The fire service has benefitted from the guidance of many great leaders over the years. Unfortunately, the fire service has also seen many in leadership positions who hardly fulfill the definition of leader. And while what constitutes “great” can be very much in the eye of the beholder, the fact that great leaders exist and lead us through tough times matters very much – and we need them right now.
The recent closure of the National Fire Academy (NFA) has certainly provided an opportunity for fire service leaders to display our Fire Service One Voice mantra – and many have stepped up to share their shock, disappointment, even outrage. Others’ responses have been more measured and cautious in tone, likely driven, at least in part, by the fact that we have had little to no communication from the administration about what’s happening or what the future holds for our nation’s premier fire training institution. While I wish our collective voice was even louder, I fully recognize that some fire service groups are, to some extent, forced to walk on eggshells here. After all, nobody wants to be on the receiving end of an administrative admonition.
To be clear, my frustration is not with the more cautious approach but rather with the firefighters and chief officers alike whom I have witnessed online openly applauding and cheering on the closure of the NFA. What many of these people may not understand is that the NFA provides training through academies in all 50 states, with more students attending NFA courses in their home states than on-campus training in Emmittsburg, Maryland. The NFA system and the campus provide a unique opportunity to coordinate the delivery of consistent mid- and upper-level training that nurtures career development and enhances critical-thinking capabilities.
Any long-term absence of such a coordinating entity will certainly lead to degradation of service within our ranks, sooner than later. Rationalizing the NFA closure by any metric that has been articulated so far is nonsensical. And while state and local entities have the ability to take on mid- and upper-level training (at a cost to them and students), the absence of a coordinated training effort will lead to 50 different state offerings and curriculum interpretations for the same content. Despite the fact that fires burn the same across all 50 states, we have consistently demonstrated 50 different ways of looking at how we certify, train, pay, staff, etc., our membership. This is hardly a long-term solution.
I want to note as well that many of us have paid for our own training outright, while some departments pay for some training. And, if you’ve been among the fortunate to be accepted, the National Fire Academy has picked up the tab for a class here or there. As an active firefighter, I applied to attend one class every year. I was not always accepted. Not once did I believe that the NFA was or should be an entitlement.
We need our leaders to step up and lead us through this challenging time. I reject the calls of “fear-mongering” that I hear from firefighters who agree with the administration’s actions with the NFA. Support for closing our preeminent training facility by firefighters who may or may not have ever trained there is both an embarrassment and a travesty. How we deal with this division will be reflected in our history, separating great leaders from everyone else.
Who are these leaders? All of you. We all have a responsibility to lead today.
5 types of people
Before we talk about my challenge to the fire service, let’s first consider the power of a personality test. Personality tests that serve as a guide for self-evaluation and improvement are commonplace today. If you have not taken one of these tests lately, I encourage you to do so. One of several such tests I’ve taken over the years, the Enneagram test recently classified me as a “Type 8 Challenger,” and I can confirm that the results are pretty accurate with who I am. Taking such tests helps us learn more about our leadership styles and how to adapt to meet people where they are.
Furthermore, through my own experiences, I have developed my own personality analysis of sorts – a breakdown of the five types of people we find in our organizations:
- Leaders: Those with the vision. Many of the ones we deem to be great have worked their way up the organizational ladder and fit in here.
- Managers: Those who coordinate efforts to accomplish the mission.
- Followers: Those who actually do the work, making sure objectives are achieved.
- Slugs: Those who just plod along and take up space.
- Snipers: Those who wait for just the right moment to pop up from under their rock, to take the proverbial shot at the chief, the organization or the mission in general, then pop back under their rock. Snipers may also be evident within each of the other four types of people. [Read next: Leader, follower or ‘sniper’: Which are you?]
You’re probably already mentally identifying some members within your fire department who fall into these categories.
I’d love to believe that every chief fits in the leader category and would have a personality trait befitting a chief. The reality is that I know many chiefs who don’t fit into that box and struggle to find their place.
You will have to manage each of these types of people within your organization. You must not marginalize any of them as a rule of good business. You should, however, do everything within your power to weed out the slugs. Try to convert slugs to followers or future leaders – or get rid of them. Slugs that are allowed to slide along can become a cancer within the organization.
While difficult to deal with, snipers, believe it or not, may have more value than we like to admit. One of the biggest challenges will be managing those snipers to use their “talent” to the advantage of the organization. In a perfect world, those snipers would be converted to followers or even future leaders; however, their true value may be in their unofficial leadership roles. At the end of the day, you have to determine where they fit, or if they fit, in your management roles.
Furthermore, when it comes to the five types of people during a crisis, you likely won’t be surprised by how their actions manifest: It is during trying times that leaders and managers are presented opportunities to shine, that slugs hide out, contributing nothing, and that snipers take their proverbial shots. Unfortunately, we see far too many within our local ranks sit back amid the chaos and waste their opportunity in the interest of political party or cause, instead of for the betterment of the fire service.
[Read more: 5 steps to organizational progress in the fire service]
Challenge the status quo
Some will say the NFA pause itself is a challenge to the status quo. If the pause was articulated as anything to do with improving training for future leaders, then maybe I could buy in to that. After all, this program evaluation could have occurred while classes continued – wouldn’t that have been an ideal way to truly evaluate the programs? Unfortunately, it seems this pause may be driven by the NFA’s association with FEMA, putting our training in crosshairs of ideologic differences. (And if that’s not the case, I’m all ears and welcome someone from the administration to tell me otherwise.)
With this in mind, as a “Type 8 Challenger,” I am challenging all of you to consider the fire service’s place in all of this. I believe we must have a training program coordinated through a national entity like the NFA. Let’s look beyond training, however, and use this opportunity to challenge the broader status quo. Let’s bring the U.S. Fire Administration out from under FEMA and group the USFA with our allied agencies into a Department of Emergency Services (DES). Here’s how:
- Take EMS out from under the Department of Transportation;
- Take forestry firefighters out from under the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Interior;
- Take federal firefighters out from under the Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Health and Human Services, and FEMA; and
- Take 911 out from under Department of Transportation.
As you can see from this suggested shuffling, firefighters currently work under seven federal cabinet-level departments. Does that make sense? I propose the creation of a DPS as a cabinet-level department with the requisite administrative and training support that first responders need. There are seven other departments from which we should be able to pull expertise.
Leave the Department of Homeland Security (which is currently the third-largest department in the government) in charge of a streamlined FEMA and other law enforcement agencies like border control, immigration and enforcement. If we want to be a stronger collective force that balances our needs with reality, and provides an opportunity to finally fund a cohesive fire and EMS system appropriately, let’s help fire, EMS and 911 survive and thrive in a streamlined government that recognizes first responders first!
Bringing calm to the chaos
It is easy to get wrapped up in a swirl of unhealthy social media banter. We are all likely best served by my previous advice to back away from the keyboard (BAFTK). We must remember that the public trust stands on the basic belief that we will show up at the right place, at the right time, with the right people and equipment to just do the right thing (JDTRT). A constant drumbeat of partisan politics by firefighters stands to interfere with that trust. We must not allow such negativity to fester.
Instead, let’s use this opportunity to harness as much positive energy as we can muster. While the chaos swirls around us, we have a unique opportunity to demonstrate true leadership as we mold tomorrow’s leaders. We have the responsibility to show the slugs why they should become followers, maybe even some of our future managers and leaders.
Let’s be real about the situation we’re facing. If something as sacred as the National Fire Academy can be shuttered with the flip of a switch, what’s next? Who’s next? As the projected cuts in federal spending trickle down into state and local agencies, what staff or programs are you prepared to pause or even shut down? How will you lead your department through such a transition? Will you stand up for what we all need?
The NFA is part of a network of instructional opportunities that should be available to us all. I am no longer an active firefighter, nor am I an NFA instructor, and I am not running for office. My opposition to the NFA closing is neither self-serving nor political. My focus is to spotlight a potential solution that could help others achieve their maximum potential.
Again, this is not “fear-mongering,” as more than one keyboard warrior has claimed. This is a wake-up call. If we act now, we can strategically challenge our status quo in a way that works for the future of our emergency services.
Time is of the essence, and the time is now! Will you step up and make your voice heard? Will you bring calm to the chaos, or will you allow the chaos to control you? Time will tell. Tick tock, tick tock.
WATCH | Fire service leaders urge action after NFA training cancellations
