Are leaders made? Or, are leaders born? This has been a debate among the human race since ancient times. I doubt that I will be able to resolve this issue here. However, here is another question in this debate to peak your curiosity. Are leaders actually a function of the conditions in which they find themselves?

I am a student of leadership both inside and outside the fire service. And in both, I have found and been impressed that there have been leaders who live transparent, though not invisible, lives until conditions are generated to cause them to exercise leadership skills. In a sense, the idea that leaders are made or born is irrelevant unless they can be placed into a set of circumstances in which leadership skills can be demonstrated for all to see.

One of my all-time favorite leaders and an example of this phenomenon is Dwight D. Eisenhower. He eventually became the 34th president of the United States. But in 1939, he was an obscure army officer languishing in the backwater of the military. What if World War II had never been? Is it possible that Eisenhower never would have been awarded a single star? Is it possible that he never would have emerged as president? Was Eisenhower a leader when he was that ambiguous, almost transparent logistics officer at a remote Army base?

I offer this example for the simple reason that today we spend an awful lot of time worrying about succession planning. Maybe we ought to be worrying about making sure we are selecting those who can rise to the occasion once they have been given the opportunity. Eisenhower was once a West Point cadet, a second lieutenant, a first lieutenant, then a captain, a major and so on. Through that, he'd never attracted that much attention. Conditions made him visible, and his preparation gave him the ability to take advantage of it.

How many fire chiefs do we know who have worked in relative obscurity until such a time as a major event has traumatized their community? Then, depending on how they handled the situation, they either emerged as the latest hero to be invited onto the rubber-chicken circuit, or they were overwhelmed by the scenario and retired shortly thereafter.

What this has to do with succession planning is that any one of you — I don't have a department to worry about anymore — can be thrust into the role of leadership because of conditions. It then becomes irrelevant whether you were born a leader or whether you prepared yourself for the leadership role. Conditions demand a specific level of performance.

Now, standing at the peak of that experience of being faced with those leadership conditions, turn around and look down the chain of command. Ask yourself how well-prepared people are to follow you as you move forward.

In the final analysis, that is where succession planning truly begins. It is having people ready, even if they do not have the opportunity to be a leader. The military makes very serious efforts to ensure that there are always people standing on the various rungs on the ladder of success. There are always second lieutenants coming out of West Point who imagine themselves as being the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In our particular profession, there are many people who demonstrate that they are not really interested in climbing that ladder of success, especially to the top rung. Without belaboring all of the specifics, it is fair to say that we literally have paid people to stay off that ladder by making working conditions more appealing at the bottom than we have at the top of the fire service.

I don't want to start a huge argument over what those benefits are, rather I want to recognize that all of the efforts in succession planning are blunted unless somebody is ready to step up to the plate without being overly concerned about whether or not he or she is going to be rewarded for it.

I have obtained a great deal of insight about overnight leaders by talking to others about their experiences in the aftermath of a disaster. One of my favorite stories involves a young lieutenant in the Roseburg (Ore.) Fire Department.

Roseburg suffered a major explosion in the 1960s. A lieutenant in that department was lying in bed at his fire station when he heard the detonation. When his feet were under the covers, he was a lieutenant. As he rolled out of his bunk and his feet hit the floor, he was the last remaining officer in his department that had authority to act. He became an instant candidate for the type of scenario that I have described. And he rose to the occasion. I am not sure how many remember Don Starmer, but I met him as a salesman for Crown Fire Coach in the 1970s.

If something were to happen to you right this very moment and your department was faced with a huge challenge, how well prepared are your people to move up that ladder of success?

I can be pretty well assured that Eisenhower did not have an easy time as a second lieutenant. He paid his dues suffering under the direction that was probably more oriented to fighting a war out of the annals of World War I than he was prepared to take over the huge endeavor of dealing with World War II.

The military officers who are being confronted with the new world dilemma of terror likely have had similar experiences of being asked to do menial tasks as beginning officers. How does one recognize future generals when their collars bear only a single bar? One clue is to watch how they begin to acquire layers of skills as they work their way through the opportunities to become officers.

This leads to a lesson the fire service needs to learn. We do our people a disservice if we allow them to regard officership as merely an expression of how much money is being paid. Compensation does not generate competency. What creates competency is exposure to difficult sets of circumstances.

In reviewing a lot of literature on succession planning, I found a tendency to think that the obligation is on the fire department to provide this successive opportunity. I take the point of view that it is a fire department's responsibility to create individuals who can rise to the occasion when conditions are critical. And, it has nothing to do with their intent. It has to do with their preparation.

Many departments think that succession planning means sending people away to school. In most cases, sending people away to be educated at the community's expense is an investment for which there is very little return. Individuals who share in the responsibility for their own succession planning don't need to be ordered to go to school. They seek out opportunities and are willing to pursue them on their own, outside the influence of a community. Sometimes, they emerge outside the influence of the leadership of their own fire department.

I am not bad-mouthing education. When I graduated from one college, a young lady in the coffee shop told me she thought I was a janitor at the facility because I had been there almost every night for her entire time working at that college. I would not suggest that education is unimportant. What I am strongly suggesting is that the incipient Dwight D. Eisenhowers out there are not waiting for their departments to give them a succession plan. They are mentally preparing themselves to rise to the occasion when conditions are appropriate.

Many of the individuals who I thought were going to rise to leadership roles in the 1970s or 1980s did not do so. On the other hand, many individuals who entered the fire service long before succession planning was a theme of the day have risen to fill leadership roles in an admiral fashion.

If you are a chief of a department and have not been thrust into the public limelight by a crisis, that doesn't mean that you haven't had the opportunity to exercise leadership. Your credibility is also linked with your willingness to move the organization toward some future level of performance. If you are a chief officer who hasn't yet won that final trumpet, you need to ask yourself what are doing to prepare yourself instead of what is the department doing for you.

Our professional lives are made up of experience and opportunity. One does not necessarily lead to the other. Success is when an individual uses the past to produce a favorable outcome in the future. That is truly what succession planning is all about.

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With more than 40 years in the fire service, Ronny J. Coleman has served as fire chief in Fullerton and San Clemente, Calif., and was the fire marshal of the State of California from 1992 to 1999. He is a certified fire chief and a master instructor in the California Fire Service Training and Education System. A Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers, he has an associate's degree in fire science, a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in vocational education.