Speakers: John Mower, Emergency Management Specialist, U.S. Coast Guard. Daniel J. Hoy, Captain, HazMat Program Manager Sacramento CA Metropolitan Fire . Caleb McNeil, Firefighter, Castle Rock Fire . Michael Nasti, Lieutenant, Prince Georges County MD Fire/EMS Department
Caleb McNeil: Leadership to me is about influencing people to move forward towards something to have influence. You mean, it means you have to have people that are either watching or listening to you without some sort of audience which doesn't need to come in the form of a title or something official can come in so many different realms. But there has to be people that are listening to you. You have to go then from there towards having a purpose, moving people towards something. I again, that can look like so many different things, but you gotta have people that you are moving towards a positive direction.
Daniel J. Hoy: So when it comes to leadership, there's a lot of definitions out there, there's a lot of philosophies on leadership. but it comes down to really, for me, It's not necessary about what you say, it's what you do because your actions speak louder than words. Me personally, my own style, my own philosophy is centered around servant leadership which fits in really well with who I think deputy Chief John M Eversole the namesake for this award, who he was not only was he the Deputy Chief of Special Operations for the Chicago Fire Department, but he was also a national advocate for fire service based hazard materials response, furthering the cause to get resources and help to, to meet that mission that the fire service was tasked with head on. Additionally, he advocated in in front of congressional committees for more awareness on terrorism response and the threat that our, our nation was facing. And this is before 911. So, and though he's not with us today, right? His legacy lives on through that selfless and relentless pursuit of those goals. He, he exemplified servant leadership and that's the kind of person that I want to be, that's the kind of leader I want to be where I'm sacrificing myself and placing other people's needs at, at least at equal importance of mine, if not greater.
John Mower: Yeah. So with regard to my definition of leadership, I aspire to be a servant leader, you know, first and foremost, I prefer to model the way in servant leadership to others. It's not about doing everything myself or expecting everyone else around me to to do, do the task at hand. I would rather uh secondly, in addition to modeling the way, secondly, inspire others by sharing in the common vision for the goal at hand or the vision that that we're working toward. sometimes there's inefficiencies. So I believe a good leader challenges, the process would be the third sort of aspect of leadership. So we're always looking for ways to make things more efficient as leaders. fourth uh enabling others to act. So again, it's not about completing the task at hand because I know how best to do that. It's about enabling those around me to be able to complete those tasks at hand and sharing in the vision and completing the task at hand. And I think fifth is a really important one and, and that is encouraging the heart because most of us work. I think best from a place of passion and the things that we care about.
Michael Nasti: My definition of leadership is the ability to motivate and inspire others to accomplish a common goal. to lead, by example, by showing those skills myself. And then through my actions, inspire others to be part of the team and to bring their own unique experiences and strengths to accomplish whatever our goal is, no matter how big or how small.
Daniel J. Hoy: There's numerous people in my organization, I've had the distinct pleasure of working with over the years. And a lot of what they had to say about leadership was all about people. As you know, the fire service is a people based industry, right? Without the people, we really can't do our job and we're a service based industry. So it's kind of in our mission and in our name that we should be service oriented. A couple of quotes from, from some of my, my friends and my leaders in my organization is be present and show you care again, emphasizing the fact that the people are most important and that's how you lead, you show people what leadership looks like by serving others. Another person in my organization said, be thankful when people bring them, bring you their problems because they trust you and they believe you care and that's trust, that's friendship, that's personal and professional relationships. And that's when you garner that respect and trust and then you become a leader because people are willing to follow you knowing that you have their best interest in mind. Um So when it comes down to,
