BY ALAN BRUNACINI
In last month’s column, we continued our discussion about how a boss personally uses the power that goes with his position. We included a fairly long list of what we called “power goofs.” I apologize for presenting these personal mistakes I recorded about the dysfunctional ways leaders behave with regard to their authority and influence. I prefer that our monthly get-together be mostly positive and encouraging, but we continually encounter the negative feelings workers express about working for a person who fails to use personal and positional power in a positive way. Dysfunctional boss behaviors can consistently produce a ton of organizational wreckage; and when this occurs, it creates a serious problem that complicates the process of getting anything positive accomplished. It is hard to do your job when you must continually dodge the self-serving, ego-driven bullets your insecure boss is shooting at you.
I must relate a happy experience I recently had as I was in the process of writing all the (negative) stuff in the past couple of columns. I was invited to participate in a two-day conference hosted by my longtime friend Richard Marinucci, a very progressive chief in Michigan (also a longtime Fire Engineering author). The opportunity to spend a couple of days with Rich was a treat because he is the exact positive opposite of the negative boss-power problems I have been discussing. He has consistently been a positive model of how to use the resources of being a boss so well-he is smart, effective, and nice. He makes doing difficult tasks expertly look very easy (which it is not).
Crew Resource Management
The topic of the conference was Crew Resource Management (CRM), a program developed by the aviation industry in response to plane crashes caused by badge-heavy head pilots who did not effectively interact with their crew (a big deal, very common power goof). This dysfunctional interaction between the boss and the flying crew was serious enough that it resulted in an operational problem that caused the plane to violently smack into the earth-a very bad ending to a plane ride. Lots of times in these cases, the crew could have collectively taken corrective action sooner to prevent the “bad landing” (understatement). The basic leadership difficulty was that the big boss caused the accident by choosing to use his authority (power) by responding to a subordinate’s statement “We are out of fuel” with “We are out of fuel when I say we are out of fuel!” (Wow!) Fuel does not care how many stripes the boss has on his sleeve. When it’s gone, it’s gone. In this case, the harsh reality is that we never run out of gravity and it will always take over (and win) when an airplane runs out of fuel.
The conference featured a group of presenters who were very experienced and skillful in understanding and presenting the effective management outcome of using the power of the collective team resources and what a boss needs to do to mobilize and apply the effect of that power. Some of the presenters were pilots experienced in the application of CRM to aviation; others explained how that concept had been applied in nonaviation organizations. It was interesting to hear how similar surgical teams are to flying crews and how the status of the big boss (head surgeon) can determine a happy or a sad ending for the patient. The consistent message was that the synergy of a team is far more powerful and effective than any single person and that creating this collective capability requires positive boss behaviors. The two days were a rewarding experience as I listened to experts describe the difference in outcome when the boss is ego driven and when he is servant driven.
I spoke about the boss behaviors an effective team leader should apply to positively lead the team members. When I researched the objectives of CRM, they were examples of a boss using his power in a positive way. The objectives are listed below. They describe what a functional boss (no matter what he is managing) is trying to achieve. The focus of the CRM is to analyze the leadership and operating culture of an organization. To do this, we must describe in a very basic way what effective leaders are to accomplish in their type of business. In the case of a cockpit crew, the basic functional objective is to produce one standard takeoff and one standard landing with no unplanned events in between; for a fire service boss, it is to use the strategic level resources of your position to (1) serve the customer and (2) support and protect the workers.
To safely fly the plane, the CRM folks produced the following critical set of team objectives:
- Minimize human error.
- Maximize human performance.
- Enhance communication.
- Improve situational awareness.
- Strengthen decision making.
- Improve teamwork.
Check the items on the list. The desired CRM effect is absolutely the same as that which an effective (smart/touch/nice) fire service boss is always trying to achieve.
CRM is a great program for examining how critical the role of the boss is to effective team performance-that is the reason we have bosses (duh). The boss has the highest rank on the team, has more organizational authority (power), and is responsible for doing basic boss functions. He uses the resources to “set the tone” from the top. If that tone is positive, it produces a functional outcome a (happy landing). If the tone is negative, it can produce dysfunctional results (a not-so-happy landing). An airplane in flight is an ideal place to evaluate boss performance because the feedback loop is so fast and unforgiving. You don’t need a committee or a consultant-just stand way back and watch the takeoff and the landing. In many other places, the nature of the organization can absorb lousy boss performance for a long time (that is the reason it is so common); but, if the four striper’s (airplane driver big boss) brain has been eaten by ego and he disregards for whatever reason the input of his crew, the friendly sky can quickly become the very hard earth (kaboom!).
My speaking part in the conference was to describe how the boss “sets the tone” for CRM or any other place where the boss interacts with and tries to take advantage of the collective capability of the team he leads. A word used a lot in the discussion of team effectiveness is synergy, which means the increased effectiveness that results when two or more people work together. This is where the total team effectiveness is greater than the sum of the individual parts (1+1+1 = 4). Sadly, the sum of negative synergy produces a number lower than the total.
The boss behavior punch line for setting the tone from the top for team synergy is the following set of basic behaviors. These personal boss behaviors are exactly the opposite of the boss power goofs previously presented.
- Basic personal capability. This becomes the performance foundation for leading the team. We have discussed (for years) that the only thing we can really control is ourselves and this is the result of how we use our basic body parts (brain, heart, mouth, ears, gut, backbone, and so on). They are the personal tools they give us at the human assembly plant, and we use them to connect to and influence the people, places, and things in our life. Each body part has a set of functional rules of engagement. We willingly follow the boss who got an A-plus at the body part performance school. For the aviation application of CRM, it is critical that the boss use those personal resources to be a capable, skillful, and experienced pilot.
- Open/accessible/positive. The boss continually sends out a set of signals to the inside and outside world that he is “open” or “closed.” This signal is the result of personal behaviors produced by how that person connects with those who interact with him. Being effectively approachable is not very complex; it is what (the content) and how (the style) that person communicates; how that boss performs an effective and humane (read kind) level of engagement that manages the needs of the situation; how team involvement and empowerment are taught, conducted, and followed up on; and if the boss provides encouragement, patience, and kindness to the team when the chips are down. Having a receptive boss sends the ongoing message, “Come on in” (with your ideas, observations, and suggestions).
- Flexible. How a boss deals with input from the team creates a huge relationship factor that ranges from effective positive participation and synergistic support to negative malicious obedience: “I will do only what you tell me” (ride backward; keep your mouth shut). Workers operate on the day-to-day business end of how rigid their leader is and are very aware of where the boss is on the flexibility scale, and they will operate (and survive) around that reality. Team flexibility is the result of how new information/ideas are welcomed and received, processed by the group, implemented, and then refined-the boss leads all of this.
- Good listener. A major CRM capability of an effective boss is to create a process and a relationship that facilitate an active exchange of information about the observations, opinions, ideas, and instincts of all team members. When the team is effectively aligned by the contribution of each member, the members become more collectively capable, and this is directly connected to the listening skills of that boss. When this interchange occurs, it sends an encouraging message to everyone and creates the foundation of everyone doing their job and helping everyone else on the team.
- Cool head. An emergency landing of an airplane is like managing a firefighting operation that involves dealing with a dangerous event that occurs within a highly compressed time frame with many pieces and parts that are sequential and simultaneous. There is not much time to react, and if the reaction is not effective, the outcome can quickly produce death. Managing this process is not for the faint hearted, and we put a high value on the leader’s ability to be calm, collected, resilient, and skillful. Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger, who landed the big plane in the Hudson River, is the contemporary role model of this capability. He had ice water in his veins as he stepped out on the wing behind the last passenger who exited the floating plane (that was now a boat). He nonchalantly adjusted his tie. To me, he is at the top of the Cool School Hall of Fame.
- Strong ego control. When humans were originally designed, one of the very special (nutty) parts installed was the EGO. How it operates and what it produces are unique to every individual. The ego sends a continual and strong message to every person whether they are okay or not so okay, and that internal message will regulate how effectively the person connects with those in the outside world. The under-control or out-of-control ego profile of a boss is the most critical element in his leadership effectiveness because it will determine how that boss will use his personal and positional power. It is impossible for a boss to positively deal with the outside world if he cannot deal with his perception of himself (ego) because behavior is directly (and inescapably) connected to the message the ego is sending. The level of personal security or insecurity “programs” our behavior in how a person relates to others. The social ability of a person will be facilitated or sabotaged by the intrinsic feeling of whether a relationship is positive and beneficial or a threat. If the boss feels a personal contact detracts from his personal status and identity (as a boss), his self-esteem, or his personal welfare, he will naturally react in a self-defensive way.
Most of the time, that self-induced, threatening feeling is not accurate and the protective reaction (irrationality) will create difficulties in dealing with others. When the boss has difficulty with his ego, it will interfere with most personal relationships and interactions. A team leader’s ability to maintain a healthy level of self-confidence along with a positive, productive, good-natured connection with other humans forms the basis of CRM cooperation, mutual assistance, and collective problem solving. The boss must bring the team closer, not farther apart, particularly if the team members are dealing with some problem that must be collectively and quickly solved while flying 500 miles an hour with only thin air between them and the earth.
CRM is a great example of using positive boss power to support the collective performance capability that can be applied to most organizational situations and teams. The timeless statement “Egos eat brains” we often hear illustrates the seriousness of the effects of ego difficulties, which surface quite often.
Retired Chief ALAN BRUNACINI is a fire service author and speaker. He and his sons own the fire service Web site bshifter.com.
Fireground Management: More Power Goofs
Power Goofs
Reciprocal Rescue
