Photo by Tony Greco.
By Matt Marietta
The American Civil War battle at Gettysburg in July 1863 is familiar to many fire service students of leadership and organizational management as well as attendees of the National Fire Academy, who make a regular trek to the famous battlefield to learn the successes and failures of Lee and Meade and their armies.
Popular American history remembers the battle as the high watermark of the Confederacy (a term coined by historian John Bachelder), referring to the fact that this southern Pennsylvania town was the farthest north the military might of the Confederacy would ever reach. It is also remembered as the turning point in the Civil War. Although it may be a turning point—it was one of the few victories up to this point for the Union’s haphazardly-led Army of the Potomac; there were other battles where leadership and perseverance had a positive impact on the outcome of the Civil War.
Perhaps a more suitable battle to be labeled as a “turning point” in the Civil War happened at the same time as Gettysburg, approximately 1,000 miles to the southwest. General Ulysses S. Grant had lain siege to the Mississippi city for more than a month. It finally fell the day after General Lee’s famous overreach at Gettysburg. Maintaining a sustained Union siege of a City deep in the Confederacy surely generated some negative comments on Grant’s strategy. For the Union, this victory resulted in complete control of the Mississippi River, which was of critical importance for transportation both for the Union and Confederacy and served to choke off water-based access to the South. It also increased Grant’s fame. He was eventually appointed as commander of all Union armies.
Although Gettysburg looms high in the annals of leadership—of what and what not to do—Vicksburg has some key lessons for fire chiefs and other department leaders (both formal and informal) as well. The possible lessons include pursuing the larger strategic goal (as an organization) rather than getting bogged down in the day-to-day politics and petty struggles of management. In learning about the Vicksburg campaign, one quote stood out to me out as particularly relevant to fire service leaders.
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The hard-nosed Union General William Sherman (primarily known for his scorched-earth march through Georgia to Savannah, immortalized in the book and movie Gone with the Wind), served as a corps commander under Grant in this campaign. Following the victory, the usually sharp-tongued General Sherman (he coined the phrase “War is Hell”) commented on Grant’s victory in Vicksburg, a major victory for the North when the Union’s Army of the Potomac had failed time and again.
“Grant is now deservedly the hero. He is entitled to all the credit of the movement which was risky and hazardous in the extreme and succeeded because of its hazard. He is now belabored with praise by those who a month ago accused in of all the sins in the calendar, and who next week will turn against him if so blows the popular breeze.”
–Vox populi, vox humbug.” (Sherman, 1909)
That last Latin phrase (except the “humbug,” which belongs to Ebenezer Scrooge) means, roughly, “the voice of the people,” “popular opinion,” or even “the media.” Grant took a chance to achieve a long-term goal. When it seemed to those around him that he was not accomplishing enough fast enough and focusing on his personal idiosyncrasies, popular opinion was calling for his head (“all the sins in the calendar”). But when the Union achieved a major strategic victory, he became the subject of popular acclaim.
As a student of effective leadership, General Sherman realized that fame was fleeting. The “vox populi” would soon find something new to criticize in Grant.
As I read this, I realized there is a tremendous parallel here for not only the chief officer but for anyone who seeks to be a positive change agent in his department. Trying to be a true leader on a day-to-day basis can be difficult. Trying to lead on big issues requires a fire service leader to maintain the ultimate vision despite apparent setbacks, negative comments from the peanut gallery, or even a delay in seeing the benefits of the initiative. The big issue for your department could be changing a dangerous fireground habit, trying to reach a mutually-beneficial outcome in a potentially disagreeable union negotiation, leading a new community safety initiative that may not have popular political support but will significantly impact long-term fire prevention goals, or other long-term strategic goals that a chief officer may recognize the need for in his community.
And just like with General Grant, the fire service leader should recognize that once the goal is achieved, popular sentiment may soon change again. Once the fire safety initiative is in place, the business community may not be entirely happy. The firefighters may be annoyed by carrying around the extra piece of equipment. But there are times that leading requires understanding and keeping in mind the bigger picture: the mission statement, the key strategic goals of the community and the department, ethical and purposeful public safety management, and the big initiatives that the fire department needs to achieve to advance community and firefighter safety.
Please note that I am not arguing that a chief shouldn’t listen to his people, to the firefighters, to the business community, to the boss, or to the elected officials. A good leader is a good listener. As the old saying goes, “God gave us two ears and one mouth, and so we should listen twice as much as we speak.” During the Civil War, surely Grant had soldiers, a public in the north, and slaves and abolitionists in the South—to say nothing of Abraham Lincoln—who were calling for a military victory on the Mississippi.
But, for chiefs to allow themselves to be constantly driven by the popular and ever changing public opinion—especially on well thought-out, necessary strategic community risk reduction initiatives—is not leadership. It is simply following the crowd (except with more bugles and a fancy white helmet).
Chief officers are not all-knowing dictators, and the word on the street can often highlight issues before they become a problem. But a fire service leader cannot allow the word on the street to dominate his time. This is true especially when most of our communities and departments still have so much ground a fire service leader needs to cover. Chasing the many popular opinions circulating in the firehouse or the community at any given time can become a full-time job, often to the exclusion of the critical fire prevention and firefighter safety leadership opportunities.
There were probably also many voices “armchair quarterbacking” all of Grant’s much less consequential decisions as well, including his personal shortcomings. (Grant probably deserved some of the criticism coming his way, he was a bare-knuckled fighter.) We are all familiar with these types of criticisms as well: who we promoted, the new policy that was recently implemented, a change in the department’s uniform. Like Grant, some of these criticisms we probably deserve—if we are honest with ourselves.
So how do you separate the relevant conversation from the twaddle? A good leader needs to put in the extra effort to understand the bigger picture better than anyone else; he also needs to be introspective enough to recognize and try to change the things he is doing to hurt himself. Things like mission, vision, and a strategic plan are essential documents to a fire service leader—if they are actually founded in the needs of the department. This involves a fire service leader who is constantly aware of the department’s operations and the community’s fire problem, its run statistics, its measurement against National Fire Protection Association standards and other national benchmarks, and the ongoing evolution of the built environment we are called to protect.
This also involves a leader who is willing to put in the work to share—and live—that vision in the department and in the community. Mission statements, department visions, and strategic plans should be rich documents based on all of these factors. A well-crafted overall picture of where the department is now forms the essential foundation for a leader to establish where it needs to go and gives a chief officer the chance to lead rather than only react.
Reference
Sherman, W. T. (1909). Home Letters of General Sherman (Digital Edition:https://archive.org/details/homelettersofgen00sher). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Retrieved from https://archive.org/stream/homelettersofgen00sher#page/n9/mode/2up/search/vox+populi
Matt Marietta, PhD, CEM, CFO is a 20-year veteran of the emergency services. He is the deputy fire chief of administration in Milton, Georgia, and oversees fire prevention, emergency management, and support services.
