It is that time of year when Hotshot crews around the country are building their teams. Some crews have mostly returning personnel that have already bought in, some are selling their brand with the hope of getting new crew members to buy-in. You can always tell the crew that has bought in, they believe in what they are doing and it shows in quality of work. The same is true of the crew that has Read more…
I had grand intentions of writing and sharing my perspectives off the crew last year at this time. What happened? Life, work, changing priorities…. Regardless, I am back and will try to follow through on sharing my mistakes and hard lessons learned over time. There is a caveat to all this: I fell off the wagon. I guess I should say I am no longer recovering, but back to my addiction. I have come back Read more…
Call it misery, “the suck”, or what every you want. We have all been in a spot of perceived misery. I bet you came out the other side better for it, I know I have. You gain perspective, you get to reset the your current perspective of what you thought was misery or suffering to “that just sucked”. I am not talking suffering, like what we perceive an animal to be doing after getting hit Read more…
The value of understanding the “Why” is incredibly valuable for a leader to understand and believe. It is even more important for them to be able to convey the “Why” to their team and then explain why it is important to the team. So this is my explanation of the “Why” I am doing this blog. The older I get the more I realize the importance of teaching and passing on lessons to those around Read more…
My name is Karl, on the crew I was called a lot of things, but Koot was the most common nick name for me. I came to the Winema Hotshots in 2007 as a senior firefighter. I became a squad leader in 2009 and left the crew in the spring of 2018. It has been little over a year since I left the crew to start a new position in Fire Management. Many have left Read more…