​Whether as a professional or volunteer firefighter, newly promoted officer, instructor of your local fire class, or 20-year veteran chief, most of us will experience leadership at some point in our lives.

However, leadership doesn’t come naturally to many of us. We don’t know how to get people to “do as they’re told,” we don’t feel worthy of being put in charge, and we’re not sure how to deal with a crisis when things go wrong. The thought of taking charge of a group of people is terrifying. 

Luckily, there's a powerful way of thinking that can help you be more effective in getting your team members' very best. Let’s look closer...

How Not to Approach Leadership

Many leaders make a mistake to believe that they need to "command" or "shape" their team members. Whether consciously or otherwise, they think of their team as some kind of dough that needs to be molded, causing a lot of resistance.

This mindset tends to lead to other mistakes, as well.

We might approach leadership by thinking of ways to motivate our team – either with a carrot or stick (reward or punishment). 

This instantly creates tension. What is your natural reaction when told to do something? Very often, we feel a compelling urge to do the opposite thing!

But rewards can’t be all that bad, right?

Wrong!

Consider these disadvantages of when we work only for a reward:

    • It essentially removes the focus from work itself. Work is now a means to an end – and the end is the reward, which means we’ll be focused on finishing that work as quickly as possible and not necessarily to the best of our abilities.

    • Research has shown that a reward can actually stifle creativity.

    • Always giving instructions (trying to mold your team members) also prevents your team from working independently of you.

A Powerful Alternative

The alternative, then, is to make the work itself into the incentive. The aim is to ensure that everyone on your team is enjoying working toward the same goals and wants the same outcome as you.

Now there is no need to motivate – they are self-motivated.

Now there is no need to continually remind them what they should be doing.

You’ve empowered your team! This means that you aim to reduce your influence and your role (which also happens to be good for your heart rate).

There are a few ways you can go about doing this:

    1. Give your team ownership. Give your team ownership over their own projects. Let them take control and provide creative input. Give them credit where it is due. Make them proud to be completing work that has their name on it.

    2. Explain WHAT and WHY, not HOW. Instead of telling your team that they need to do X, instead, tell them that you need to accomplish Y. Then they can decide how best to meet that goal, and they can adapt and be flexible as it suits them.  
        ◦ Allowing your team to work the way that suits them best is a great way to ensure that they stay happy and motivated. That might mean offering flexible schedules or letting them decide what order to tackle tasks in. 

When you empower your team, your job then becomes to nurture your team's passions and skills – not to try and control their every move. And when you realize that, you'll realize that there is no reason to be stressed!

With an empowered team, you can also expect superior results. This means that you've now become the influential leader that you never thought you could be! Congratulations on a job well done!

​Building an effective team begins with a fundamental understanding of motivation.

Motivation is anything that provides direction, intensity, and persistence to behavior. Intrinsic motivation is driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself and exists within the individual rather than relying on any external pressure. The three factors that drive intrinsic motivation are a sense of purpose (a cause greater than oneself), autonomy (being self-directed), and mastery (becoming better at something that matters to you).

Extrinsic motivation comes from outside the individual and focuses on attaining an outcome. Factors that drive extrinsic motivation include rewards (promotions, money, good grades), competitions, coercion, and threats of punishment.

Job satisfaction is directly tied to the intrinsic factors of motivation—people like doing work that is inherently interesting and enjoyable; it provides value to them. Job dissatisfaction is influenced by negative factors of extrinsic motivation such as a bad leader (I should really say “person in charge”), poor work conditions, or low pay.

Job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction act independently of each other, which means increasing the positive factors of extrinsic motivation (giving someone time off for example), will not increase job satisfaction; it will simply reduce job dissatisfaction. In other words, time off does not make the job more enjoyable (though it could make an unpleasant job less objectionable).

Creating an effective team means appealing to the factors that drive intrinsic motivation (purpose, autonomy, and mastery) while reducing the extrinsic factors that create job dissatisfaction. Too many times I have seen people who have left their volunteer positions supporting the community, as a result of poor leadership. I challenge you today to look at your organizations and see what YOU can do to start getting your folks to volunteer their energy and initiative to your cause. Let’s begin a leader revolution!
 
For Further Reading:
Richard L. Hughes, Robert C. Ginnett, and Gordon J. Curphy, Leadership: Enhancing the Lessons of Experience (New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2006.)
Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (New York: Riverhead Books, 2009), Chapters 4, 5, and 6.
Frederick Herzberg, “One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?” Harvard Business Review (January 2003.)
Carey W. Walker and Matthew J. Bonnot, “The Vision Process: Seven Steps to a Better Organization,” InterAgency Journal, Vol. 8, Issue 4 (2017.)

In the Ranger Creed, part of one of the stanzas says, "I will shoulder more than my share of the task whatever it may be, one-hundred-percent and then some." I want to talk about that, "and then some" today.  One of the things about mentally tough warriors, and good leaders, is that they're always looking around for more to carry than just their load. They are known for carrying their load and when needed, somebody else's. I think sometimes we forget that 100 percent and then some or we misinterpret it.
I saw excellent examples of this "and then some" from my time in the Army and the fire service. The leaders stand out; they are the ones who are always there to jump in when the mission can be furthered my pitching in. 
As an artillery Platoon leader, one of our tasks was to conduct rearming procedures for our three howitzers and three ammunition carriers. This task involved loading 37 rounds, weighing over 90 pounds each, into a howitzer, and over 90 rounds into an ammunition carrier. This was a huge physical task to be completed in the shortest possible time. The best platoon were the ones where every leader and additional Soldier pitched in. As the platoon leader, this meant sharing the burden with each gun section, but the added "then some" proved you were ready to do your duty and more for your Soldiers. 
I see similar situations on the fire training grounds. Individual firefighters' willingness to always pitch in to help reload the engine's supply line, versus those who claim they have already done it, and it is someone else's turn. Or, the one who realizes everyone is tired after working a fire but sees a need to secure equipment and does it instead of waiting for someone else. These are the folks whom people want on their team. That's the "one-hundred-percent and then some." These are also the leaders who set the example for those serving under them.
People around you every now and then will need help to load their ammunition or load that supply line. Your job is to carry your load and be ready to carry somebody else's. Time to pick up your gear, and then once you've got your gear loaded and you've packed all your stuff, I challenge you to find somebody else's equipment, pick it up and carry it for them because one day you may need them. 
​-JVC