Stress of Being a Leader

Heroes Remember

Stress of Being a Leader

Transcript

I guess a, a lot of forward thinking, calmness, it's very stressful. I found it to be quite stressful. I, I, I found being in front of those forty-five people was probably one of the more stressful jobs that I had to do. I, I lead two hundred and twenty people right now, but at the stress, isn't the same as, as it was in a field troop. The expectations of being out there with those people in the field all hours of the day and night. I think you have to be resourceful, have to be calm and you have to show a good example, you have to lead by example. They have to trust you and you have to trust them. Interviewer: And how do you build up that trust? You know it takes, sometimes you just, you've, you've gotta let people go and, and do their thing and see how they do. And to try and balance that with enough checks, checks on what they are doing that you're, you're not in the way, but you can at least know that they're succeeding. There's a real balance between that especially when you've got all the, your own things that you have to do, but you also have got expectations by your commanding officer to be on time, to be at the right location, have everything finished. That's a real balancing act. You gotta spend a lot of time with the troops and you gotta learn from them, especially as a young officer. First time in the field regiment, common engineer regiment, first time in the field, you have to spend a lot of time figuring, spending time with them, learning from them and figuring out what they do. Trying to, to actually get them, let them to know who you are too and it's just by that experience, I guess, is really how you get to the trust level.

Description

Mr. Gasser talks about what it is like to be in charge of men in a stressful environment.

Steven Gasser

Major (Ret'd) Steven D. Gasser CD (RMC 1979) was born in 1956 and grew up primarily in Kimberley, British Columbia. When Mr. Gasser was 17 he was drawn to an ad put out by the Royal Military College highlighting a flying career and the educational benefits that went along with it. He wasted no time and enlisted on his 18th birthday, with the desire to learn how to fly and also acquire a degree in engineering. After his third summer of flight training his eyes did not meet the minimum requirement and Mr. Gasser had to fall back on his engineering degree. He graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) (Royal Military College of Canada, 1979). Once finished his Military Engineer training, Mr. Gasser joined his first unit 5e Regiment du Genie de Combat in Valcartier, Quebec, where he was appointed as a regimental intelligence officer and then engineer troop commander. In 1983 Mr. Gasser answered the call for an engineer troop commander in support of the UN peacekeeping operations in Cyprus. After six months in Cyprus, Mr. Gasser came back to Canada to work in the construction engineering section for the air force at CFB Edmonton, and later taught tactics with the CF School of Military Engineering at CFB Chilliwack. Mr. Gasser also worked in Maritime Command HQ in Halifax as a Senior Staff Officer, and as Base Engineer at CFB Shilo, MB. In December of 1997, Mr. Gasser was deployed to Bosnia as officer commanding the 1 Construction Engineering Unit - specialist engineer company where he was able to work closely with civilians helping them to rebuild the university, bridges and infrastructure. Mr. Gasser gave 24 years to the service. He retired in September 2008 and has subsequently been appointed as the Director, Environmental services for the Town of Banff 1998 – 2003; Assistant Deputy Minister, Public Works, Government of Yukon 2004 - 2008. He has been the Associate Vice-President, Facilities Management, at the University of Calgary since 2008.

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