|
 |
May-June
2009 |
 |
| |
|
The Three “C’s”
and “P” of Personal Leadership
By
George Burk
Publisher's
Note: In this article, Captain Burk
discusses core values of outstanding personal leadership and how
they played a vital role in his life. That George is alive today is
nothing short of a miracle. Fire Nuggets strongly recommends that
everyone read his book The Bridge Never
Crossed, A Survivors Search for Meaning. Chief Joe Howard,
Rowlett FD (Texas) says, "The Bridge Never Crossed is
the incredible story of George Burk's survival of a tragic plane
crash, the unlikely series of events that saved his life, and his
inspirational refusal to die.... George has spent the balance of his
life sharing what he has learned about work, leadership, faith, and
the true meaning of 'quality of life.' He believes that angels walk
among us. I believe that George is one of them." I would add
that it is powerful, inspirational and will tug at your heart. You
can find the book by clicking on the following link: http://www.georgeburk.com/books.html
— Ted Corporandy, Fire Nuggets co-publisher
Personal
Leadership: "Embark on a path
(vision) you normally wouldn’t go (mission) and when you reach the
destination (goals), you deflect any praise (self-esteem). You make
others the heroes (self-actualization). You’re the servant
(mentor/coach). Surround yourself with people who want you to
succeed and thrive, not fail (network). Be known by the words used
and the company kept, choose both wisely (listen twice as much as
speak)."
As I’ve written in
several articles and shared with many of you, I’ve been invited to
speak at the Capstone
Character Excellence Program, United States Naval Academy. The
program’s an integral part of the VADM James Stockdale USN (Ret)
Center for Ethical Leadership and a required seminar course for
senior midshipmen. Admiral Stockdale was a POW in the “Hanoi
Hilton,” North Vietnam for more than seven years and the recipient
of the Medal of Honor. One of our country’s true heroes!
The program has many
distinguished speakers. My first visit was February 2007, and I’ve
been privileged to return twice a year since then. The Capstone
web site is: www.usna.edu/ethics/capstone/capstonetopics.htm.
There you’ll find information about the program’s genesis,
mission, goals and value statements and past and present speakers
for 2008 and 2009. One of the distinguished speakers and a faculty
member in the “Stockdale Ethics and Leadership Program” is
Colonel Art Athens, USMC (ret). Colonel Athens' bio is impressive,
to say the least. Although I’ve never had the opportunity to meet
him, I did hear him speak at a conference at the Academy on
Wednesday, 28 January 2009 while I was there to speak at the
Capstone Program.
Prior to that time, my
hosts, Lt. Nick Rogers USN and Capt. James Campbell, USN (ret.)
shared Colonel Athens' Three C’s
of an Effective Leader with me. The Three Cs are Competence,
Courage and Compassion.
In his speech to the
conferees, Colonel Athens mentioned how, as a young Marine
lieutenant, he wondered what it would take for him to become an
effective leader of Marines. He then shared his experience of
meeting a Marine Corps gunnery sergeant who told him the “Three C’s”
of a great leader. The “gunny” had served with the Marines on
Iwo Jima in World War II and with the Marines at the battle of
Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. Lt. Athens was somewhat
intimidated by the gunny’s combat experience, yet he wanted to
learn from him.
In summary, this is what
the Marine Corps gunnery sergeant told him:
-
Competence:
Learn all you can about your people, your job and
the jobs of those around you. Become as competent an officer and
proficient as you can.
-
Courage:
Be willing to make the tough decisions and
support your people, even if it means losing your life. When the
going gets tough, the tough get going.
-
Compassion:
Love your people as much or more than you love
yourself. Not many people relate “love” with leadership, but
it’s an important leadership core value.
After I heard Colonel
Athens presentation, I wondered how those three strategic leadership
core values played a vital role in my life. Specifically, how the
many people who literally saved my life used them. The rancher who
found me on fire; the Air Force colonel and hospital commander who
accidentally discovered the C-141 that transported me to San Antonio
Texas; my doctor Wellford W. Inge; other doctors, my ICU nurses and
corpsmen and, last but certainly not least, the mother of our
children and my mother.
I’m adding another
core value to outstanding personal leadership, "Perseverance."
Perseverance is persistence in a state or undertaking in
spite of counter influences; opposition or discouragement; Syn:
steadfastness; insistence; carrying-on.
Over the years, I’ve
shared examples of how some of the people mentioned earlier
persevered in the face of great adversity and obstacles and never
quit on me or let me quit. When medical wisdom and advice dictated
otherwise and the odds were against them, they continued to
persevere to find a way to save my life. When it was the most
difficult, that’s when they really shined! I’ll share the 3
C’s and a P of Personal Leadership and how they’re
applicable personally, not professionally. In other words, how they’re
sequential, inside out, not outside in. It's how, not if, the four
core values can be used in your personal life to help you achieve
success and enhance the quality of your life.
Quality:
You know it when you see it, touch it, feel it,
sense it. It is meeting or exceeding the customer’s expectations
the first time and every time. If the customer doesn’t have
any expectations, then choose to become the benchmark. My
expectations: I didn’t want to die.
Here are but a few of
the many quality people who addressed my expectations and saved my
life — and how they used the "Three C’s and P of Personal
Leadership."
He grabbed dirt and
sand, whatever he could grasp, and threw it on me and
extinguished the fire. He then jumped back into his 4-wheel
drive pick-up truck and raced back to the farmhouse and called
for help. When I met him the first time in 1974, Mr. Davieau
told me that in all the years he’d been on the ranch,”I’ve
never been through that ravine before.” He smelled smoke and
wondered, “Why are the neighbors burning on a day like today.”
"Pop"
Davieau managed a 2,000-acre cattle ranch, and every Monday
morning for 25 years, he would set out in his truck to look for
dead and stray cattle. Monday morning, 4 May 1970, he came to
the northeast gate, couldn’t see much due to the fog and light
rain and decided to head back to the ranch house. He drove into
a ravine, and a few minutes later, smelled smoke. The smoke was
from the plane that had crashed on his ranch, literally, a few
minutes earlier in a nearby pasture. He hadn’t heard any
impact or noise associated with the crash.
“Pop” didn’t
have to take time to discover the source of the smoke. Who knows
what he might have found over the next hill or in the next
pasture. Maybe there was
a fire that was started by a lighting strike or other natural
cause. Maybe neighbors were burning, and the wind had
changed and was blowing the smoke and flames in his direction.
His courage
to press on to an unknown situation and discover the source of
the fire was the reason I didn’t burn to death outside of the
plane.
His personal
compassion to try and do what ever he could to save my life,
to put out the fire with sand and dirt, kept me from being
burned far worse than I was burned. “Pop” Davieau’s Competence,
Courage and Compassion are three personal core values why I’m
alive today! He was steadfast and persisted in spite of counter
influences. Pop Davieau
Persevered!
After my rescue, I
was flown back to Hamilton AFB on a Coast Guard helicopter.
After I arrived, some hospital staff set about identifying the
nature and extent of any internal injuries, while others were
trying to find a bed large enough for me and whitewashing the
walls of a room for me to make it as sterile as possible.
Meanwhile, the hospital commander, an Air Force colonel, was
calling military and civilian installations on the West Coast,
trying to find a plane to get me to San Antonio, Texas, and the
Army’s Burn Unit.
With each call, the
reply was the same: “Broken” or “Too far away,” he was
told. The colonel persisted, carried-on and was steadfast. He persevered!
His
personal competence, courage and compassion didn’t
let him quit. The last call he made was to Travis AFB, Calif.,
about 30 minutes away by air. He discovered a C-141 on the
ground making a scheduled fuel stop en route back to San
Antonio. On board were many young GI’s burned in Vietnam and
headed to the burn unit. Thirty minutes later, I was loaded onto
the aircraft and arrived at the burn unit later that same
afternoon. The colonel persisted in an undertaking in spite of
the negative counter influences. He persevered!
The
background: For five years, a burn
doctor, nurse and two corpsmen from the burn unit in San Antonio
flew to Tachikawa AB, Japan, to meet GI’s burned in Vietnam
and arranged for their transport to San Antonio. For five years,
en route to San Antonio from Japan, the burn team and C-141
aircraft and crew made a scheduled fuel stop at Travis AFB twice
a month, on alternate Monday mornings, at about 0900. Our plane
crashed at about 0820. The hospital commander’s last call to
Travis AFB around 0900 ‘accidentally’ discovered the plane
at Travis AFB.
Months later, my
doctor told me that had the plane not been found, I would’ve
died from the infections within 24 hours after I was injured. The
hospital commander was personally competent, courageous and
compassionate!
During my 89 days in
the Intensive Care unit (ICU), my life was hanging by a thread.
I was on life
support and not expected to live beyond 14 days post
injury.
As with most burn
patients, infections and viruses were accelerating my demise.
Doctor Inge’s medical competence told him I was dying. Like
the other 12 doctors on staff, he had many other patients.
Here is one example
of Dr. Inge’s personal competence, courage and compassion:
When other doctors and consultants told him to "take the
hands, take the arms, take the legs,” Dr. Inge took the time
and sought out my wife and mother. He told them what had been
suggested and asked, “What do you want me to do?”
“Save whatever you
can,” they replied.
Months later, two of
my ICU nurses, Army Captains Sheri McGhee and Myra Peche, told
me they recalled how Dr. Inge worked on me in the ICU several
times for 24 hours in a row with few breaks. He never left the
burn unit to go home and see his wife and their children. When
he did sleep, he caught a "cat nap" on an Army cot in
a nurse’s locker room a few yards from the ICU. Through Dr.
Inge’s personal
competence and his personal and professional courage to
continue, while surrounded continuously by death and the
physical and emotional destruction of burn patients, and in
spite of what other doctors suggested, he saved my life! This is
but one of multiple examples of Dr. Inge’s personal and
professional compassion (love), caring and perseverance. Dr. Inge persevered!
Twice a day for 89
days without failure, he would appear next to my bed, insert a
tube into my mouth and encourage me to blow back 15 times. Not
12, 10, not 5. Always 15. The only one who knew how many times I
blew into that tube was Mr. Allen. Breathing wasn’t easy! Each
breath may have been my last. Every time, Mr. Allen counted down
from 15 to zero and exhorted me to blow back. “C’mon
Captain, that’s 14, only 11 more. C’mon Captain, only 5
more. You can do it!”
Standing next to me
in that hot, smelly ICU, surrounded by several, large hot lamps,
wearing a surgical mask, gloves and related sterile clothes, his
personal courage, competence, and compassion (love)
are reasons I’m alive. Mr. Allen persevered!
While in
morphine-induced semi-conscious state, I have a feint
recollection of her being around my bed. She was, I think,
tucking in the bed sheets. It was “George this” and “George
that,” talking to me, telling me what she was doing. She was
stroking my mind and trying to keep me alert. (I didn’t care.
I was mad as hell that she woke me up). I was really ticked-off,
and I let her know it. “I’m a captain in the United States
Air Force, and don’t you forget it,” I yelled at her.
Mrs. Wolfe didn’t
dismiss my remark as the ranting of a burn victim in a lot of
pain, whose life was slowly ebbing away and didn’t know what
he’s saying. Oh no! She ran out of the ICU, searched for
Dr. Inge and found him transcribing records in the small office
behind the nurse’s station outside the ICU. After she told him
what had happened, he told her to write it up in my records and
that from now on, everyone would call me “Captain Burk.”
After I left the ICU
and for the next 15 months, everyone I met — doctors, nurses,
corpsmen, staff and even the maintenance people — called me
“Captain Burk.” It began with Mrs. Wolfe’s personal
competence, courage and compassion (love). Mrs.
Wolfe persevered!
For 89 days while I
was in the ICU and the next 15 months, my wife and mother seldom
left my bedside. When they did, it was to try and eat and bathe.
In the ICU, wearing bonnets, gloves, hospital gowns and surgical
masks, and standing next to my bed, heat lamps glaring down, the
smell of burned flesh and death all around them, they never
quit; they never gave up. Hour after hour, day after day, they
were by my bed, praying, pleading, cajoling me to fight and not
give up.
When they walked
into the ICU early the morning of 5 May 1970 and saw me for the
first time, for an instant they didn’t recognize me. I was a
“white man trapped inside black skin.” FUBAR!
Their
personal competence, courage and compassion (love) as
a wife and mother to our three children and as a mother to her
only son, under the most unimaginable circumstances, are more
reasons why I beat the odds and walked out of the hospital 18
months after the crash. My
wife and mother persevered!
There are many
others: Dr. Tom Newsome (Roy Hobbs #2),
Captain Wolf, Mr. Murphy, the operating room nurses and other nurses
and corpsmen who did a lot of the patient debridement in the Hubbard
Tanks, occupational and physical therapists and many other staff who
demonstrated on a daily basis their personal competence, courage,
compassion and perseverance to me and the other burn survivors in
the ICU and on the wards.
“Guts": Less
formally refers to physical and moral stamina in the face of
hardship or unfavorable odds.
To give burn survivors
(victims) every possible chance to survive, burn treatment requires
immeasurable amounts of personal competence, courage, compassion and
perseverance from doctors, nurses, family and other caregivers. They
must hurt you to help you. They know that.
That takes guts!
As a member of a team
and sometimes alone, each person worked relentlessly to save my
life. They loved me, patted me on the back, kicked me in the butt
and knew when each one of these was the most appropriate. Every day,
they demonstrated random acts of personal competence, courage,
compassion and perseverance. They are my heroes. They
persevered.
They made numerous
personal commitments to me in that environment; just imagine what
you can accomplish in your life.
Pogo, the little
comic-strip 'possum of some years ago, put it this way, “We have
met the enemy and he is us.”
Or, in the words of
Chinese leader Lao-Tse 2,500 years ago, “A leader is best when
people barely know he exists. Not so good when people obey and
acclaim him, worse when they despise him. But of a good leader who
talks little, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will
say, ‘We did this ourselves.’”
© Copyright
Firenuggets.com 2009 • Click here for Terms and
Conditions of Use
  <•••SIGN OUT
RETURN TO CURRENT ISSUE INDEX
|
