in the response. For a leader, situational
awareness must incorporate each of these
“events” to inform a comprehensive and
unified approach to the response.
The Meta-Leadership
Framework and Situational
Awareness
The meta-leadership framework comprises five dimensions:
1. the person of the meta-leader comprising
self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and
one’s personal experience;
2. the situation or context in which one must
lead;
3. leading down to one’s organizational base;
4. leading up or delivering on the expectations
of one’s superiors;
5. leading across
to promote
connectivity
among people or
organizations over which the leader
has not direct control.
All five dimensions are utilized
to varying degrees in developing
situational awareness necessary
for effective response leadership.
A COP ensures everyone
sees a common set of facts. This
is important. However, each individual will interpret those facts
somewhat differently because each
person has different experience, expertise, biases,
and preferences. That is
why the meta-leadership
framework begins with
the person: having the
capacity to be self-aware and cognizant of
others’ perceptions, the leader will more
accurately comprehend the situation and
integrate input from others. Being able to
integrate multiple sources of information,
both objective and subjective, is central to
situational awareness.
The meta-leader must traverse a four-step process to perceive what is happening, understand what it means, predict
what is most likely to happen next, and
decide what actions to take in order to
respond or mitigate the negative impact of
the threat at hand – what we call the PUPD
loop. The primary activity in developing
accurate situational awareness thus occurs
at the intersection of Dimension One, the
person, and Dimension Two, the facts
that comprise the situational reality. The
secondary activity occurs in Dimensions
Three, Four, and Five, domains of action.
Leading one’s organizational base,
Dimension Three, allows the leader to
deploy resources over which s/he has direct
control and also provides the leader with a
valuable channel for both gathering and disseminating information. A well-led organizational unit begins with loyalty flowing
down from the leader to followers; only
then will loyalty flow back to the leader.
A leader who cultivates followers who can
tell truth to power will received valuable,
unvarnished information essential to accurate situational awareness. A well-led organizational unit will also project a halo of
competence that allows the leader to exert
influence beyond his or her authority.
Leading up, Dimension Four, requires
the inverse of Dimension Three: the leader
must cultivate a relationship with an
authority in which the leader appreciates
the boss’ perceptions and priorities, and
integrates them into evolving situational
awareness. The leader must speak truth to
power, ultimately shaping the situational
awareness of the authority.
In the case of Deepwater Horizon,
National Incident Commander Thad Allen
was appointed by President Obama yet
reported both to Department of Homeland
Horizon response, this involved the federal
leaders leading across – not down – to state
leaders who had their own resources as a
result of initial payments from BP to each
of the affected states. These states were
also accustomed to responses governed
by the Stafford Act under which federal
money flowed to state and local entities
who, in turn, undertook the appropriate
actions. In this case, under the National
Contingency Plan, federal officials were
directing the activity and their choices did
not always align with the preferences of
state or local officials. Understanding of
the situational awareness of each of these
officials was critical for informing the fed-
