Brian Ward "FireServiceSLT"'s Blog (9)

If you are unsure of who Lt. General Hal Moore is I would encourage you to research one of the most decorated war time heroes in modern history.  In fact, General Norman Schwarzkopf, who was a student of Lt. General Hal Moore at West Point, calls him one of his “heroes.” General Moore was born in Bardstown, Kentucky; a small town of 11,700 people, per the 2010 census records. How does a small-town gentleman rise to be one of the most decorated military figures in history? I believe he lived…

How often do we actually train on performing as a team? How often do we examine what we do as a team that makes us function effectively or fail effectively? As firefighters we train constantly to function as part of a team, however, do we always carry that to the field? When a team has worked together and has bonded, they seem to function as the right hand knows without saying what the left hand is doing. A fire brother on mine, David Bullard,…

This particular morning was like any other except I happened to be at home instead of work, waiting on the AC Repairman. I awoke about 0630 to go for my morning run as a fire call came in with an address one road down from my residence in the small town where I volunteer. In this volunteer department I am a firefighter at rank and I follow orders instead of the typical giving of them in my career status. While I do not shy away from speaking up, I feel it is important to listen and be…

Many people consider mentoring as a formal program that occurs in someone else’s department. Or, maybe there is one or two people in your life that gave you advice from time to time. However, I would argue that mentoring can be formal but the most powerful transformations are developed from informal mentoring. I have been fortunate to have surrounded myself, on purpose and by luck, with tremendous mentors in my life. It should not be good enough for any of us to just go home after every…

In my latest book, Barn Boss Leadership, which released this month. I discuss an individual’s sources of power. We typically think of stripes and bugles as indicating power within the fire department organization, especially in the fire service and military. However, there are several sources of power which do not fall into the “Legitimate” source of power category. Legitimate Power comes directly from stripes and bugles, however, this is not the most influential source of power. The United…

Are you looking for a training idea? Have you ever used a Tactical Decision Game (TDG) as a delivery method? You have used them, even if you did not call them TDGs. The key is to understand how to maximize their impact and structure them so that the student learns as much as possible from each scenario. Below I describe an 8 step process on how to implement Dr. Klein’s decision making process and situational awareness into your…

United States Army Manual defines the leader as “anyone who by virtue of assumed role or assigned responsibility inspires and influences people to accomplish organizational goals.”

The Air Force Doctrine Document 1-1, Leadership and Force Development describes leadership as “Leadership is the art and science of influencing and directing people to accomplish the assigned…

One of the items that we discuss in the Training Officer’s Desk Reference is Mentoring and Influence. Regardless of what rank you hold, each of us has the ability to mentor. As Lt. General Hal Moore (Mel Gibson) stated in the movie We Were Soldiers, “learn the job above you and teach your job to those below you…” When you begin to understand how your influence affects those…

When you train individually or as a team - is it a check the box type of day or this could really happen type of day? It’s very easy to check the box in our daily lives and make everything a routine. Wake up, shower, coffee, drive to work, check the box for minimum expectations, go home, etc…. If you fall into this mentality it can be personally and professionally devastating at the extremes. However, even if nothing “bad” ever happens I challenge you to contemplate how much you are missing…