By Christian M. Hartley
The year is 2018, and change is here. Hundreds of fire departments across the United States have changed the head of their households in the form of a new fire chief. Although most will be looking from within first, many agencies will hire from outside and find themselves embroiled in a fight between that new leader’s intent and the department’s history. And just like every other home in the world, when there is a change in the family structure, there is a lot of turmoil.
So what part of the family structure can be applied to successful new fire chiefs? A family is a group of people who by chance or design have joined to become a single cohesive unit, who love each other and will be with each other through the thick and thin of life. Successful parents lead a life that makes the family members proud of their family name and results in pride that the maturing member bears their name. Most importantly, a family is for life.
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Turmoil within a department or family is not comfortable, but it’s necessary. If a new leader cannot handle the stress from within the organization, how can they be expected to handle the stresses their crews must deal with? This response to a change in leadership is really the first test of the new chief’s mettle. It shows the crew how strongly the chief will hold to principles and how much he or she can trust their orders not to be second-guessed moments later just because someone balked.
How many times have you ever told a new chief, “That’s not how we do it here?” This is nothing more than the teenager who is rebelling against the new parent. No, that doesn’t mean that the chief should pull the belt out of the uniform or grab a paddle from the engine and teach the rebel a lesson. A hard-line front from the beginning will only embolden rebellion, and you’ll never get the crew to stop hating you. Leadership is born of respect and trust, not fear. Fear may result in efficiency and a clean coffee pot, but leadership is how you keep and develop a crew for decades. Would you rather your legacy be your call volume and how high the department turnover was for the department during your tenure, or how much the community supports its department because its crew supports its leader?
The last thing a new chief should want is to have all the rebels run away, because often it’s the rebels that hold a department together. The more resistive a person is when it comes to their department’s history and tradition, the more personal they are in terms of ownership of the department. A person who is taking personal ownership of the success and reputation of a department is a powerful thing–don’t spank it out of the crew. Encourage people to hold on to their personal vision of the department and to give input on how to reign in the need for change with the need to maintain tradition and honor history. When you have crew members who take pride in their department, you have a fleet of family members willing to do what it takes to implement your vision. You just have to convince them that you aren’t “just passing through” and that you are ready to be their new parent forever.
Even hiring from within an organization doesn’t prevent this, because often the strongest leaders in our fire stations are the ones most loudly calling for change. No matter who gets the job, there may be the sense that “they aren’t my real parent.” They aren’t the chief for the past eight years who molded the department to a certain vision that the crew bought into hook, line, and sinker. They aren’t the chief who stood in front of them at the academy and welcomed them into the fire world. They aren’t the chief who fought off city hall and overzealous watchdogs to keep the department progressing. They aren’t the chief who brought their brothers and sisters home from the worst calls of the past 12 years. They aren’t the person they thought would become chief, and perhaps they had a difference preference.
Your job as the new parent is not to instill fear, but to act as a role model who has a vision that the crew can buy into. Change has a negative reputation in the fire service, but the truth is we are constantly changing and evolving, adapting to shifting circumstances. It is not contrary to tradition to change practices or methods when the purpose is to bring everyone home after every call and each shift. As the new stepparent, your job is to be a role model and convert the rebels to side with you and rebel against your naysayers. You must help them realize and believe in your desire to serve them by leading them. Make sure the family that grows up and matures in your house is ready to run their own house when they move out; else, were you ever actually leading, or were you just an empty suit?
A Tale of Two Cities
Let’s contrast two experiences that bear witness to my thoughts. The very first time a fire department hired me, it was in the process of appointing a new leader. I wasn’t there for the previous chief, but was there for about two months and excitedly heard that one of the crew was appointed as chief and that nobody from “outside” was going to take over. I saw the crew buck and argue with the new fire chief because they objected to her being chief strictly because she was a woman and some people felt there were more capable men for the job. I observed as she led with strength and leadership, punishing only when needed but instead focusing on mentoring as a parent would help a rebelling youth learn why something had to be the way she wanted it. Within two months, the entire crew was behind her 100 percent and the chief never fought another battle from within because the crew would fight it for her in a, “Don’t-talk-about-my-family-like-that” kind of way.
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Four years later, I moved to a different state and hadn’t even finished unpacking when the department that hired me had an abrupt change in leadership. I was present to watch an act occur that prompted me to wonder why any leader would act that way, then 30 minutes later heard the subordinate responder take action to protect the crew. I fully agreed with everything she did, but still took offense to this person getting the chief officer fired because I felt like she was dishonoring the chief who had brought her (and me) into this fire family. By happenstance, she became the new chief officer and it took a lot for the crew to respect her as such. The crew was comprised of 10 full-time people; and when I left one year later to the date of her appointment, she still hadn’t managed to get the crew to trust her in that role. Only three people remained from when she took over.
What I learned from these two incidents, my very first two departments, have stayed with me forever. If you act like a manager, you will likely never convert the experienced and fiercely loyal members of your department to accept your leadership and will have an uphill battle forever. When the loyal members leave, the fresher members want to know why and ask, only to hear the sordid history as retold by the departing members. This is a constant battle of rumors and capricious excuses that is difficult for any leader to keep up with and correct. But if you treat your members like the family that we are, you can get those rebels under control by mentoring them to maturity.
Coming into a family as the stepparent and having to parent people that have been part of the family for longer than you have isn’t easy. But a strong leader that will set a good example for their family does not back down from the challenge–they step up, they lead, and they succeed.
Applying the family structure to your burgeoning chiefdom:
- Don’t make examples, but be an example. Demonstrate how you want your crew to act and react.
- Mistakes shouldn’t be met only with punitive actions. Discipline isn’t just spanking and time-outs. Focus on mentoring to correct behavior.
- Instead of focusing on cause and effect, focus on helping the family mature.
- When the family trusts that you will be there for life, they will consider buying into your vision.
- Train and educate them to be ready to move out and lead a strong house of their own.
- Don’t fight resistance with resistance. Instead, accept their resistance as personal ownership of their membership in the firehouse, and guide them to improving the department by combining your vision with their drive.
Keep the family safe, fed, and protected, and make sure your firehouse is warmly welcoming of every member of the family (even the ones not on your Christmas card list) and you will find yourself at the front of a strong house that anybody would be proud to be a part of. Now, to just get them to wash their own laundry…
Christian M. Hartley is the fire chief for the Houston Fire Department in Alaska. A second-generation responder with 19 years of public safety experience under several different chiefs during his career, he moved up the ranks in Houston from firefighter and was promoted to chief in 2016. As the son of a fallen responder, he often focuses on the topics of safety, family, and service.
