My friends let me start this visit with you by making a simple declaration. I love studying about leadership. Just when you think you know it all, ten new theories are put forward. I just love being in this research battle for the newest and latest theory. In this discussion of the concept of Leadership, I am going to attempt to reach out and touch you. But it is not my intention to do it in the fine old, classic touchy-feely way of the telephone commercials of my youth.
It is my intention to do it in the attention-grabbing manner taught to me by my third grade teacher back in 1954. As I recall, she had this long-handled blackboard pointer. And when you committed some form of mistake, and the list was long and unpublished, she called you to the front of the class and gave you a whack.
Can you imagine how quickly this type of behavior would be handled today? They would hustle that lady out the front door in a flash and then take her to court. Was what she did to us little buddies all that bad? I think not, but you cannot use those types of methods in today's everyone succeeds feeding frenzy.
I have often used this example to show my parochial school buddies that “the educational smack” was something that was also used outside of the tightly knit sectarian world of the parochial institution. It might also give you pause to wonder why I would remember it so well, after so many years. I leave that to your imagination. (Hint – Use the word frequency.)
At this point, let me issue my warning. Bad leaders of the world, prepare to get a whack on the hands for the massive amount of pain and suffering that you are causing the troops under your care. You are the people who live to fulfill your own desires. You are the people too lazy to utter the word thank you now and again. You are the people too self-absorbed to care about those poor nameless, faceless souls who labor in the vineyards of your fire department.
I want you to know that I am not referring to those fine people who always put the concerns of their troops before their own. You have paid attention on your way through the ranks and have learned to love people. I have covered this concept time and again through my years as a writer, author, and lecturer. I have often written about the critical need for honesty as an integral part of the psyche of our most effective leaders. No, my friends, I am headed in a distinctly different direction this time.
How many people do you know personally who are in positions of leadership and who serve as nothing more than organizational roadblocks? Their sole function is to sit their big, fat, ugly butts in the middle of the bureaucratic road of your fire department. Their sole purpose in life seems to be stopping the flow of information and ideas. Their favorite operational concept involves the frequent use of the word 'no.'
They are also deathly afraid of thinking, and those people who actually know how to think. Many times they leave a good idea lying bloody on the side of the organizational road, just like a seal hunter would club a baby harp seal to death in the Arctic regions. Wake up gang, and start creating the next generation of leaders.
However, there is a serious problem that cannot be ignored. It seems as though there is a growing gap between the people of my generation and the newer members of the fire service. We, as a group, tend to look upon these younger whipper-snappers as interlopers in our well-ordered world. We think that they should do things like we do, “just because that’s the way things are.”
This creates a communications gap, between people who use the same words in the presence of each other, with different meanings attached to the verbiage. Many think this is an insoluble problem. I do not see it that way. I think that this gap can be bridged quite simply and easily by the simple mechanism of communications. But the parties have to be proactive. The organizational roadblock type of person is just too lazy to do a good job. But I see my experience as something that I can share with you, for our mutual benefit.
It is my deep and abiding belief that my frequent assignments to the training division, throughout my career in the Newark Fire Department, were a real blessing. Although sometimes it was a real blessing is disguise. For most of the 1980’s and 1990’s, I had the privilege of meeting the next generation of the Newark Fire Department as they entered through the front door at the fire academy. I was most fortunate in being able to see the changing face of the fire department as it actually evolved. I tried to do two things:
1. Share my love of the fire service with them.
2. Learn about them as people.
This taught me a critical lesson. How you welcome people on board your ship is a critical part of how they will fit in as members of the Good Ship
S.S. Fire Department in your community. If you are lazy and don’t show an interest in people, you can ruin them right at the most impressionable stage in their career development.
A critical element of my operational methodology which always seemed to work well with the new troops was my conscious effort to reach out to them. I always approached each new class with a proactive attempt to share my love of knowledge and learning, as well as my love of the fire service with them. I really did not like those times when we were forced to treat the new people harshly. I never enjoyed feeling uncomfortable, and I worked not to make sure that the troops never felt uncomfortable.
However, I did work for a number of people who dearly loved to say the word “no” as often as they possibly could. It gave them a feeling of power I guess. They felt that things had gone along well for them during their career, and that there was no real need to change anything. As a consequence, many of the most modern procedures in equipment, training, and deployment never saw the light of day during my time.
These were the people who believed in Ivy Tower Management. This is a perverted style of leadership wherein any idea not dreamed up by the dwellers in the Ivy Tower of fire headquarters was force to die a horrible and sometimes agonizing and public death. Further, many great ideas died on the vine, because someone in the front office was just a little too lazy to do anything about these potential changes. A phone call or a report was too much to ask of these lazy bozos. This would be that aura of laziness of which I spoke a short while ago.
It has been my personal experience that the number of unhappy firefighters in any department is directly proportional to the number of lazy chiefs in the organization. I have seen people lose a vacation with their families, because some slug of a chief failed to submit their request for a vacation change, because they were “too busy”. I had a different read on this. I firmly believed that they were actually too selfish and self-centered to take the time out of their lives in order to take care of their troops.
My style was quite different. It was my way to personally worry a great deal about my troops when I was a battalion or a division commander. My theory of servant leadership did not allow for me to serve anyone other than the people who worked with me.
I can remember getting into a heated argument with a former President of the National Fire Protection Association over my view of the world. He said that it seemed to him that I cared more about the people in the organization than the organization. And of course I argued back that with out in the real-world of the fire service with the dedicated, motivated people, you simply had to have this critical interaction. We ended up agreeing to disagree.
I learned early on that my success depended upon the labors of some really fine people, and I discovered early on that your folks can make you look really bad, or really good. And it was not a matter of brain surgery or rocket science to get the picture. Make it hard for the troops, and they would make it real hard for you.
I have studied a number of books that have absolutely nothing to do with firefighting. But they have everything to do with creating a successful firefighting team.
The first is The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli. This book deals with the serious problems caused by people who attempt to play games with other people. I first read in back in the 1960’s as a freshman in college. I have returned to it over the years in an attempt to understand the political world around me. It is a great read.
As one who took a degree in political science, this book was quickly found to be mandatory reading. While the author is attempting to explain how kingdoms were controlled back in the day, I saw a great deal of the real world in his words.
Think about the fire chief that creates a team of insiders (sometimes called the A-team). All good ideas come from the insiders. All bad ideas come from the swine that are too stupid to be a part of the A-team. This is a sure way to split your department right down the middle. You will have a few people who love you and a lot of people who will hate you. These are the types of leaders who are a real roadblock to success.
Another text that I would encourage you to acquire and read is The Art of War, by Sun Tzu. The author of this classic text shares a number of lessons he learned during the battles of his ancient time. One of his quotations speaks to the concept of never making unnecessary enemies. It was his thought that you will make sufficient enemies as you went through life. He suggested that you didn’t need to make any more than were absolutely necessary. But there are those people who live to anger everyone around them.
I want you to understand the deep and abiding impact that a leader can have upon every aspect of the lives of their people. Many of your decisions will be truly of a life or death nature. I am afraid that organizational roadblocks and lazy fire officers just see their people as numbers on an organizational chart. What other reason can explain why they spend so little time in taking care of the troops.
You must understand that inaction or ignorance of their personal well being can be just as devastating to a member of your fire department as an actual negative act, action or activity. You are expected to lead when you are in a position of leadership. Get out in front of the troops, set tone and set the pace. It can surely lead to great things.
