So what are people talking about? Here in the United States, fire folk are talking about the wisdom and implementation of the National Fire Plan, their inability to fill vacancies in their organization, the impending wave of retirements, rumors about continued funding, personal accountability, problems with the air tanker fleet, and a fire season in which Mother Nature conspired with a handful of arsonists to make the National Fire Plan look pretty puny. Though expressed in all these different ways, people are concerned about the vision, strategy, values and leadership of the organizations in which they toil.

Lately, I have been disturbed by two related trends within fire agencies. The first is what seems to be a growing attitude of hopelessness and helplessness. The second is the use of the word “they.” I frequently hear people complain about the quality of their organization's leadership, often prefaced with “they.” It's as if there's nothing anyone can do to influence an organization's direction and effectiveness.

Some of this frustration stems from the simple fact that fire agencies are bureaucracies, and bureaucracies, by their very nature, are concerned with where authority lies. Authoritarianism represents the traditional thinking in government agencies. Leadership is about power and influence, and in government agencies that power and influence usually sits with the authority. So, generally speaking, agencies confine leadership in too small a circle.

But you know what? There's a great big problem out there and people are expecting your agencies to fix it. Wildland fire has become an issue with enormous political, public policy, environmental and economic consequences, and the problems aren't going to get fixed with traditional bureaucratic approaches with the authority, power, influence and leadership neatly structured at the tops of the agencies.

If fire agencies are going to get the job done, they will first need to accomplish two things.

1. They need to focus a whole lot of energy on developing synergy or collaboration within their organizations. Agency work forces are filled with talented, dedicated, energetic people who need to clearly understand their organization's mission, vision for the agency's direction, the strategy for getting there and their part in achieving the strategy. Moreover, people need to feel like they have influence on the organization and, more importantly, their work. Fire agencies must seek an independent and interdependent work force that taps into the motivations of its employees and marshals all of the resources that the agencies have at their disposal.

2. They must simultaneously broaden and deepen leadership within their organizations, and I mean more than providing leadership training. However, it's too simple to say that fire management agencies must empower their people and allow them to develop as leaders. People must also step up to the challenge when given the opportunity.

I come from the school of thought that says everybody has the capacity for leadership. Contrary to popular belief, leadership doesn't require charisma; it just needs vision, commitment, and an ability to communicate that vision and commitment.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, leaders are not born, they are made; often leaders are not made through training, though it helps. Most often leaders are made through circumstance and adversity. Fire management agencies have perfect opportunities — if you look at them as such — to build leaders by allowing people to participate on fire teams, by making them responsible for frightening circumstances, by detailing them into staff and project positions, and by asking them to drive the change required in their organizations.

Leadership development can be scary for the emerging leader who is stretching his or her skills, and for the mentoring organization that provides the opportunity, so I offer nine important leadership practices that I feel effective leaders must follow.

1. Set direction and lead the way

   The value of organizational vision can't be overstated — in fact, it's the key to leadership. Unfortunately, the concept or the “vision thing” either scares or escapes many people. There's really nothing tough or mysterious about organizational vision. A vision is a description of what you want your organization to look like or be in the future: a realistic, credible, desired future for your organization.

2. Be proactive

   Proactivity means more than merely taking initiative. Proactivity is initiative and responsibility. Leader show initiative when they recognize their responsibility to make things happen. Of the responsibility definitions that I know, the key concepts include accountability; being the cause, motive, agent or explanation; and the ability to answer for one's conduct and obligations.

   Proactive people and organizations sometimes blame circumstances, conditions or conditioning for their behavior, but suppress that impulse and take initiative and responsibility.

3. Communicate and share information

   Find or create ways to intentionally interact with the people who work for you. Break down that big organization into smaller parts by establishing organizations within organizations and by holding discussion groups or communication meetings. When you have information that will help someone get his or her job done, forget the chain of command.

4. Develop commitment

   An important key to this is involvement. If you want people to be committed to the organization's goals, they must participate in the decisions that affect their part in those goals.

   Trust is at the heart of fostering commitment. Research studies have identified interpersonal trust as a major influence on organizational effectiveness. Regardless of a person's level in an organization or how much they participate in decision-making, those who trust their leaders and feel trusted in return are the most satisfied with their leader's effectiveness.

5. Inspire accomplishment

   Expect people to perform at challenging but realistic levels and set goals that propel the organization further rather than meeting rigid schedules and planned results. Exemplary leaders make other people feel strong and share power, allowing people to influence decisions about their work.

6. Model desired behavior

   Leaders know that people emulate both positive and negative behavior, therefore they set the example. They openly share their expectations and base their example on those expectations. Once a leader establishes what is desired behavior and unacceptable behavior, they can lead with the message, “You may do anything you see me doing.”

7. Focus on what's important

   It's important for anyone in a position of leadership to recognize that people can only pursue a limited number of goals at a time. That's why it's very important that you take care in choosing what to emphasize, focusing on the mission, critical goals and Pareto's Law, which tells us that 80% of our achievements will come from 20% of our goals.

8. Connect your group to the outside world

   Effective leaders realize the importance of keeping their organization “outwardly focused.” This outward focus is incredibly important in fire agencies, not only because interagency cooperation has become the norm, but because all fire organizations either serve the public, contract to public agencies or serve some larger organization. Effective fire management leaders will take advantage of, and encourage their people to take advantage of, the important networking opportunities available such as the International Association of Wildland Fire and the National Fire Protection Association Wildland Section.

9. Put first things first and manage around priorities

   Priorities are key to effectiveness. Deciding what is important or what comes first is leadership: Putting those things first each day and carrying the program out is effective management. Organize and execute your work and the work of your people around priorities. When an organization has examined and defined its mission, established a vision, and set goals, they have decided what's important. Once those steps are completed, it's important for the leadership to decide what activities to focus on and what activities to stay away from to achieve what they have decided is important.

I believe these practices to be universal, whether you lead an engine crew or your agency's fire and aviation program; whether you currently lead or are an emerging leader.

Michael DeGrosky is the CEO of the Guidance Group and a member of the International Association of Wildland Fire Board of Directors. He is currently pursuing a master's of organizational leadership at Fort Hays State University and makes his home in Washburn, Wis.