strong innovation, engagement, confidence, loyalty, and creativity.
Trust can take a long time to build and can be destroyed in a matter of seconds. However, trust can be rebuilt if the leader is willing to admit mistakes and right wrongs. Many think it is too risky to trust anyone, but it’s more of a burden not to trust anyone.
You have heard it before: “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Love is defined as an intense feeling of deep affection or great interest in something. Your desire to be a leader should grow from your great interest in the success of others. If you don’t have a deep affection for the well-being and success of people, then for everyone’s sake, don’t take on a leadership role! Your position does not make you a leader, but your position may allow you to make the decisions that exemplify your heartfelt concern for others. Taking actions through your position can build trust and brings authenticity to your intentions.
In our profession, love is often exhibited in brotherhood and sacrifice. We take care of our own just as we would our family. In places where this is lacking, it is a reflection of a leadership style void of trust and love. Toxic leaders are selfish, positional, and absent of interest in the members other than what the members can do for them. Their interest is not in the success of the members but rather in the preservation of their status and position. These individuals do, however, show a strong sense of love for themselves and take pleasure in setting individuals or groups up to fail in an attempt to preserve the perception of their superiority. These leaders use intimidation and assignments and file lots of complaints against others in a failed attempt to force followership and compliance. Many in the organization pretend to follow but only in the leader’s presence. In other words, they fake it to maintain their own safety. The break rooms and kitchen tables are full of conversations that reflect the true opinions about these “leaders.”
Colonel John Boyd, a member of the United States Air Force and father of the decision cycle observe, orient, decide, and act (the OODA Loop), would often advise individuals that to understand leadership you must have a grasp on the second law of thermodynamics. This law is an expression of the universal law of entropy, which states that the entropy of an isolated system that is not in full equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium. For us hose-dragging, window-breaking firefighters, that means without outside influences, an organization or individual will turn inward and remain in a state of perpetual chaos.
The principle here is that outside influence, constant evaluation, and adjustment are needed for an organization or individual to be a true leader. The environment is constantly changing around us, so those who only focus inward quickly grow stagnant and become inactive or irrelevant.
Think of entropy as all the talent in your organization that is not used or that is underused because of the organizational environment. This happens because of the inward focus by a leader at some level of the organization. The higher the position that leader occupies, the more widespread the effect on the organization.
There is much more to the leadership puzzle than these three observations. If you work to build and give trust, if you love and care about your coworkers to the point of wanting their success and what is best for them, and if you constantly look outside of your organization and field for expertise to expand your knowledge and understanding, then you will have a good foundation in leadership. You will set a good example and won’t need intimidation and position to build relationships and influence. Those relationships will result in real collaboration and partnerships for accomplishing good.
