By Mick Mayers
Leading firefighters requires the combined skills of a teacher, coach, military commander and babysitter.
Whether a fire service boss by virtue of appointment, election, or promotion, the real leaders have a certain touch that can influence tough characters as well as soothe the public whenever they are called upon. A fire service leader must have technical ability so he or she can work as part of the team, but possess the ability to foster adaptive change to convince their subordinates that they can get the job done, even when things are getting tough.
The most important thing a fire officer has to know is the capabilities of his or her people. It is not enough to simply know where they lack ability or knowledge. The officer must know where their expertise can be useful; know what triggers certain responses; how long they can last in a bad situation; and whether or not they can trust those individuals. Only then can the leader know how far they can push, where they must use different leadership styles, or whether the circumstances are too much for the team.
A fire officer must be able to convey a significant amount of technical information while encouraging their charges to be flexible and adaptive. Not every incident has a cookbook solution; if you happen to be an officer who must adhere to a particular procedure, you’ll be surprised by the amount of times you have to make it up as you go. Experience helps, because it lends to credibility, but having seen a few emergencies first hand also helps because those experiences give the officer a foundation to come up with innovative solutions when the pressure cooker is on.
Paired with the knowledge of people and the technical background, that experience is important at game time in knowing how to set the right tempo. The officer plugs it all together into a constant assessment of the environment. The officer has to know about how fire progresses through a building, or how a cardiac arrest should be managed, or any other number of emergencies they may be called upon to manage. They must have situational awareness at all times and be able to anticipate what could go wrong. But they must always have the presence of mind to be able to listen to others on the team; the team may see things the officer can‘t or didn‘t, and the officer can use that information to develop the right plan for the conditions.
Good fire officers must not be risk averse, but can’t be foolhardy either.
A proper balance is necessary to know when to take a calculated chance and when not to pursue an impossible solution. Keeping one’s ego in check, the officer has to avoid putting their personnel in harm’s way for no good conclusion. Not only must they be a battlefield commander that uses their resources wisely, they must be aware that the decisions they make can have lasting impacts on the crew, the department, their families, and the community as a whole.
Having been a fire officer for almost three decades, I have seen some mediocre managers and conversely, some incredible leaders. Firefighters can see through a poor leader in a second and as it goes in the military or any other profession where lives are on the line, those individuals will often times be brought into line by the crew, especially when there are some seasoned vets around to call out their lack of skill.
From time to time, though, these poor leaders slip through the cracks, and a tyrant or a coward can inflict incomprehensible damage on morale, as well as get others injured or killed.
The best fire officers will understand that each person on the team creates a synergy with the others, and they’ll leverage their individual strengths to form a cohesive whole.
Just as a parent must take their children and create boundaries for them, protect them, and make them feel safe enough to stretch their abilities, the leader of firefighters must do the same. The leader’s goal is to build a lifesaving, property-conserving, incident-mitigating machine for which the community and the department can be proud.
