By Jason Hoevelmann
Congratulations! You’ve just been promoted to the position of fire chief. You are now at the helm of your organization and can solve all the problems and issues you have discussed and possibly complained about throughout your career. The keys have been handed over to you to lead and direct the department and to move it along in a positive and productive direction.
Sounds easy, right? Well, it’s not as easy as you think. The responsibility you have inherited is great, and you’re the final authority and accountability for decisions. It can be some real heavy stuff.
There are five things any new fire chief should consider and act on after being promoted. Of course, there are many more tasks and actions to consider, but there are five must-dos to set yourself up for success. As with any list like this, use it the best you can, add or enhance it, and just make sure you’re paying attention to the fact that you will need to be aware in your new position to avoid some common pitfalls.
Expectations
This is a critical step after being promoted to the highest position in your department. Not only do you need to establish expectations of your officers, members, and yourself, but you need ask what expectations stakeholders have of you. It is important to know the expectations of those who hired you and those you work for (members and superiors).
In some cases, who hired you may provide you with very specific expectations that may go beyond the technical aspects of a job description, but I have found that to be rare. It is your responsibility to ask those questions and to find a way to meet and exceed them. For instance, what role do they expect their fire chief to play in fraternal organizations and groups in the community? The reason that is important is because it will take time away from the office to participate.
From uniform to use of your staff, don’t assume anything. At the same time, you need to know what your membership expects of you as well. This includes operationally and administratively. What is the history of chiefs in your department? What was good and what was bad? Are you able to remedy old grievances about things the prior administrations did? Ask questions and listen. Don’t promise things you will not be able to do.
Meet with community leaders and find out what those stakeholders expect. Don’t commit to political or transactional favors, but you need to know what the community wants and expects of their fire chief. Do they expect to see you at weekend, high school football games? Are you expected to be at local fundraising events not associated with the fire department? For maintaining or creating community goodwill, you must make these connections and understand their expectations very early in your tenure.
Conversely, you must also provide your expectations to your staff and membership. I cannot overstate the importance of providing clear and concise expectations for you people so that they understand their roles and responsibilities–not just from a technical and task perspective but from a philosophical perspective as well. There should be a strong focus on mission and the “why” behind our existence. This sets the tone for our actions and reason for how we do things and possibly for changes that will need to be made.
Patience and Tempo
They work together. It is not unusual for a new fire chief to have put some thought into the changes he might want to make after taking the seat. It is only natural to have your own thoughts, beliefs, and opinions on several issues and things in your department to want to tweak or completely change direction on based on your experience, feedback, and education. The danger is that we can move too fast and too soon with some of these ideas.
A good habit to get into from the very start is to be patient and to move with an appropriate and deliberate pace when making changes. It is not uncommon to gain more and different information once in that office than what you knew or understood before, even as an officer in the same organization. Our tendency can be to make new and sudden changes quickly to show decisiveness and control. However, you and the organization, in most cases, will be better served by some patience and pace on those changes.
Moving too hastily without proper research and validation will result in poor or questionable decisions, setting the wrong tone for your tenure as the fire chief. Additionally, doing too much too fast can leave your staff, members, and stakeholders behind and frustrated, feeling overwhelmed by additional duties and tasks. That is when we lose good employees and lose buy-in for initiatives and productive changes.
Patience is also important when making decisions based on new information and situations. It’s critical that you use whatever discretionary time that is available and appropriate to gain as much information as possible to make the best decision. This does not imply decisions should be delayed, but rather they need to be approached with discernment and deliberation to provide the best opportunity for an accurate and good decision.
Patience is probably most important when dealing with crises and bad news. Get all the facts before reacting to these moments. Work and learn to respond to these situations rather than reacting. Reactions are normally associated with and the result of emotions, which can create an entire new set of problems. Responding equals thoughtfulness and careful planning, even in immediate moments. These moments can create a reputation for the chief as someone who is emotionally charged and then must backtrack or the chief who is associated with wisdom, patience, and discernment and cool under pressure. You can choose.
Ask Questions
Any time we get put into a new situation or position, asking pertinent questions should be normal and required. However, for some of us, asking questions about a job we were just promoted to or for issues and situations that we are expected to solve can be perceived as weakness or incompetence. Nothing could be further from the truth.
There are several instances when a new fire chief should be asking questions and for clarifications. From the start, there are some specific areas that questions are necessary. If you are new to the organization, it is wise to find a respected and veteran member (direct report is favorable) and ask about institutional knowledge issues. Here is a list of some of those important items.
- Budget and audit processes and systems.
- Mutual-aid agreements and contentious relationships with neighbors or other entities.
- Response and deployment models and challenges.
- Current strategic planning documents and processes.
- Frequency and times of officer and staff meetings.
- Hiring and retirement processes and how employees are recognized.
- Formal and informal communication mediums.
- Pension and investment of department funds systems and processes.
- Functions and structures of departments/divisions and how they operate (Training, EMS, Prevention, CRR, Admin, Operations, Public Relations).
- Any union agreements, contracts, or memorandums of understanding.
- Any third-party contracts for any service or products.
- Any other obligations or requirements of the fire department that are contractual (grants, bonds, etc.).
These certainly are not exclusive, and each organization can have unique and specific systems, processes, and obligations that you will need to inquire about. This list is a starting point and a checklist for the beginning of your tenure to ensure that you’re addressing and learning about things that may not have been specifically provided at the time of your promotion or hiring.
Asking questions during your day-to-day interactions will yield positive results as well. This is especially true with the receipt of bad or challenging news and situations. As the fire chief, you will receive your share of unfavorable news that is missing details and context. This isn’t always on purpose from the messenger, but it can be easy to leave out some small but important details.
It is easy to take an initial message and start formulating a decision based on that information. That is a mistake. This falls back to patience but not just in a passive way. With that patience and thoughtfulness, start trying to fill in the gaps or holes in the message and information. This is not an indicator that somebody is trying to persuade or hide anything, it is just due diligence. Some questions may need further investigation, and others may just have been left out of the conversation. Asking relevant and meaningful questions before jumping to conclusions or formulating an opinion will help in the accuracy of you decision making.
Read, Study, Think
Any chief should spend some time reading, studying, and thinking while at work. This is important for any chief of any tenure, but there is a certain criticalness for a new chief to make this practice a habit early in his career.
One of the most important jobs a fire chief does is solve BIG problems. If we are doing our job right, we are allowing decisions to be made at the lowest level appropriate, so we should be where the buck stops for those big decisions, problems, and challenges. As a new fire chief or even a seasoned chief officer, some of these problems will be new or beyond the experiences we’ve had up to that point. Reading, studying, and thinking (predicting) can help us to better understand the issues presented to us and to guide us in seeking counsel and making the best decisions possible.
We need to understand the politics in our area, region, and state as they relate to our organization and profession. We must know what legislation is being developed and proposed that could impact our profession and our community. We need to be aware of the external and internal threats to our organization and how they will impact us in the near and long term and how we can avoid or mitigate their impact. Much of this is being able to identify potential threats and creating an appropriate response. Reading what has happened to other organizations that are under the public preview, whether they are fire departments or not, can be a major help in understanding how other entities dealt with similar circumstances. Much of this is from research and reading and studying these situations.
Reading trade journals like Fire Engineering provides real-time examples of what is happening in the fire service related to operational changes, technology, and studies. This information is timely and a critical component of staying up to date with current trends and changes.
Additionally, spend some time in topics that other staff or chiefs do on your behalf. Study about fire prevention and codes. Put a little time into EMS and hazardous materials. Inquire and read about community risk reduction and how it will impact your organization now and in the future. Be prepared for changes that seem unlikely now but may be very possible in 10 years.
Be curious and never count out any possibility. It may not require action, but you at least can perceive it and have it as something to return to every year or so. Be inquisitive about new ideas and what other successful fire departments are doing. Never stop reading, studying, and thinking; it’s a major part of your job.
Ask for Help (Early and Often)
This it is self-explanatory, but so many struggle with this. As the chief, you are obligated to make the best decisions possible. The reality is that you don’t know it all and you cannot make every decision based solely on your own knowledge and experience. The best officers and leaders ask for help.
Asking for help is not a sign of weakness or incompetence. It simply shows that you are willing to get it right and that you recognize that the people you have around you may have some insights, experiences, and knowledge that you don’t have or have not considered. It’s good in most cases to get different perspectives. So, why do so many struggle with this? Fear and ego.
Fear and ego will make you look incompetent and weak much faster than asking for help. You will undoubtedly encounter situations that you just can’t find an answer that you like. This is when you must ask for counsel from trusted friends and colleagues. The key, however, is to not just hear but listen to that counsel and act as the situation dictates.
You have really smart people in your organization with different life and professional experiences. Don’t discount those members and ignore their talents. Ask them for help, no matter their rank. Obviously, their position must be appropriate for the issue. For example, you cannot discuss a personnel matter with just anybody. However, you can empower others while at the same time gain a different perspective about a problem or issue by just requesting some assistance. The bottom line is, don’t struggle too hard with things–ask for help.
These are just five suggestions from my experiences. You can certainly add or adjust them for your unique situations. However, I think you’ll find that these five actions will present themselves frequently. I wish you all the best in your endeavors and hope you find value in them.
BIO:
Jason Hoevelmann is chief of the Florissant Valley (MO) Fire Protection District with 23 years of service. He has a bachelor’s degree in fire service administration.
