I always like to preface my articles on leadership with a couple of disclosures. One, the articles apply to more than the field of prevention. Two, I am hardly a leadership expert. I made more mistakes than many in my experience, but what I learned I tried to apply and over time got a little better at being a good leader. That is far from perfect and I never tried to deny that.
What that said, there is one aspect of both management and leadership that deserves special mention: mutual respect.
Administrative Esteem
Based on your position in the fire service, ask yourself a question: Do you respect your boss? If the answer is no–there is a problem. A leader cannot function at 100% without the respect of their co-workers. We are in it together after all; we just have different jobs to do. Respect is earned, not automatically granted just because someone has a position of authority.
If we don’t have respect, or worse have earned the disdain of our employees, it can lead to a syndrome my old boss, Don Bivins, used to call malicious obedience. This is when employees will do everything you direct, to the letter, but only what you direct. They will exercise no judgment or initiative; they will do nothing without being told. You can easily see the limitations of this particular problem. You have time for only so much direction, and then things start falling by the wayside.
To make matters worse, employees can take this to the extreme. They may spot a problem and not tell you about it; you could be heading for a cliff and no one would tell you about it because they hadn’t been directed to save you from yourself.
Team Esteem
Just as those in charge need the respect of their employees, employees cannot function without the respect of their boss. If you don’t have it, the answer to many of your requests is no. Why? Because instead of trusting you, they think that you aren’t there to help them succeed. They worry that you’re undermining their ability to get things done.
If those in leadership roles are living in fear that you’re trying to hurt them, then the relationship you have will always be driven by suspicion, and it will take longer to get anything done. It may sound silly, but mutual respect must be mutual, and there lies the challenge. How do we make that happen?
Developing Respect
Someone has to display respect first and I think that the boss has to take the lead. They must understand that everyone performs according to their abilities and people have different skills and strengths. If you can respect others in spite of their limitations, then you’re on a road to gaining their respect in return. Helping people correct performance difficulties doesn’t mean you have to lose respect for them–if they are honestly trying. That requires a measure of self-confidence that can only come from realizing no one is perfect, but you can ask people to do their best. And you can focus on what they do that is good, rather than what is bad.
Does that mean that there are not sub-standard employees? No. But, in my experience, they are few and far between. Most simply require effort, from their leaders and from themselves. They need training, support and guidance. And on rare occasions, they need to be disciplined for the things they have done wrong. Showing respect to these individuals by investing time and knowledge in them will help establish respect in your relationship.
If a leader treats their employees with respect, they are creating an atmosphere where employees can more easily do the same. If employees can treat their supervisors with respect, recognizing they have a difficult job and are sometimes only carrying out orders from higher up the food chain, then they can help minimize an atmosphere of mutual distrust.
Last Thoughts
Both sides of this leadership equation can help to foster an atmosphere of mutual respect and limit the problems associated with a lack of trust. We all want to be respected, and resent it heartily when we feel we are not appreciated, let alone feeling undervalued or even despised.
That path creates functional gridlock, and that is a term which should be familiar to all of us these days.
