Intro

Hello there, and welcome. This is a book about leadership, and it pretty much reflects my own personal journey into – and sometimes out of – leadership roles both as an employee and a volunteer. You can judge for yourself as to whether the lessons I learned represent leadership opportunities for your own journey in life. I believe they will – and you will find not only leadership lessons learned, but leadership lessons applied.

The bulk of the book focuses on leadership in the professional field of Emergency Management in the United States. And it is mostly based on disaster response leadership, through the American Red Cross. Many of the lessons I learned in the response to incidents or large scale events can translate into other emergency management application for the ‘before’ (known as Preparedness, Protection, and Prevention), the ‘during’ (Response and the first part of Recovery), and the ‘after’ (the latter part of Recovery into Mitigation – which starts the whole thing all over again).

I also believe this type/style/caliber of leadership can be applicable to any field, in any country. My own leadership journey started in high school, then college, then work in the Financial Services field, and now in professional Emergency Management. So there will be a bit of memoir/autobiography to the book – but only a chapter or three. I found that the roles I had in Financial Services and Emergency Management were consistent in they were in the middle. Between people who needed computer systems and those who designed computer systems. Between financial products like CDs, mortgage loans, stocks, and bonds and the clients who wanted to save or invest. Between government officials and the public who needs services and support before, during, and after disasters. That ‘before, during, and after’ phases of a disaster can also represent my own career path towards Emergency Management, too.

I will cover my high school and college time periods in the ‘Before‘ part – this is not a full life’s story for me, and I am not going to tell tales out of school, mind you. It will be relatively brief, but I think you will see how some seeds were sown. And see the importance of having both mentors and teammates. Both of those groups will help with your own leadership drive: to challenge it, help uncover it, or even just to applaud it once in a while.

Then the book gets split into Parts – and those are all organized around my time working at the Red Cross. With the exception of a short (and unfulfilling) stint in state government, my professional work life in Emergency Management has been associated with the Red Cross. It is the bright star which I and others orbit around. First as a volunteer, then an employee (and occasional volunteer), then a part-time employee, then again now as a full time volunteer. Working and volunteering (many times, there is no real difference in the work which is done, or the leaders who lead you) at the Red Cross is more than a job, even more than a passion. It really is a calling. It’s being the pig in ‘Bacon and Eggs’ – committed rather than just engaged. Disaster leadership at the Red Cross is (mostly) driven by who is the most qualified to lead, rather than who is ‘in charge’ or who has the most ‘experience on the job’. So in steady-state (those times we hope to reside in, every day), you may have a supervisor or boss who you work or volunteer for; but when a disaster happens (disaster-state), if you are more qualified for a role, you may become the boss – even with volunteers leading paid staff (well, to a point – in the real world, even the Red Cross has its limits as to how far up you can lead as a volunteer – but it is quite a tall tree which you can climb to nearly the top).

I am grateful for my time with the Red Cross, and greatly appreciate that their leadership has authorized the writing of this book. As an active volunteer I am still subject to agreements I made not to profit from my volunteer time at the Red Cross, and of course not to divulge any private information of others, especially that of clients. This book is being produced/distributed/sold with no royalties to me, and since it was self-published, no royalties to the Red Cross either. They did not sponsor this book, nor endorse it. And here’s another reminder about how this book is not a telling of tales out of school about the Red Cross. So if you are looking for the warts and blemishes on any of the organizations I worked for or volunteer with, this is the wrong book. If you are looking for warts and blemishes on me – well, maybe keep reading – but since I’m doing the writing, I get to paint the picture as rosy or cloudy as I want.

And speaking of writing, with the exception of short passages in the major chapters which introduce the disaster involved, and direct quotes, all of the other words in this book – are hand-typed by me. I will note when Artificial Intelligence (AI) has helped me, and I will footnote the direct quotes. It will be pretty easy to figure out: if the text is in a box (not counting the “Lessons Applied” boxes), it was most likely written by someone (or something) else – and I will note that. Also know right up front that this is not an academic book (I have been there, and am still doing that), so don’t look for academic citations. Do know that I will not be plagiarizing anyone, nor will I be relying on a robot to do my writing work. Opinions of course, are all mine.

Thank you

There are a lot of people to thank in my life as a leader – and in the writing of the book. For the life’s leadership part, I used initials throughout the book (It helps, I believe, in not pointing out one person over another, plus I am not taking the time to ask permissions. Some of these folks may or may not want to see their names in print, so this makes it easier). For the book writing, I want to thank: Edward Blanchard, Kyle Chu, Anthony Mangeri, Joseph Poplawski, Stuart Reiter, Steven Sarinelli, Katina Taylor, E. J. Yegelwel.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to everyone involved in the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement around the world. Putting our Fundamental Principles  at the forefront of why we lead in Emergency Management – especially the principle of Humanity: the need to act in order to prevent and alleviate human suffering – can be challenging for some, but ultimately is rewarding for all.