Editor’s Opinion ❘ By BOBBY HALTON
“The organization rots from the head down.” How many times have you heard that line? I bet it is thousands because it is true. There is also a saying, “Cut off the head of the snake to make sure you have killed it,” also true. But old-timers will also tell you to be careful even with a dead snake head; they are still dangerous. Folks also say, “Great organizations have great leaders.” This is also true. Great fire departments have chiefs at all ranks who work smoothly with people; who motivate people; and who not only cope with challenges but grow from them and help others see the advantages in evolution, modification, and adjustment. Great leaders understand the value of tradition and the dangers of outdated or deviant normative behavior. There is a big difference between traditions that are about virtues and morals and behavior that is about desires and motives.
Fire departments, like all organizations, go through changes of leadership, and although we may not enjoy some of our leaders, we have only two choices: leave the department or wait for their departure. Unlike snakes, we are not allowed to cut off their heads. If we choose to leave, that is on us and often that is exactly the right move. If we choose to stay and wait them out, there is good news and bad news.
First, the good news: If you don’t like the new head honcho in a metro setting, they say the average lifespan of a chief of department is about four years, so you won’t be waiting long for them to ride off into the sunset. The bad news is, “The devil you know is often better than the devil you don’t.” Unfortunately, this also is true. So, although you didn’t like old “Leadbottom,” “Scary Poppins” may be worse. Oh, and remember, dead snake heads are still dangerous.
In my experience, the good chiefs respected history, tradition, experience, and merit. Being a good chief and good leader is never easy. The best advice one can go into the multiple speaking trumpet world with is, friends come and go but enemies accumulate. The good of the organization is directly tied to the mission, which, in the simplest terms, is saving lives and property. Achieving the mission should never come second to being popular or keeping the peace. The good of the public, the good of our people, and the good of the community’s property are always the order of concerns. For the misguided chiefs, it is about themselves, their legacy, and their self-promotion.
The management of any enterprise is always going to be fraught with land mines, screw-ups, mistakes, hurt feelings, and bruised egos. That is just the nature of life; you can’t please everyone. Leaders who try are phony and soon fall from everyone’s grace. The sign of good leaders is that when they screw up, they own it, and when we screw up, they own it. They don’t run from organizational fouls; they accept them as a result of good men and women trying to do the best they can but who, in the final analysis, are human.
As firefighters, we follow orders, we obey commands, and we carry out directives. Good leaders make those tasks enjoyable, understandable, and reasonable. A good chief takes the time—and there is almost always some discretionary time in organizational management—to explain why we are moving in a new direction or modifying or evolving a policy or procedure. Bad chiefs just send the memo from an undisclosed location under a concrete and steel building located somewhere downtown protected by raving lunatics who worship at their feet—or so it seems.
Good chiefs have purpose and intention. They can describe in detail what the issue is, why it is an issue, and how it will look if we take the steps that they are proposing to resolve it. Good leaders know what is expected of the troops and what the troops are going through. You may not agree with the direction, but they are open to input, to creating measurements and checkpoints for evaluating the updates or new policies. The good chiefs look for your opinion and feedback; they acknowledge your concerns and, although they may disagree with you, they appreciate your coming forward with your thoughts.
Being a good leader in our calling demands we strive for self-awareness. To lead in our calling, character is necessary, operational competence is necessary, and demonstrated skill is necessary. Self-awareness is critical to our personal success, our members’ success, and our organization’s success.
To truly lead, we cannot simply train ourselves in tasks and tactics, in rules and procedures. Clearly understanding the mastery of those skills is fundamental to our calling, but it is not what makes one heroic or wise. As we build our repertoire of skill and competence, we also need to address and acknowledge our shortcomings. We must always seek to represent to the world on duty—and, perhaps more importantly—off duty who we are, what we believe in, and what we are willing to fight for. Each of us understanding ourselves better builds the unity we need to coalesce our focus on the mission.
The job of senior leaders in our profession is to ensure that every recruit is molded into a leader, that all of us recognize that we are all leading all the time. The only question is, are we doing it well or poorly? If we invest 80 percent of our efforts into recruiting the right people and training them well, on all aspects of our profession but most critically in leadership, everything else will work itself out. We should also remember that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. Don’t give up on old “Leadbottom” yet; he might surprise you.
