I ran across this ARTICLE from the Toronto Sun published a few days ago. It aligns with a sentiment I have been sharing since the beginning of the pandemic. It is fine to say public health, the CDC, the WHO, and the MD's are the subject matter experts. It is fine to say that we should follow the science. It is fine to have these entities guide us through the worst pandemic in over 100 years. Where we need to draw the line is that these entities are NOT the subject matter expe

I had the distinct honor of having my article "Leadership Powers" published in the most recent edition of the Crisis Response Journal (CRJ). See the article below. The CRJ is an excellent way to stay current on emergency management issues worldwide. You can subscribe to the CRJ by going to www.crisis-response.com. Use my personal code to get yourself a 20% discount (RANDAL20). #Leadership #EmergencyManagement #LeadersIntent #LeadershipDevelopment #CRJ #CrisisResponseJournal #

I was honored to be recognized by ShoutOutLA this morning! Click this link to find out what it said: https://shoutoutla.com/meet-dr-randal-collins-cem-leader-emergency-manager-change-agent/ #SHOUTOUTLA #Leadership #LeadersIntent #LeadershipDevelopment

Few people contemplate the power of an organization that is built on leadership. We often see leadership displayed by a handful of people within an organization. We rarely see organizations built on leadership. Building your organization on the backs of leaders is what I call the building blocks of leadership. Truly effective organizations have leaders at every echelon of the organization. Just like in the game Jenga, the most stable the tower of blocks will be is at the begi

Every leader needs an ego buster. Some people may need an ego buster before they can even break into the role of a leader, lest they be labeled a toxic leader. Others may not necessarily need one before coming a leader, but I guarantee you in the course of their leadership journey, they will use the ego buster time and time again to keep them far away from that toxic leader line. What is an ego buster and where do I get one you ask? Well, sometimes they are easy to find and s

At the beginning of my career, I was reviewing a dam emergency action plan in which the author identified that the first step during an incident was to remain clam (sic). Obviously, the author intended for the first step in the incident response to be “remain calm.” However, my colleague and I both found great humor in the fact that the author made the typo and that it specifically called for the plan implementer to remain calm, as if had it not people would immediately panic

One of my mentors said there are three rules to being on a team and they are communicate, communicate, and oh, by the way, did he mention communicate? All too often as leaders we forget to communicate. We forget to pass on what we know, what we have learned, what our vision is, or what our expectations are. Sometimes we assume our team knows what we are thinking or has obtained the same information. We also make assumptions that because we have said it once, that the informat

An easy leadership lesson to preach is perseverance...the act of not quitting and enduring to success. This is, indeed, a great lesson. The need for intestinal fortitude to complete a goal has ensured many great things have been accomplished. There is, however, a type of person that scares me more than a quitter. Worse than a quitter is a non-starter. I believe it takes twice as much courage, tenacity, and determination to begin something worthy of pursuit than it does to end

Do you have command presence? Command presence is how you represent yourself to your followers. Ultimately, your command presence should embolden your followers. There are several aspects to command presence that are situationally dependent. There are, however, three things you can pay attention to in every circumstance that will help you maintain and build your command presence. They are confidence, body language, and composure. 1. Confidence – In everything you do, you sho

As I sit in my Incident Command Post where I have spent the better part of the last three months, I am reflecting upon the City of El Segundo All-Hazards Incident Management Team and I am pondering how this has evolved into, not only a high functioning team, but a family. Over the course of COVID-19 and civil unrest incidents, the team has melded into a family. How has this transpired? How has this team become such a dedicated group of individuals, equally willing to support