I’ve touched on my interest in leadership before, and today I’m starting something to have this interest be much bigger and bolder.
I’m hereby starting The Leadership Project.
I’m not clear what this is going to look like and where it might go on the way to looking like something. I just know I’m starting it and I’ve got some questions that excite me.
Possibly, it will be a series of blog posts, or a book, or a training program. Possibly, it will be a series of interviews with others who are also excited by leadership. Possibly, it will be all of these, or something else altogether.
I’m interested in leadership in all contexts, with a special interest in leadership in the workplace.
Here are some questions and ideas I expect to be exploring:
- what does leadership look like in the workplace?
- the glorious magic of indirection, or leadership as being-for-others
- what are the three aspects of high performing people and situations?
- the role of acknowledgement
- what is the opposite of being a leader?
- the need to give up the desire to be good
- communication as a creative act, not a descriptive one.
***
To whet the appetite, I want to recount briefly the story of Lou Sigmund, a man who was a leader in his workplace, which in this case was the small country town of Boolarra in south-eastern Victoria on 30 January 2009.
Lou was the Group Officer of the town’s Country Fire Authority (CFA), the state-wide organisation of volunteer fire fighters. On that day in 2009, a week before the Black Saturday fires which claimed the lives of 173 people in Australia’s worst ever bushfire disaster, Lou’s own town had a portent of what lay ahead.
Bushfires were approaching Boolarra and the authorities from the state government were briefing the townspeople on what to expect and what to do. The problem was, in the eyes of Lou and many other experienced fire fighters, the authorities were not specific enough and were not being straight with people.
Lou made a decision. As he said later,
I decided that I would take a stand on that morning and tell the townsfolk the truth.
So while the authorities from the state government waffled on at the town meeting, Lou Sigmund stood next to them telling people quite another story. As the day wore on, he set off from the town to watch the fire’s approach. What he saw horrified him, and immediately he radioed back to his colleague,
Set the siren! Set the siren! And send me some tankers because we’re in deep trouble.
The siren acted as an unofficial evacuation signal, and the townspeople immediately left their homes and went to safety.
In ordering the sounding of the siren, Lou breached the policy of the CFA, the organisation for which he’d volunteered for over 10 years. In ordering the sounding of the siren, Lou ensured not one person lost their life in the town of Boolarra. It was to be a very different situation in other towns across the state just a week later when there was no evacuation signal.
Lou Sigmund was subsequently reprimanded by the CFA for his breach of the policy, and was told to stop talking publicly.
Lou Sigmund was a mighty leader that day.
***
Image: Lou Sigmund
If you enjoyed this post …
If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy:
We need more folks like Lou Sigmund.
Sure do, and I’m on the lookout for them ;)
Fantastic project and best of luck with it.
I have a fairly cynical view of leadership in the workplace because too much attention is focused on the CEO. At lower levels, the Lou Sigmund story is unfortunately an archetype of leadership in the workplace today. The picture is a dismal story of human creativity stifled by bureaucratic paranoia, fear of lawsuits or fear of job loss. And tall poppy syndrome too, I guess.
Oh yeh, you can never rule out the tall poppy syndrome here in Aust unfortunately. Still, I’m optimistic there’s a lot that can be different. Just getting attuned to leadership, as in looking for it, recognising it, acknowledging it, will make a difference.
Happily, the Lou Sigmund story turned out OK. Though he was rebuked by his own organisation, he went on to be a powerful witness at the Royal Commission into the bushfires that ran for a year or so after the event. He was applauded by the Commissioners and the general public. The CEO of the CFA resigned his position, and several other high profile figures who did not provide the leadership that might have been expected of them also resigned. The Police Commissioner, who had left the fire control room to go to dinner with friends at the height of the inferno because she thought her presence could not make a difference, ended her long and distinguished career in disgrace.
Completely agree with you that too much attention is focused on the CEO. I’m interested in leadership as everyone in the workplace can bring it into being, and I’m going to be writing about just such a case later today.
my name is lou sigmund and the story you tell is correct , the upshot of the fires in boolarra is that today many people are just coming to terms with what happened , the cfa is not interested in talking to any one who mayhave any negative thing to say , this is a shame as many positives would have come from such a meeting leadership on that day come from the need to do my job, which is to save lives and property in that order the cfa is only concerned about its corporate image
Hello Lou. Thank you for being the leader that was needed that day in Boolarra. Your story inspires and moves me, and as you can see, you are one of the inspirations for my project, The Leadership Project.
I’m sorry to hear the CFA has not learnt the lesson. How is your town and its people travelling?