Regardless of which industry you work in, being a leader isn't easy. There are challenges to overcome and, most importantly, people to deal with.
Being a leader in the fire service presents many unique challenges, and Firehouse World attendees in San Diego heard some hard truths about those challenges during a session entitled "The Courage to Lead: Being the Best Fire Officer You Can Be in 2018 & Beyond."
Steve Prziborowski, the deputy chief of operations for Santa Clara County, CA, began the session with a simple question:
"Do you know that you or one of those you supervise has a better chance of suffering punitive discipline—written reprimands, transfers, suspension, demotion, termination, non-verbal counseling or written counseling—than getting killed in the line of duty?"
While Prziborowski was quick to avoid diminishing the importance of honoring and learning from line-of-duty deaths, he also stressed how leadership needs to step up and not only help those in their charge stay safe, but also stay smart and avoid flushing their careers down the drain.
"If you've been in the fire service for more than a couple of years, you've probably had some dicey situations where you said, 'I got lucky on that one,'" Prziborowski said. "And it can be a close call on the fireground or dodging a personnel fire."
Prziborowski understands that a lot of firefighters enter the fire service for the fast pace and the excitement of going out on calls and fighting fires—things he calls "the sexy stuff"—but the thing they don't think much about early on is what kind of leader they will be as their careers advance.
Once the promotional phase of a firefighter's career begins, they take on a much larger role that goes well beyond the business of fighting fire.
"You're not just a fire officer, you're also a risk manager, an HR professional, a safety officer, a training officer," Prziborowski said. "This is what's very sobering, when I have to explain this to new captains."
Observe and report
Prziborowski says one of the key elements to being a strong fire service leader is to know what's going on with those below you in rank through careful observation and, when necessary, to report on those things and take them up the chain of command.
"What's the purpose of progressive discipline? To hopefully change behavior," Prziborowski said. "We're failing on this miserably. And it's not just the fire service. It's leadership everywhere around the country."
While Prziborowski understands that no one wants to be called a snitch or be ostracized by colleagues for speaking up, it's vitally important to act when you see something inappropriate on personnel, tactical or safety levels because lives and careers hang in the balance.
"You've got a choice when you get promoted: Be the buddy or be the boss. There's a time and a place to do both, yes, but you're still the boss."
Although tactical and safety issues remain static in many ways and can be controlled to an extent through proper training and leading by example—donning full PPE at a fire and wearing your SCBA, for example—many new challenges officers face in the modern fire service are simply out of their hands.
How does a fire officer handle a changing society that depends heavily on social media? How do you deal with personnel issues in a traditionally male-dominated culture amid the deluge of sexual harassment allegations and the #metoo movement?
"It's about you as a boss providing a safe, harassment-free and discrimination-free environment," Prziborowski said. "It's not about covering your own butt. It's sometimes about helping the brothers and sisters save them from themselves."
Prziborowski says in the simplest terms that if no one beneath you in rank has ever been mad at you, you aren't doing your job.
Prompt for success
Prziborowski credited the term "prompt for success" to a former colleague and offered a few examples of how this applies to simple, everyday situations for even rank-and-file members. Firefighters are human, after all, and are going to make mistakes.
"Are you going to make stupid decisions in life? I know I do," Prziborowski said. "Would you like to be helped to ensure you don't make that stupid decision whenever possible? I know I would be. But it's challenging."
What every firefighter needs to do is humble themselves enough to listen to others—even a rookie. When an engineer is driving too fast, will someone step up and say something to ensure the safety of everyone on the rig—to prompt that engineer for success?
What if it's the probationary firefighter who speaks up? Most veterans have to admit how they'd react in such a situation.
"In the academy, we're teaching them to speak up, but are we doing it in real life?" Prziborowski asked. "No, we're not. We say, 'Shut up, kid. You got two ears and one mouth for a reason. Your job is to listen, not talk.'"
Dealing with personnel is always difficult because not every employee is the same. Some are stubborn and some will listen. Some can admit they were wrong while others can't. Some can handle certain situations psychologically but others may struggle.
It's understanding the human element and catering your approach to each individual case that remains important. Even the very challenging human element of substance abuse is something the fire service is not immune to.
Instead of overlooking issues like these or making excuses for your fellow firefighters, everyone from the rookie all the way up to the chief needs the courage to step up and say something to help that person and show the true meaning of brotherhood.
Courage under fire
Prziborowski says the word brotherhood is thrown about far too loosely in the fire service. It creates a culture where you start to believe that what brotherhood means is covering for someone or excusing their behavior because of the mob mentality and not wanting to be excluded from the group.
The fact is that careers don't typically end because a firefighter said something to another when an issue came up. Careers end when you don't say something, but the culture of whistle blowers getting blackballed or ostracized makes it much easier to just go along.
"I see so many careers get flushed down the drain because of someone just not saying something," Prziborowski said.
While it may be easier to focus on yourself and make sure you're doing the best job you can, walking away and not saying anything during incidents such as hazing, bullying, harassment or fraternization ultimately means you are permitting or condoning that behavior.
The tough thing to accept is that once light is shed on a situation a leader chose to ignore, a firefighter may simply throw their superior under the bus to save their career. If behavior is not called out in the moment, a firefighter can claim a chief or captain condoned that behavior by not acting.
"You have to think like a risk manager," Prziborowski said. "You have to think that way because you may keep yourself out of trouble. Your job as a boss is to worry about that one-in-a-million chance that something could go wrong."
A newly promoted officer trying to hand out discipline or call out a firefighter for inappropriate behavior may be met with the cliched response that the officer "forgot where they came from" since being promoted, but the one-in-a-million chance outweighs this ultimately dangerous stigma.
Taking care of individuals is important, but what is most important is protecting the mission, the department and the public trust.
"Everyone blames leadership," Prziborowski said. "The fire chief. The police chief. The President of the United States. Don't get me wrong, because leaders have an obligation to set the policies and make sure that message gets sent all the way down ranks, but they also rely on every person below them to get the job done."
