Points
Leadership can be difficult. Period. But...it can also be very rewarding as well. Episode 10 is the final episode in the series and follows Major Winters as he remembers some of significant events that he and Easy Co. faced during combat. Many of these memories focus on shared experience with the members of Easy and the relationships that developed as a result of these shared experiences. The speech given by the German General to his soldiers echoes the sentiment that a special bond is created between those that fight together. A similar relationship exists in the Fire Service by those who serve together. Late nights running call after call... strenuous fires... terrible and tragic calls... long hours on IA Strike Teams... these experiences create a bond that is difficult to describe to those outside of our profession.
This type of bond can be described in many ways, but all of those ways are just attempts to describe love. The Greeks had eight different words for love; and no...I am not talking about Eros, which describes romantic love or Philia which describes love for friends. I am speaking specifically about Agape; selfless unconditional love for one another as brothers and sisters that serve together. This brings us to the point:
Effective Leaders Love People
Loving the people that you lead doesn't mean that you love everything they say, or everything they do. Leadership can be messy, complicated, and difficult; just like people can be messy, complicated, and difficult. Sometimes leadership requires justice and holding people accountable. Sometimes leadership requires grace and mercy. This requires leaders to build authentic relationships with their team, remain objective, and show love with their actions as well as their words.
Remember, as leaders we are in the "People Business" and we should strive to prioritize People before Process, and Process before Product. Or...as they say in the U.S. Military, "Mission First, People Always."
Discussion questions to consider...
- Is it important for leaders to show love? Why?
- What are some of the issues that can make it difficult for leaders to show love?
- As a leader, how can you show love through your words and actions?
Is important for leaders to show love and why?
ReplyDeleteIts absolutely important for Leaders to show love. A few types of love. Not only supportive and protective but tough love.
As leaders we must show true brotherly love because if your leader doesn’t love you why would you want to follow him/her? I have worked for leaders that show love and some that haven’t. The leaders that showed love for me and my family, on and off duty, I would die for. The leaders that did not show love left me feeling unmotivated, unprotected and unhappy to be around them. As leaders we need to show self love to be able to give love. As I’ve said before, if we can’t lead ourselves why would others want to follow. The tough love is loving our people enough to fire them. No its not the Captains job to do that. But to love someone enough to fire them shows the love for all the others that we need to be exceptional at or jobs for the protection of others.
Issues that make it difficult to show love?
This is a tough question. Everything we do should come from love. Love of the people, the citizens and the jobs we do. We should love to inspire and motivate, we should love to coach and counsel. I guess it goes back to what I said in the first question. Its difficult to show love to others when your not loving yourself. We ALL have something going on in life that is stressor and when not addressed and managed it can manifest into something so much more. We must love each other enough to know when to see that change in our people so we can get them back on track.
How can I show love through words and actions?
Through words it checking in on our people. Making sure they are physically and mentally good at the start of the shift. Asking them how they are feeling and how they’re family members are doing.
Checking in with our people to see what needs they have for the work days ahead. Make sure that they know that they know they are the priority. As an Engineer my priority is the Captain. Make sure that someone is checking on him/her and there operational readiness. Does the crew of the Captain need to step it up for the rotation?
Through action leaders can take note of the work load of the personnel during these unprecedented times. Alot of our people are working a hell of a lot, on an ambulance running 24 hours straight or being forced to work multiple days with an unknown amount of sleep. As leaders we can show love by maintaining the station needs and a huge help is preparing dinner for the crew. Anthony Kastros told a story of when he was a BC one of his crews got a fire around dinner time and he knew they had shopped but wold get to cook it. When the crew got back to the station Kastros had cooked the crews dinner and it ready by the time the crew returned. That to me is truly loving our people.
As you stated above love has many different meanings and can be used in so many different ways. I love my kids in a completely different way then I love my dog. Not only do you have to have a love for the job, crew and community but you have to show your crew that love. This also needs to be subtle so that you show you are being genuine. If you are making it a big deal I believe it can be or at least come across that you are showing love for the wrong reasons.
ReplyDeleteThis can be hard to do for the stigmas that are in our lives and society. You are afraid this can come across as weakness or uncertainty. We, as humans, don't like showing our weaknesses or vulnerabilities but these are tied to love. In a relationship you love someone for all of them good, bad and ugly. A work relationship you love your co workers and with that love you will step in and help in their areas of weakness as they should for you. I believe the best way to show this is the same as it has been discussed in this blog. Be a servant leader, take of your crew, love your crew and that investment will be returned many times over again
Jon
While it is my habit, preference or style to show love as a leader, I cannot say that I experienced the same. I find it interesting to recount that most of the leaders in my career did not show love. Most of them didn't even show that they cared. Somehow I was able to stay motivated to do my best; to learn, to grow. It was probably because I didn't have an expectation of love or care from my leaders. I'm not completely sure what that all means to me.
ReplyDeleteI can only know my own reasons of what makes it difficult to show love to those we lead. I would suggest that any reason I may have would come from self-preservation. In my past I would be very intentional about how much I would invest into relationships with new-hires since there was no guarantee that they would make it past probation. Eventually I realized that I had nothing to lose by withholding myself, other than opportunity to be a positive influence. Since then I invest deeply into relationships with little to no concern of where the relationship may go. I do it because I see the opportunity to Lead Like Jesus, through Love, for the sake of the person the relationship and my purpose.
Leaders can communicate powerfully through words and actions. I endeavor that I would communicate thoughtfully and that my tone would match not just the message but the motive. I hope that my actions coupled with my expressions/mannerisms/posture communicates the love and the intent behind them.