The 9-L’s of Leadership #7: Live
Learn – Listen – Love
Look – Laugh – Lift
Live – Labor – Last
Nine words. All start with L. Each a principle of great Leadership. Understanding these 9 Principles, the 9-L’s can make you a better, more effective leader. It can be argued about which of them is most important, I personally don’t think that there is one that is more important than the others. Leaders are so varied in personality that being strong in one can make up for a weakness in another. Understanding all 9 of these principles is a key to growing as a leader, and can make you a better leader today.
Over the next few months I am going to write an article on each of the 9-L’s. And today we continue with…
Live
As firefighters, we spend too much time together for anyone to be fooled. No one can spot a phony faster than a firefighter. Sure you can fool people for a little bit, but in the long run… who you really are will show through… you have to be more than just talk. Your actions have to line up with your words, or you are just on the sidelines, being a cheerleader. Every day both on-duty and off-duty, INTEGRITY is the name of the game, and you have to “LIVE IT” if you want to thrive as a leader.
Although the concept of integrity could have an entire book dedicated to why it is important to a leader, this article is going to focus on one major takeaway. Defining the meaning of Integrity in a way that I think is very different than normal. (Previously discussed in the article “Concept: Integrity”)
If you asked a person to describe what integrity is, you will get some pretty basic answers. Honor, decency, fairness, virtue, truthfulness; all words used to describe what integrity is. Doing a google search defines it in the following way.
And I am sure many people have heard the quote so often (incorrectly) attributed to C.S. Lewis: “Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching.”
And none of this is wrong, and I’m certainly not trying to re-define the meaning of the word here. Everything I have written above is how I would have defined Integrity… and it is not like I was wrong or that anyone who thinks of integrity in this way is incorrect. In fact as a goal in life, being a person of integrity as defined in this way would be a worthy purpose for any person.
Then I read the book Legacy by James Kerr. For anyone interested in principle centered leadership and cultural change it is a great read, with a metric butt-ton of content that applies to the fire service. The book discusses many topics that can be used to improve the individual and the team, but one of the (minor) points in the book that really stuck with me was how it defined integrity.
“It’s useful to think of integrity not as morality, as many people do, but as workability. It is not about being pure, or noble – it’s about getting stuff done.”
- Legacy pg. 126
So what does this mean? Getting stuff done? I want to get stuff done! I want to be effective! This had my interest, the book goes on to explain it further.
Though the end result is trust, belief and respect, these are merely the by-products of the fact that when we say something will happen, it actually happens.
- Legacy pg. 127
And there it is plain and simple. If we say something will happen, it happens. I personally am the best at making great plans in my head. Tomorrow I am going to start eating healthier, I am going to get in the gym, I am going to design a drill for my crew to run through. I make these commitments to myself, and then I have various degrees of success in fulfilling them.
Whether it is your word to yourself or your word to another person. Once you have said something will happen, there is only two possible outcomes.
It happens, your integrity is strengthened.
It does not happen, your integrity is diminished.
That’s it, no grey area, no in between.
Aligning words with completion. What you say actually transpires. Approaching the concept of integrity in this way makes a person start to think very carefully before committing their word to anything. No more making promises to eat healthier, or get into the gym ‘tomorrow’… if you are a person of integrity and you say you are going to do something, it happens. This especially applies when dealing with your crew, and promises you make to them. As a leader you should guard yourself from making any promises that you cannot fulfill, and you definitely do not want to become known as the “all talk, no follow through” officer.
Of course this job is emergency services, and we never know when the tones will drop and ruin the best laid plans. But the concept of “Live”… is not about emergencies ruining your plans, it is about doing everything in your control to make sure that anything you say will happen- happens. If you tell your guys that you are going to go and stretch hose… then you go and stretch hose. If you say you are going to walk-thru a high risk occupancy in your district… then you walk through that occupancy.
And that is the 7th L – “Live”… If you want to be a better person and more influential leader, you have to have integrity. When you say something is going to happen, it does. Who does not want to be a person of Integrity?
Corley Moore
Firehouse Vigilance
