Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Conference 2015
Las Vegas, Nevada
This presentation may not be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic method, without the prior written permission of 1SmartCareer.

• 20 years total HR Experience
• 10 years HR with Mesa Fire
• 10 years in private sector
• Masters Degree in
Education and Counseling
• Certified Leadership Coach
• Certified Mediator
• Authored, and featured as expert in published articles by The Wall Street Journal,
Huffington Post, CEO Blog
Nation, Computer World and others
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• CEO vs. FCEO
• Inner Game of the Leader – 5 parts
Want you to be inspired – to think things you haven’t thought before – think of at least one thing you will do differently when you get home
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I work with leaders and think about
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Chief Executive Officer is the highest ranking executive manager in a corporation or organization. May report to a Board of Directors.
Responsibilities include communicating a vision and implementing a strategic plan. Also, legal, research and development, compliance, finance, and community relations.
Fire Chief Executive Officer is the highest ranking executive manager in a Fire organization. Reports to a City Manager, City Council, and
Citizens . Responsibilities include communicating a vision and implementing a strategic plan. Also, Emergency Operations, EMS,
Support Services, Prevention, and community relations.
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Media responses
Homeland
Security
Life and
Safety of All
Contribute to Fire
Service
Fire Admin
Employees
City Org./
Elected
Officials
Fire
Department
Org.
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• CEO:
Make Money
• FCEO:
Innovate for purposes of making money
Safety of life and property
Community Leadership
Leadership of Department and City
Collaborate and innovate with other FDs
Be accessible to customers (published phone/e-mail)
Be accountable for taxpayer funds
360 degree focus
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Spending time on your Inner Game will pay off here
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FCEO
Confidante
Gain
Mastery
Embrace the
Gray Zone
Be a Source of Vision
Moonshot
Thinking
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FCEO
Confidante
Who’s got your back?
Leaders may feel:
• It’s lonely at the top
• Have “yes” people agreeing with them (positional power)
• Others don’t have their organization’s best interests at heart
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FCEO
Confidante
Who’s got your back?
How do you find out?
(Some find out the hard way…)
• How do you know if you get the truth?
• How do you know how you are perceived?
• How do you know if you are approachable?
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FCEO
Confidante
Choose the RIGHT Confidante
• Not part of your political structure
• No stake in results
• Will tell you the truth
• Wants nothing but success for you and your community
Consider: Executive Coach, Outside Mentor, Other seasoned FCEO,
Mastermind Group
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FCEO
Confidante
• Every high level athlete, famous performer has a coach/confidante.
• Bill Gates in a TED talk said “We all need people who give us feedback, that’s how we improve” when discussing coaches.
• Eric Schmidt of Google says “One thing people are never good at is seeing themselves as others see them. A coach really, really helps”.
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Brain on Game
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The BEST leaders just want to keep getting better
• Not sure where we can improve – things are going pretty well in all areas.
• Consider Tennis Mastery
• What are the crucial areas of expertise that you must possess to be the best? To increase Mastery?
• Knowledge
• Contacts
• Achievements
• Functional Expertise
• Experience
• Skills
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Coaching Questions
• For the areas selected, what can you do in the next 3 months to become better?
• What could arise to cause you to give up your path to mastery? How will you keep going?
• Based on your work above, formally declare your area of mastery.
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Brain on Game
Gain
Mastery
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Embrace the Gray
Zone
• What is the Gray Zone?
• Can’t see above or below
• Leader doesn’t panic because you know that if you keep going, you will get there and it will be worth it
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Embrace the Gray
Zone
• When people find themselves in a gray zone, they may:
• Panic
• Over-react
• Resist change
• Embrace Uncertainty
• Experiment and explore but tend to take too many risks
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Embrace the Gray
Zone
Coaching Questions
• How did your parents react in times of uncertainty? What did you learn from that?
• Who is the most unflappable person you know? What can you learn?
• What is the biggest risk you ever took? What did you learn about risk?
• What’s the point of greatest uncertainty in your organization and career right now? What is the best way to respond to it?
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Brain on Game
Gain
Mastery
Embrace the
Gray Zone
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Be a Source of
Vision
Raise your Gaze
• We know vision is the difference between a manager and a leader
• Areas to check:
 Customers
 The career of my boss
 Is vision lived beyond the poster?
 Are we proactive or adaptive?
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Be a Source of
Vision
• A note about being adaptive vs. Proactive:
Adapting or “reactivity” is critical on the ground.
But proactivity is critical in leadership.
The good news is that they are pretty much the same thing. The difference in proactivity is you do the reacting ahead of time.
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Be a Source of
Vision
Coaching Questions
• If we had an Improvement Laboratory what would you choose first?
 Alignment
 Key Customers
 Expand services
 Strategic partners
 Culture and environment in the organization
 Key Functions
 Keeping agreements/Integrity
 Other?
• How can we build that muscle of looking for opportunities?
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Brain on Game
Gain
Mastery
Embrace the
Gray Zone
Be a Source of Vision
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• Instead of moderate goals, think big like Kennedy’s challenge to put a man on the moon
• Instead of “tweaking” your services to keep up with changes – do more
• Instead of improving by 10%, improve by 10X (1000%)
• Requires rethinking problems entirely
• Exploring edges of what’s possible
• Technically
• Financially
• Having more fun in the process
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How does this look in our current landscape? Who is doing this?
Google: from g-mail w 100x storage, Google Glass, to self-driving car and artificial brain
HBO Go – Mobilizing your watching experience and changing cable –
HBO drives innovation through “Team B’s” challenging conventional wisdom.
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Catapult – NFL, NBA, NCAA Football, World Cup teams monitor athletes using their devices to discern whether an athlete is developing an injury.
Tesla – Goal of making a $35K electric car by 2017. Current Model S –
265 miles on charge and has sign reading cameras. AND – they are making patents available to competition to encourage others to join the electric evolution.
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Coaching Questions
• Are you open to considering bold changes?
• Can you have a “healthy disregard for the impossible”?
• Who do you want on your team when “challenging conventional wisdom”?
• Finish this sentence…”wouldn’t it be great if…..”
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Brain on Game
Gain
Mastery
Embrace the
Gray Zone
Be a Source of Vision
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Remember I wanted you to be inspired – to think things you haven’t thought before – think of at least one thing you will do differently when you get home.
Did you?
How could you reach higher by 10X?
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• Wayne Gretzky:
“I skate to where the puck is going to be – not where it has been.”
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Kelly Walsh
Phone: (919) 995-4996
Email: kwalsh@1smartcareer.com
This presentation may not be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic method, without the prior written permission of 1SmartCareer.
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