Leadership Level 3

Leaders of people have increasing challenges. They accept responsibility, not only for their own actions, but for those of their team. Leaders of people act to develop credibility as leaders: placing the team ahead of themselves, demonstrating trustworthiness, mastering essential technical skills, and instilling the values of the organization in their teams.

Description

• Lead a large group or unit of people.
• Quickly assemble and lead a cohesive team to accomplish mission objectives.
• Provide an inclusive environment that fosters the development of others, facilitates cooperation and teamwork, and supports constructive resolutions of conflict.
• Continue to build personal leadership skills, and lead by example.

Behaviors

• Demonstrates expertise in job skills to provide guidance and training to team members.
• Develops credibility and reputation to increase one’s personal sphere of influence.
• Uses experience and training to develop novel solutions to tactical problems.
• Directly mentors new leaders to develop counseling skills and ensure the organization has a leadership pipeline.
• Demonstrates an appropriate response and aftercare of a traumatic event involving a team member.
• Utilizes a risk-refusal process to ensure team safety while considering options for mission accomplishment.
• Conducts an effective briefing to ensure mission accomplishment and unity of action.
• Practices effective debriefing facilitation techniques to improve team performance and increase team cohesion.
• Demonstrates direct statements, active listening, and message confirmation, and allows effective feedback.
• Effectively demonstrates the five communication responsibilities and adapts to the unique needs of people and situations.
• Demonstrates risk management and recognition-primed decision-making.
• Demonstrates the appropriate leadership styles to accomplish the mission and build the team.
• Identifies and manages acute and chronic fatigue to improve health and performance.
• Exercises appropriate sources of influence to ensure mission accomplishment and maintain team cohesion.
• Applies an appropriate leadership style (directing, delegating, or participatory) for a given team and situation to develop team members and increase team cohesion.

Knowledge

• Describe how core values, principles, and traits guide tactical and ethical decisions.
• Understand a leader’s role in influencing decisions up and down the chain of command and knowing when to lead up.
• Understand application of various leadership styles to ensure high team performance and cohesion.
• Describe the traits and principles which guide a leader's role to ensure team performance and a positive work environment when responding to harassment, substance abuse, conflict resolution, and hazing.
• Identify the consequences and understand the positive use of position power and authority.
• Describe human stress reactions to understand the impact of stress on team performance and individual decision-making.
• Define the leader's role in each phase of teambuilding to enhance cohesion, effectiveness, and trust.
• Establish or validate crew standards (standard operating procedures [SOP] or standard operation guide [SOG]) to ensure a common operating picture.
• Ensure a positive and healthy work environment, and promote team cohesion by dealing with conflict, harassment, and substance abuse.
• Understand various techniques for counseling and mentoring subordinates to ensure trust and open communication within the team.
• Define techniques for rapid teambuilding.
• Define characteristics of high-performing teams.
• Understand how to use the situation awareness cycle and how to evaluate whether a leader's perception matches the reality of the situation.
• Recognize and exercise the ability to control operational tempo.
• Analyze barriers to communication to establish and maintain open lines of communication.
• Develop and communicate leader's intent.
• Understand the error chain (i.e., Swiss Cheese Model) to promote a safety-conscious team.
• Understand how to integrate contingency planning into operations and anticipate upstream or systematic errors.
• Evaluate and update one’s leadership individual development plan using peer feedback and self-assessment.
• Explain how building a positive command climate relates to team cohesion.
• Understand the importance of command and control.

Development Goals

• Complete L-380, Fireline Leadership, and/or L-381, Incident Leadership.
• Read two books from the Professional Reading Program.
• Review Leaders We Would Like to Meet on the Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program website.
• Serve as a lead instructor for a training course.
• Become proficient at facilitating various types of After Action Reviews (AARs)/debriefings.
• Update your individual development plan.
• Shadow a conference group leader on a staff ride.
• Facilitate a Leadership in Media session with your crew.
• Facilitate Tactical Decision Games (TDGs) and scenario simulations.
• Participate in the annual Wildland Fire National Leadership Campaign.
• Become a mentor.

Self Study

• Leadership Self-Study - Level 3