The Leader's Mind
How Great Leaders Prepare, Perform, and Prevail
- 240 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About This Book
Clear and concise steps to develop the confidence and mental edge that sets you apart as a trailblazing leaderâthe same approach thousands of professional athletes have used to become champions.
The Leader's Mind taps into the same tips and techniques honed by top-tier athletes, such as how to get in a "zone, " thrive on a team, and stay humble, to become a champion at work and the ultimate team player at home.
Based on high-performance psychology research and Dr. Jim Afremow's two decades of experience providing mental training services across the globe to athletes and business leaders, The Leader's Mind will help you master:
- Valuable leadership lessons through powerful parables and stories from well-known leaders.
- The actionable steps leaders must take to change their thinking and become the leader they want to be.
- The necessary mindset to push through the challenges you face and take control of your career and home life.
- Tips and techniques to excel and overcome seemingly insurmountable odds and challenges.
Stop struggling with the expectations you face at work and at home by fundamentally changing the way you process what's happening in your life. The mental edge that sets elite athletes apart outlined in this book will help you become the champion leader you want to be.
Frequently asked questions
Information
CHAPTER 1
LEADERSHIP UNDER FIRE
I was already in place and the crew boss was nowhere around, so I grabbed a half dozen people and said, âLetâs go, weâve got to burn this thing out.â As weâre going, we were working just off the top of this ridge, and, as you know, fire runs uphill, then it goes downhill. The fire was coming up one side. We were just on the backside of this ridge, and we had to burn out the ridge. The containment line was down below us, maybe a hundred yards to a road. I had these firefighters, and a bunch of them were new.They had never been in that part of the country on that big of a fire. As we were moving forward, the fire started cresting the top, and weâre talking fifty- to hundred-foot flames, within fifty feet of us. Because fire goes uphill and goes up in altitude, we werenât feeling the heat from it, but it was right there, and it was roaring fire, and all these kids froze.But we had to get the job done. I knew we were good, and we could outrun the fire downhill if necessary, but all these guys were frozen solid. At one point, I had to look at them and say: âHey, snap out of it! We got a job to do. Follow me. Do as I tell you to do.â
As the district fire management officer, I am responsible for all fire operations that happen in this area. My district is about 305,000 acres. I have a full-time fire engine crew with a small fire engine. Some people call it a brush truck. We base it off of types, and each type is a size. A Type 1 engine would be what youâd see a structure fire crew having. A Type 3 engine would be a pretty large brush truck for out West. And then we have whatâs called a Type 6 engine, which is a smaller package for being able to get back into the woods a little easier. It carries only three hundred gallons of water.Iâve got the engine crew and an operator who is responsible for the dozer and various other equipment. We call our staff and secondary fire personnel our militia. Our recreation, timber, and wildlife people also have fire qualifications, and they help us out with wildfires and prescribed burns. Wildfires could be anything from a lightning strike to somebody tossing the ashes from their fireplace and catching the woods on fire, all the way up to arson. Prescribed burning is where we actually go out and put fire on the landscape to restore the forest. Because, as we know, fire is a natural part of the ecosystem.I started applying for fire jobs because I wanted to live an adventure; I wanted to go do something. I ended up getting hired on in Happy Camp (California) for my first job in 2004. Since then, Iâve been on engine crews, hand crews, and one season I spent on a helicopter crew where we actually rappelled out of the helicopter into forest fires. That was a really cool job, by the way.
When dealing with a move, a lot of itâespecially if you have a spouse involvedâis communication. Thatâs the biggest thing with anything we do in life. Iâm not going to tell my wife: âHey, guess what? Weâre moving to the middle of nowhere in Nevada. Hope you enjoy it,â even though my wife did tell me, âIâll follow you wherever you want to go.â I took her to western Oklahoma, and that was not the greatest of places. But as long as you have that open communication and the support of your spouse, you can accomplish anything.
A lot of that boils down to stress management and knowing what you have control of and knowing what you donât have control of. Is there a way you can take control of the things that you donât have control of? If not, then you let them go.
One of the hardest parts of my job right now is that Iâm no longer digging the line to actively stop the fire. Now Iâm managing and directing the firefighters who are doing that on the ground. Iâm out there in the field with them all day long, supervising, making sure that theyâre doing the work, that itâs timely, that weâre going to be able to meet our objectives, and that everybody goes home at the end of the day. With that comes a lot of critical decision making.The last fire that I was on, it seemed like every twenty minutes we were adapting our plans, sometimes because the weather or the fire changed so our initial plan wasnât going to work anymore. So, I had to make new decisions and relay them to everyone on the line. That constant decision making, especially in a time-critical, highly dynamic environment, is extremely fatiguing.After that fire, I told my wife, âIâm not making a decision for three days.â That was my way of countering the mental fatigue of a constant decision-making matrix. When I got home, I didnât care what we ate, I didnât care where we went, I didnât care what we did. Just because of mental fatigue, I didnât make a single decision. As far as physical fatigue, we do a lot of physical training. I think I heard somebody refer to wildland firefighters as tactical athletes. Every morning weâre in the gym, and by 6:00 a.m., weâre working out, whether it be running, lifting weights, whatever. Weâre working on our physical fitness because our bodies need it for what we do. This makes recovery that much easier when we get home and weâre totally physically drained. A couple days of relaxation, and weâre ready to go.
The OODA loop was developed by John Boyd, who was a military aviator. He said that the fighter pilot who could go through the OODA loop the fastest is the one who wins dogfights. OODA is an acronym for observe, orient, decide, and then act. Youâre making an observation of your overall surroundings. Youâre then orienting yourself to that. Next, you make a decision based on your situational awareness, what youâve just obtained, and act upon it. Then you immediately go right back into the observation phase.The great thing about the OODA loop is that it breaks out the bias of split-second decisions. It allows you to be in the moment on a specific task, and, at the same time, to focus on the big picture. We use it within our agency as a decision-making tool. It works very well with just cutting through the BS, looking at what is really going on. Whatâs happening? Why is it going on? Where are you involved in it? What is the task at hand? What are our overall objectives? How do we get to our mission results?We make a decision based on this information, act on it, and then reevaluate. Then we go right back into the observe phase and ask, âAre we meeting the objectives? Are we going to make our deadline? Are the jobs that weâre doing out in the field going be successful or not?â If theyâre not going to be successful, we have to reevaluate, because in the end, weâre trying to find the highest likelihood of success. The number one priority is that everybody goes home. Number two, we put the fire out.
I would resort to our standard operating procedures, to our core beliefs in firefighting and in leadership. Those are duty, integrity, and respect. These are ingrained in every single one of us from the beginning. If an individual is outside of those realms, if theyâre not respecting their coworkers or arenât following their duty, or have less integrity, I resort to these three values. I wonât make the problem between me and an individual. Iâll fall back on our standard operating procedures, our protocols and procedures, and make it about those. Thatâs what we are supposed to be following and adhering to.If an individual is bullying, thatâs not being respectful toward others. I would pull them into my office and say: âLook, I have witnessed this going on, and you know that our standard operating procedures are duty, integrity, and respect. Please explain to me how you felt this action was respectful toward others.â Then Iâve completely eliminated myself from the problem, and Iâve resorted to our policy.
The key principles of duty, integrity, and respect help build a better, more resilient US Forest Service. Duty is being proficient in your job, technically and as a leader. Your duty is to make sound and timely decisions, ensure tactics are understood, supervised, and accomplished. My duty as a leader is to make sure that everybodyâs doing their job and doing it safely and accurately. Another part of leadership is developing others to bring them up in the future. Because I wouldnât be where I am if it wasnât for people along the way who have mentored and guided me, and steered me in the direction that led me here. If I donât do the same thing for the people who work for me, I am doing a disservice to them.Itâs amazing that you actually have to explain to some people what respect really looks like. To me, itâs knowing your subordinates and looking out for their well-being, keeping my subordinates informed. I canât tell you how many supervisors Iâve had who didnât do that. They thought information was power, and so they held onto it. Well, information isnât power if you hold onto it. Information is power when everybody knows it.The core of leadership is building your team to be a stronger, more resilient, functioning group. And then utilizing employer subordinates in accordance with their capabilities. Obviously, Iâm not going to have my first-year rookie firefighters grab a chainsaw and cut the most dangerous tree out...
Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Leadership Under Fire
- Chapter 2: The Sharpshooter
- Chapter 3: Grace Under Pressure
- Chapter 4: The Man In Black
- Chapter 5: On the Cutting Edge
- Chapter 6: Shaping Future Leaders
- Chapter 7: Lead Like a Roman Emperor
- Chapter 8: The Leaderâs Mission
- Conclusion: Your Strongest Attribute Is a Leadership Mindset
- Acknowledgments
- Endnotes
- Index
- About the Authors