{"id":7072340,"date":"2026-10-02T04:08:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T04:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7072340"},"modified":"2026-10-02T04:08:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T04:08:20","slug":"authenticity-and-congruence-as-a-wildland-fire-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7072340","title":{"rendered":"Authenticity and Congruence as a Wildland Fire Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-body-3172773569623368925\" itemprop=\"description articleBody\">\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">\u00a0<u style=\"background-color: white; color: #666666;\">Author:<\/u><span face=\"&quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif\" style=\"background-color: white; color: #666666;\">\u00a0<\/span><i style=\"background-color: white; color: #666666;\">Nick Terrell, National Wildfire Coordinating Group<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">Can you think of someone you work with, or have worked with,<br \/>\nwho\u2019s actions and words don\u2019t match? I bet you can, and I can too. It&#8217;s called<br \/>\nincongruence and it&#8217;s not a desirable leadership trait. The extreme example of<br \/>\nthis behavior is the \u201cdo as I say, not as I do\u201d leader. You don\u2019t need to hear<br \/>\nit from me that this method will lose a person in a position of power massive<br \/>\namounts of respect real quick. You know that already, probably from experience.<br \/>\nOn the less offensive side of the spectrum, this behavior could manifest as<br \/>\nsomeone who is remiss to speak up or who speaks up in a way that they perceive<br \/>\nis socially acceptable in their peer group but does not align with their<br \/>\npersonal character. It&#8217;s someone who is not living in a way that is true to<br \/>\ntheir personal value system. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">I have been this person, and I have known many smart,<br \/>\ncapable, and competent wildland firefighters who speak and act differently when<br \/>\nthey are faced with an opportunity to step into a spotlight. No matter how<br \/>\nsmall that spotlight may be, the fear of being judged by our peers can keep us<br \/>\nfrom manifesting our true character. As a <i>Follower<\/i> developing into a <i>New<br \/>\nLeader<\/i> (reference the Wildland Fire Leadership Levels <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nwcg.gov\/committee\/leadership-committee\/leadership-levels)%20I%20hesitated%20to%20speak%20up%20and%20show%20my%20true%20character\">https:\/\/www.nwcg.gov\/committee\/leadership-committee\/leadership-levels)<br \/>\nI hesitated to speak up and show my true character<\/a>) I hesitated to speak up<br \/>\nand show my true character. <span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes;\">\u00a0<\/span>I believe<br \/>\nthat was a function of building competency and confidence when making this<br \/>\nleadership level transition. In other words, I had not yet built the various<br \/>\nskill competencies that wildland firefighters use, so I could not conceptualize<br \/>\nhow to overlay my personal value system in carrying out my Duty. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">It was the transition from <i>New Leader<\/i> to <i>Leader of<br \/>\nPeople<\/i> where I hesitated to speak up because of a fear of judgement. At<br \/>\nthis point in my career, I was confident and competent, and I knew that I did<br \/>\nnot use my confidence to mask a lack of competence. Some people do that. I bet<br \/>\nyou have encountered those folks in your career too. I had reached a level of<br \/>\nskill competency where I could authentically manifest my personal values in my<br \/>\nleadership style, but I did not speak and act in a way that was true to that<br \/>\nvalue system for fear of judgement from my peer group. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">So let&#8217;s back up a bit. I mentioned incongruence as the<br \/>\nundesirable leadership trait. What we need to focus on and strive for is<br \/>\ncongruence in what we say and what we do. Congruence is an effective and<br \/>\ndesirable leadership trait because of its association with authenticity.<br \/>\nEffective leaders are authentic. You can sense it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">When leaders speak and act in alignment, you can tell that<br \/>\nit&#8217;s coming from a genuine place. From a place based on what they value as a<br \/>\nperson. Through this alignment of action, word, and value, a person manifests<br \/>\ntheir true character. So now think of the person who you have worked with who<br \/>\nemploys authenticity in their leadership style. Maybe it was someone who wasn&#8217;t<br \/>\neven in a leadership position, but you could feel that they were putting their<br \/>\nheart behind what they said and did. On the rare chance that you can\u2019t think of<br \/>\nan example, maybe the person is you. This person is a much more effective and<br \/>\nlikeable leader, the kind of person we all want to work with. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">I have worked with too many good people who do not practice<br \/>\ncongruence and authenticity. I believe that many wildland firefighters hesitate<br \/>\nto show their true character and values because they fear being seen or<br \/>\nultimately judged by peers for what we perceive to be deviations from what is<br \/>\nculturally acceptable. This phenomenon is difficult for me to cope with and<br \/>\nit&#8217;s hard for me to abide by. I believe it reduces the richness of our wildland<br \/>\nfire culture. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">Perhaps you don\u2019t have a clear picture of what your personal<br \/>\nvalue system is. No shame if you don\u2019t, values change over time. People change<br \/>\nover time. I could not have articulated my personal values until somewhat<br \/>\nrecently when I completed a values assessment. I have included the assessment I<br \/>\ntook below and I encourage you to take it to map your personal value system to<br \/>\ngain a good anchor point to lead people from. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">A wildland fire leader\u2019s ability to manifest their personal<br \/>\nvalue system congruently between their actions and their words is a core skill.<br \/>\nA <b>Personal Anchor Skill<\/b>. We have the <b>Duty <\/b>to be proficient in our<br \/>\njobs, both technically and as a leader. Effective and proficient leaders lead<br \/>\nfrom an authentic position based in their personal value system. Through<br \/>\nauthentic behavior, fire leaders generate <b>Respect <\/b>by knowing their<br \/>\nsubordinates and looking out for their wellbeing, and they lead with <b>Integrity<br \/>\n<\/b>by setting the example. Speak and act in alignment with who you are and<br \/>\nwhat drives you as a person no matter how unique your style may be. The people<br \/>\nyou lead will respond to it positively, even if there are aspects of your<br \/>\ncharacter that stand in contrast to their own. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\"><u>References: <\/u><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">1) Further reading to expand your perspective of<br \/>\nauthenticity and congruence:<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">\u201c<i>Congruence is what separates the most influential<br \/>\nleaders from everyone else. Here\u2019s why.\u201d <\/i>Matthew Jones. Inc.com. 2018. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.inc.com\/matthew-jones\/congruence-is-what-separates-most-influential-leaders-from-everyone-else-heres-why.html%20\">https:\/\/www.inc.com\/matthew-jones\/congruence-is-what-separates-most-influential-leaders-from-everyone-else-heres-why.html<\/a><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">2) Personal Values System Assessment: <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.guilford.com\/add\/miller11_old\/pers_val.pdf?t=1%20\">https:\/\/www.guilford.com\/add\/miller11_old\/pers_val.pdf?t=1<\/a><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-family: arial;\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211; <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><i style=\"background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: &quot;Trebuchet MS&quot;, Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;\">Nick Terrell is a career federal wildland firefighter. Following a career altering injury, he left his position on a handcrew for a wildland fire support position. The career change has allowed him to pursue a master\u2019s degree at Boise State University studying Conflict Management and Leadership. He still maintains operational fire qualifications and is a diligent student of fire.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i style=\"background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: arial; font-size: 13.2px;\"\/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0Author:\u00a0Nick Terrell, National Wildfire Coordinating Group Can you think of someone you work with, or have worked with, who\u2019s actions and words don\u2019t match? I bet you can, and I can too. It&#8217;s called incongruence and it&#8217;s not a desirable leadership trait. The extreme example of this behavior is the \u201cdo as I say, not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15600,233168,1074,17672,121909],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7072340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-authenticity","tag-congruence","tag-fire","tag-leader","tag-wildland"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Authenticity and Congruence as a Wildland Fire Leader - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7072340\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Authenticity and Congruence as a Wildland Fire Leader - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0Author:\u00a0Nick Terrell, National Wildfire Coordinating Group Can you think of someone you work with, or have worked with, who\u2019s actions and words don\u2019t match? 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