Posts Tagged ‘leadership training’

As I prepared to write this article, I conducted a Google search and posed the question, what is the key ingredient to leadership? Over twenty pages of results returned listing qualities such as integrity, trust, honesty, etc. True, those are important and necessary qualities, and I have written about them in the past. However, as…

I have written this series based on my observations of fan behavior when the Colorado Rockies played a home game in Denver. What is the reason behind many people rooting for the opposing team and not the Rockies? What is wrong with this picture? Why does the crowd in the home city of Denver sound…

This series is based on my observations of the fan base, or lack thereof when the Colorado Rockies play a home game in Denver. I have noticed many people rooting for the opposing team and not the Rockies. What is wrong with this picture? Why does the crowd in the home city of Denver sound…

This series is based on my observations of the fan base, or lack thereof when the Colorado Rockies play a home game in Denver. I have noticed many people rooting for the opposing team and not the Rockies. What is wrong with this picture? In his book, Organizational Culture and Leadership, Edgar H. Schein wrote,…

Imagine that you play for a professional baseball team and you are in your home stadium. You made it to the big leagues and are excited to play for your team in front of thousands of fans at home. As you take to the field you notice something disturbing. There are more fans wearing hats,…

Two dates have carried deep meaning in my life—November 10, the birth of the United States Marine Corps, and November 11, once known as Armistice Day and now recognized as Veterans Day. As a veteran of both the Air Force and Marine Corps, those days are personal. But Memorial Day reaches even deeper—it is about…

In the last two blogs, you have met Andy Arrogant. An egotistical individual with no fire service experience, yet when asked where he saw himself in five years, he responded, “I see myself as the fire chief of this department.” Clearly this individual suffered from a common medical malady: cranium rectosis (head up his rear-end).…

Last week I wrote about Andy Arrogant. In the interview process I described, Andy had no fire service experience yet arrogantly presented himself as being not only qualified to be a fire chief in five years, but deserving of that rank. In and of itself, the word deserve isn’t the problem, it’s how we use…

A young man wearing a suit swaggered into the room, introduced himself, and sat down before the interview panel I was sitting on. He had no fire service experience, yet he spoke like a seasoned veteran who had battled fires for decades. Some may call that confidence, but I will call that attitude for what…