You're It
By: Leonard J. Marcus | Eric J. McNulty | Joseph M. Henderson | Barry C. Dorn
Review
Imagine if you will you in attendance watching a parade (or another community event) in your community and then suddenly *BOOM!!!*, you are thrust into the most dynamic, complex, and significant leadership role of your life because you are the Emergency Manager for the community. How will you respond? Anyone would quickly find themselves in the “basement” (and emotional flinch/ panic response to the “oh sh** I’m it” moment) how long we stay in this mindset depends on our training. After all, in these situations we never rise to our expectations, we always fall to the level of our training. If you have trained yourself to be a Meta-Leader, you will have the tools and techniques to quickly get out of that “basement” and begin productive work.
Meta-Leadership is a holistic view of leadership with three dimensions, the person- you the leader, the situation- what you are dealing with, and connectivity- of effort and resources available to you. In this leadership style, you learn a lot about yourself through self-awareness and reflection and making mistakes. Meta-Leaders can lead down, up, across, and beyond their authority by understanding and employing multiple skills from our leadership “toolbox”. Skills such as clear communication, servitude, relationship building, influence, and humility. Meta-Leadership requires flexibility and the ability to pivot to meet the needs of the situation at hand. This style of leadership goes beyond your authority, it is very much about how you can influence, there are limitations on authority, and there is no limitation on influence. As an influencer, you find yourself in negotiations and conflict, in this book we took a “Walk in the Woods” to resolve problems. The steps to this process are Self-Awareness – what each party’s desired outcomes are, Enlarged Interests – the desired outcomes that each party agrees on, Enlightened Interests - New ideas to resolve the issue(s), and Aligned Interests – Solution building and negotiation, resolutions the has buy-in and that all parties have a stake in.
In this book, I was introduced to POP-DOC which expands on the OODA process which I have used throughout my Army career. Perceive Orient Predict; Decide Operationalize Communicate (POP-DOC) is a tool designed to help provide structure and foster cohesion during chaos so you can see patterns, anticipate, and plan. This is a continuous process that occurs in the Meta-Leaders mind that begins with perceiving, ends with communicating, and starts again with perceiving.
I appreciate the journaling aspect of the book; it created a true learning environment. If I had a must-read list for Emergency Managers, this book would be on it. Meta-Leader means people follow you, where will you lead them when You’re It?
Take Aways for Emergency Managers
Emergency Management leaders are in a unique position within their organizations that can benefit from Meta-Leadership. EM leaders must be able to lead or influence up, down, across, and beyond while being aware of the person, situation, and how it is all connected. This takes deliberate training and practice.
You never know when our “You’re It” moment is going to happen and suddenly you’re in the leadership role of your career. Sharpen your skills now and keep them sharp for we never rise to the occasion, we fall to the level of our training and stay ready.
Incorporate the POP-DOC process in your daily habits, in my office, I use to hang an image of the OODA loop as a reminder for when things get hectic, after reading this book it has been replaced with POP-DOC.
Make sure you know who you are, self-awareness is huge as a leader and ever so important in the EM career field. Know yourself (strengths, weaknesses, etc.) and do self-checks often. Journaling is a great way to do this, use the journaling practices in this book as a starting point and continue beyond
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