Leadership Quotes

[davidbfpo]

Hat tip to the independent UK military blog site 'The Wavell Room' for this article, not the title I used. It is entitled 'Leading Trauma' and the author is Dr. Jill Russell, who did her PhD @ Kings College War Studies.

She starts with:

There is much ink spilled regularly on the subject of leadership. Not only does the usual content of leadership cases make for compelling narratives and recommendable works, sectors like defense depend on it for professional development, both formal and independent, in leader quality. In this instance, the example if London Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton’s leadership around trauma and her firefighters at the Grenfell Fire has relevance to current military practice.

Dany Cotton was later to testify at the public inquiry (which is expected to run for years):

the situation they were going into was life threatening to them. I felt that if I as their commissioner went into the tower and spoke to them and showed I was prepared to be in the same situation of risk that they were it would give them the impetus to feel that could carry on doing the tasks they were doing. I’ve had people subsequently say to me it made a complete difference to them, the fact I was in there and I was prepared to risk my life in the tower to be there and support them.

Link:https://wavellroom.com/2019/03/08/leading-trauma/

An early BBC News report on the fire and the photos vividly explain more than words:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40301289