It’s no secret that the fire service has a leadership problem. FireRescue1’s What Firefighters Want 2024 survey found that 76% of respondents had concerns about their department leadership, 49% indicated that poor agency leadership has a high impact on retention, and 33% have thought about leaving their department due to the fire chief. Additionally, a Gallup research study found that for over a decade, 70% of employees have either not engaged or actively disengaged at work. As disturbing as these survey results are, they’re also not surprising.
Amidst significant challenges – attrition issues, a mental health crisis, and growing apathy within our ranks – it’s imperative to identify the root cause. It’s not generational gaps, call volume or recruitment programs. These are contributing factors, but they divert attention from the real issue. The problem, as we can see from these surveys, is the way we lead. The fire service must lead differently because we are different.
While we have successfully borrowed various tools from other industries, it’s clear that the leadership theories that pervade fire officer courses and academic classes weren’t developed for us. They are concepts born of businesses and corporations. We’ve adopted methodologies meant for sterile office environments.
If this were the only layer of the problem, it would be a straightforward fix, but it’s not. Our leaders have been practicing these methods for years, and we’re perpetuating the behaviors through succession planning and our primal instinct to emulate predecessors. These learned behaviors are not quickly shed. We’ve witnessed it time and again. After a promotion, the new leader often mirrors the one who just left the position, regardless of effectiveness. It’s accepted because certain behaviors and actions become normalized. Round and round we go while the fire service, our departments and our firefighters suffer the consequences.
The good news: We can shatter this pattern. We can fix the fire service with an unconventional approach – by leading differently. We must stop leading our people based on what we’ve learned from books that aren’t meant for us or theories that have yet to be realized as successful tools for the fire service. Most importantly, we shouldn’t copy-paste the leadership patterns of our predecessors.
So, how do you become unconventional and lead differently? By subscribing to these three behaviors: Disrespecting the Norm, Reinventing Your Position and Putting in the Work. These actions seem simple enough; however, even the simplest of tasks become hard when applying them consistently.
Disrespect the norm
The norm has zero value, so hold it in contempt. What provides worth is your actions leading to transcendent behavior. When you and others go beyond the range of normalcy and into the uncharted territories of excellence, then you’re doing your job as a leader. Leadership isn’t required for expected behaviors, but it is a necessity to go beyond them.
For the fire service, there are three actions you can take today to treat normalcy as an affront to progress:
1. Be authentic: Let your true self shine, not the person hiding behind the mask. Be the real you that some people love and others may not appreciate. Everyone wears a mask to a certain degree, but leadership members are particularly susceptible. They may try presenting a person whom others expect instead of being themselves. They morph into a less genuine version of who they are. This brings about inconsistency and an inability to form authentic relationships. You can’t gain leadership influence without a real connection. Being authentic establishes a foundation of trust.
Let’s qualify this. This is not an excuse to be an egomaniac, rude or annoying. For instance, if you tend to talk over people, being authentic doesn’t give you a pass. You must become self-aware of those things and continually work at them. What you want others to know are the things that make you unique.
Let your quirky personality be what you are endeared for. Understand that you can’t please all people all the time, even when trying to fit a mold. So, you might as well be authentic.
2. Focus on team building: Much attention is given to developing teams at the company level, but little consideration is given to leadership and command teams. It doesn’t matter your position; you have a team. If you’re a captain, you have firefighters. If you’re a battalion chief, you have captains. If you’re a division chief, you have battalion chiefs. There is a team to build regardless of where you land on the organizational chart.
When team development is the focus, magic happens. The fire service is a team sport, not an individual one. Thus, all leadership efforts should be fixated on this fact. Learn how to forge a fire service team, as this is different than other types of team building. Improve your skills, not just as a leader but also as a team builder.
You will lead differently when you focus on building a world-class team. Every effort, every action – all of your energy as a leader – should be focused on this fact. Most people try to accomplish this passively, particularly at the chief officer ranks.
3. Practice leadership: Leadership in the fire service is a practice much like doctors practice medicine. To practice leadership, you must first be willing to fail – fail fast, fail often, reflect and pivot. Secondly, all communication and actions must be intentional. Most lead reactively. Leading differently is a proactive approach. There is purpose behind every action because consistently having desired outcomes will not happen without intention.
With it, you’re able to observe the results. You can toss the stuff that didn’t work, improve on the things that did, and keep experimenting. This experimentation will help you break the mold and disrespect the norm. Furthermore, when you practice leadership, you grow as an influencer. Who you were yesterday will no longer define you. The failures are marks of development, not scars of defeat. Most importantly, you become empowered as a self-leader, which ultimately bleeds into your ability to help others transcend their own behaviors.
Reinvent your position
Whatever the previous person did in your position, don’t do it. It’s a box we all put ourselves in. Reinvent your job. Do it differently. Your position description is the bare minimum. It’s also ambiguous in terms of how to carry out tasks; thus, it’s genuinely left open to interpretation. How others performed their duties before you are probably a copy and paste of the person before them.
The question is, “Where do you start?” You must do three things to reinvent your position:
1. Be innovative with your job: Your job is so much more than what the description outlines. I don’t mean more work; I mean different work. There isn’t a position I’ve taken in the fire service that I didn’t make my own. You can accomplish this by creating an innovative environment. Set scary standards for yourself. Safe leaders set safe expectations. When you challenge yourself as a leader, you have no option but to rise to the occasion. Develop new procedures, systems and practices to meet your new standard. This is synergy.
It all leads to a new paradigm – a shift in the norm. Once your eyes are open and your behaviors change, others follow suit. Eventually, when you promote or move on, the person taking your place can raise your bar even higher.
2. Identify gaps: One of the most pragmatic actions you can take is identifying areas of weakness in your department. You have reinvented your position once you match them to your sphere of influence, natural ability and ways in which your position can assist in solving problems.
Identifying gaps and leveraging your position to be a thought leader and improve your department provides a different construct of exploiting your rank. Gap identification is the bridge needed to escape your position description island. However, the crux of this behavior isn’t just gap identification. It’s developing ways in which your position offers solutions.
To do this, you must remove the perceived limits on your position. The familiar invisible boundaries you construct in your mind prevent you from making a real difference. Look at the problems, and question how they can be fixed with unlimited resources and all the power and ability in the world. Then, do those things. If this sounds far-fetched, it’s because you haven’t done it yet.
3. Experiment with ideation: Attempt creativity through the inspiration of others. Whatever ideas are floated past you, whether yours or others, bring them to life. Those collective thoughts pave the road to reinventing your position. All you have to do is listen and experiment. Inherently, this leads to failure. But that’s OK. Failure requires action and risk. Here’s the good news: Most won’t even know how much you’re failing. Your intentionality behind decisions and actions isn’t typically known to the masses. Just allow yourself to pivot continually.
Moreover, empower your team to experiment with you. Be bold and take risks with your team. This will create bold team members and build confidence. The momentum created when you experiment with ideation as a group is unparalleled. But most intriguingly, it redefines what you can accomplish as a leader. It sets new boundaries within your team. You lead differently when you truly experiment with ideation.
Put in the work
It’s a shame that this must be spelled out as a path to leading differently. However, I’ve found this to be a true game-changer as a leader. The bar is so low that even a 25% effort on a daily basis looks extremely different from your counterparts.
This is where one can really shine. While others check out, you can be singular. Exhausting as it may be, don’t take a day off from what it takes to serve your people. Outwork self-doubt, invisible limitations and obstacles. Don’t be hungry; be starving for results. Look to build momentum each day.
Yes, there will be plenty of days when you’re going to get punched in the gut. Sometimes, over and over again. When this happens, the super majority will count the day as a loss and look to start fresh the next day only to find the same results. All of a sudden, they can’t wait for the weekend or their next four days off because the whole week is now a loss. Instead of letting those moments defeat you, take a different approach.
After a few proverbial uppercuts to the solar plexus, find a way to get a small win. It doesn’t matter how small the win is. Once you do that, do it again. Start stacking wins and reset your day. It works like a charm. When you have a rough day on the job, refuse to be defeated. Find a way to build momentum and take back control. I promise you will feel like a champion when your shift or day finishes. But most importantly, you will lead contrarily to all those who came before you. You will be making a difference.
When passion meets purpose, the only thing standing in your way is effort. Put in the work.
Final thoughts
The time is now to break free of the mold. If we want things to change, then you must change, and part of that change comes through your leadership. Peter Drucker once said, “Three things happen naturally in any organization: friction, confusion and underperformance. Everything else requires leadership.” His words are a great reminder that all problems can be solved through leadership. However, for the fire service, we need to take it a step further. A fresh approach is required. We need to disrespect the norm, reinvent our positions, and put in the work. We must lead differently.
