By Matthew Thorpe
Put simply, leadership is influence. To have influence you must have integrity. Your integrity is indicated by your people’s trust in you. This is a must within the fire service. Just because you passed all the tests, did well on the oral interviews, and now have these shiny new bugles on your collar does not mean you are a leader. Sure, the organization has “made” you a leader, but what do the troops think? You must earn the trust of your subordinates before they will follow. You can see this in any fire service organization across the country. Look to who the people on an individual company follow. Is it always the officer? A lot of times, it is an “informal leader,” someone without rank, because the officer has not gained the trust of his people; he is not the go-to guy on the crew. The organization does not dictate who people will follow, they just assign a title.
Whether you are a newly appointed officer, an officer who has lost the trust of the crew, or one who never had it to begin with–how do you get it? The first step is to be consistent. Do not let your values fluctuate. For example; every company officer has his or her pet peeves. Let’s say that one of them is people coming to work late. Everyone on the crew knows this; others told them on the first day with the company. One day, Fred (a good friend who graduated academy with you) shows up 15 minutes late, but because he is a friend, you sweep it under the rug. What does this do for your integrity? What does it show the other members of your crew? It is very important to be consistent when dealing with subordinates.
Step two is to remember where you came from. So many times we see company officers get big head syndrome. They seem to forget everything they did to get to where they are (especially cleaning duties). You cannot lead any further than you have been yourself. Officers should set a positive example to all their peers. We do not want a young rookie to say: “Hey, I want to get promoted so I can sit around and do nothing all day.” This is not the kind of mentorship program that our people need. Unfortunately this happens every day in our business.
Finally, work like you train. This is imperative. My former fire chief told me a story once that still makes me cringe when I think about it. “During police recruit school, the new recruits were taught many different things. Defensive driving techniques, arrest techniques, documentation, and how to eat a donut, just to name a few. One of the major tactics was to learn how to use their weapon. While on the range the officer recruits were to pick up their spent rounds after emptying a cartridge. The instructors would yell: “Pick up your brass!” After months of training, one of the new recruits was released for duty and found himself in a gun fight on his first day of patrol. The officer was found dead on the scene. When they opened his hand they found bullet casings. The officer had done exactly what he was trained to do–he had “picked up the brass” and got shot while doing so. The moral: The way the leader does things will influence the younger generation. If you leave your SCBA in the rig on a fire alarm, so will your crew. If you don’t put your mask on when entering a fire situation, neither will your crew. Work like you train!
General Colin Powell said, “The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.” Where do you stand with your people? Do they follow you or another member of your team? Is it because they don’t trust you or that you never earned their trust?
As an officer in the fire service, you don’t have to be liked, but you have to be respected to get things accomplished. Don’t act like you know it all. Ask for advice from your team. Keep them informed on what is going on in the organization, and, most of all, give them a sense of responsibility. If you will put these actions into practice with your team, you will demonstrate your integrity and obtain the trust that you desire.
Matthew B. Thorpe is a 14-year veteran of the fire service. Since 1992, he has been employed by the City of King (NC) Fire Department, where he serves as the assistant chief of operations. He is a certified Level III instructor for the state and teaches at numerous community colleges across North Carolina. He has taught in the FDIC HOT program and is currently working on the test bank for the fourth edition of Building Construction for the Fire Service. He holds numerous state certifications and has just completed the Fire Officer III course.
