Hello #fire folks in my network following my musings on #TheSupesHandbook. Tonight I cried. Reading the author's story of her trip to interview #PaulGleason right at the time of his passing brought a flood of Gleason memory. Her story also reminded me, when Paul died I spent a powerful, emotional evening in a hotel ballroom with a group of Paul's NPS colleagues, reminiscing and processing Paul's passing. Extra intense 'cause it just so happened we were also doing the 1st Cerro Grande staff ride, and some of the folks present were already processing some strong emotions. All these years later, I hope the people who receive the Paul Gleason Lead By Example Award have a deep and intense understanding of who's memory it is they are being honored with for their own achievements and what that means

I'm half way through #TheSupesHandbook by #AngieTom #DesertRatPress and have three things on my mind. 1) Not that I did not know, but I am reminded that some really intelligent people are drawn to fire work. Some may not have a lot of formal education, but there are some incredibly smart people. Some of the people profiled have formal post-secondary ed, others are phenomenally self-taught (more on that later) but, regardless of education, just natively smart people. 2) While they might or might not acknowledge themselves as such, there are some passionate students of leadership in the profiled group who understood and felt the weight of the responsibility, obligations and burdens of leadership and took their leadership seriously. It seems, for most, the fire part came pretty easy. Taking care of people was their obsession. 3) I am reminded, sadly, of how often I've seen their agencies and others, fail to recognize, under-appreciate, dismiss and even suppress that kind of intelligence and passionate leadership savvy. It's not only that these people, and people like them have my respect, and that I believe they deserve the acknowledgement and respect of others, but I see organizations failing to recognize and make the most of great resources that are right at their fingertips. I find myself thinking about senior leaders who would have benefitted from coaching and mentoring by some of these folks but who could never let that happen because they could not see around their own position, their own ego, the threat they felt, etc.