Wesley W. Black Memorial Fire Conference Presents: Jason Hovelmann

Leadership In Practice

This class will focus on the challenges we all face as leaders and officers in our organizations. We are constantly faced with familiar and unfamiliar difficulties beyond our operational responsibilities. These things will take a great deal of time and effort to prevent and mitigate. Leadership is not just a theory. For us to be effective, we must put leadership into practice. This class will provide discussions, experiences, and examples from research to identify where we can be better leaders by demonstration and action, not just through words and theory.

Leadership in the fire service is required in everything we do, and we cannot choose when to practice solid and effective leadership. Our biggest challenge to this is our desire and propensity to stay comfortable and convenient, shying away from difficult situations and conversations that put us at perceived risk. These instances of staying comfortable is where officers and leaders get into trouble. We will discuss topics to help identify how to avoid these pitfalls.

Some specific issues we will discuss include:

• Understand that our roles and responsibilities are now different after being promoted.
• We must understand that our perspectives must be different and forward-leaning due to our position.
• Identify where our formal authority comes from and how we can use it to further the mission and empower others.
• Understand the importance of loyalty to the mission, organization, members, and community.
• Exercising discernment and patience during crises and challenging situations requires practice.
• Understand that preparing your members is a high priority and not negotiable, as well as the consequences of not doing so.
• How do you handle difficult members, and what kinds of discipline are you responsible for and must exercise?