I was recently listening to a friend describe a situation that had occurred involving one of his fire chief colleagues. As he finished, I couldn?t help but think about the number of times that I had heard the same story ? different names, different places, different dates, but the same general story. This made me wonder why this all-too-common scenario continues to be played out.
Does the issue get covered adequately in supervisory training while basic leadership skills and traits are discussed and studied? I thought I would write it down and share it with you. It is worth thinking about, before it happens to you or someone you care for.
The Scenario
The fire chief in a municipal fire department believed that his primary responsibility as a leader was to control the behavior of other people, and he thought that intimidation through displays of anger was the best way to achieve that result. At times, the chief was openly disrespectful toward members of the fire department, often criticizing them in the presence of others. When he was brought bad news, he would become angry with the person who told him. The chief was rude and dealing with him became a chore for almost everyone.
The impact of this leadership style was quite negative and eventually distanced the chief from his workforce, including the people he had to depend on most in order to be successful ? his direct reports. The results were as follows:
- His staff was reluctant to openly discuss organizational problems with him in a way that was geared toward making minor course corrections. Therefore, he usually didn?t find out about issues in the department until they were significant and sometimes out of control.
- The workforce lost respect for him as their leader. They didn?t trust his judgment and they made a game out of antagonizing and testing him just to prove (to him and others) that he was not in control of them.
- It was the general opinion of most members of the fire department that although he was filling the position of fire chief, he was not acknowledged as their leader. The order of the day was to perform in spite of the fire chief?s negative impact on the system.
This situation grew to become a major internal morale problem. It affected performance and service delivery inside and outside the fire department. The fire chief lost the support of the workers, his boss and, finally, the elected officials. Eventually, he lost his job.
There are many exceptional leaders in the career and volunteer fire service. They are positive role models and mentors for current and ?wanna-be? fire officers. They learned early in their careers that alienating the people they?re supposed to be leading is simply not productive.
The demise of this particular fire chief was predictable. However, there is no reason for a chief officer or any supervisor to fall victim to this type of behavior. Mutual respect, mutual trust, composure, empathy and open lines of communication are critical to the long term success of any leader.
Leadership is not abstract; it is definitive and behavioral. The behavior of leaders directly impacts their own effectiveness, as well as the performance of others. What happened to this fire chief is simple: he called in an air strike on himself by failing to follow some basic tenets of leadership. He filled the rank, but not the role, of fire chief. We should learn from what happened to him. It has happened many times to others as well. Don?t let it happen to you.
Chief Concerns is a forum addressing issues of interest to chief fire officers. Opinions expressed are those of the writer. We invite all volunteer and career chief fire officers to share their concerns, experiences and views in this column. Please submit articles to Chief Concerns, Firehouse Magazine, 445 Broad Hollow Road, Melville, NY 11747.
Dennis Compton, a Firehouse? contributing editor, is a well-known speaker and the author of several books including the When In Doubt, Lead! series, Mental Aspects of Performance For Firefighters And Fire Officers, as well as many other articles and publications. He is also the co-editor of the current edition of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) reference book Managing Fire and Rescue Services. He serves as a national advocate and executive advisor for fire service and emergency management issues and organizations. Compton served as the fire chief in Mesa, AZ, for five years and as assistant fire chief in the Phoenix Fire Department, where he served for 27 years. He is past chair of the executive board of the International Fire Service Training Association (IFSTA), past chair of the Congressional Fire Services Institute?s National Advisory Committee, and serves on the board of directors for the Home Safety Council (HSC).
