By Timothy Young
A company officer is a leader by default–good, bad, or otherwise–so how does a leader stand out from a group of leaders? There are many variables in that equation, but there is one constant: Being an outstanding leader requires work every single day.
Not all leaders are readers, but great leaders must be readers, and reading with a purpose is a great way to grow your leadership characteristics. Not only reading in a single discipline like trade journals or tactics books but broadening a company officer’s or acting officer’s knowledge of history, science, culture, and social studies can help him make well-balanced decisions. By not only reading but fostering a culture of reading all around, you will exponentially increase your problem-solving powers.
What common thread can we see that ties great leaders throughout history together? Their consistent commitment to endeavors that might be so long term they may not see them completed in their careers or their lifetimes. However, they understood the value of their efforts were much more important than internal satisfaction; they were driven by extrinsic motivations.
Lt. Gen. Hal Moore says in his book We Were Soldiers Once … and Young that he was constantly evaluating what he was doing during conflict and nonconflict. He would ask himself, “What are you doing that you shouldn’t be doing? What are you not doing that you should be?” It’s hard to answer these sometimes, especially as a new company officer. I found a good analogy for operating in uncertainty is not unlike performing a search during a fire in zero visibility. To thoroughly search an area, I was taught to search all six sides. This provides a three-dimensional benchmark to ensure no areas are missed for potential victims or fire. I believe this approach to leadership also ensures consistent execution of responsibility and the application of influence.
We must constantly be checking all sides of our positions, just like sweeping a piece of furniture. There are ranks above us and below us, to our left and to our right. The fifth and sixth sides lay in the time dimension–those who came before us and those who will carry on this job after we leave. By looking out for all directions in our actions, we can be sure that we are serving as selflessly as possible and using all those factors to guide our decision making and habits.
Serve the Ranks Above
These duties will typically be bureaucratic in nature, but they are critical in gaining trust from your superiors. If you can’t complete the most basic parts of your job as an officer, they certainly won’t let you venture into extracurricular activities. Make sure the housework is done; the rigs and equipment are getting cleaned and maintained; and training drills, supply orders, payroll, and checklists are attended to. Whatever your superiors expect you to get done, make them a priority and do them consistently. Making a list on the board at the beginning of the day and ordering items by priority can help when call volumes may interrupt a flow or momentum. Making these daily lists not only helps keep time and mindset organized, it also lets all the members see clearly what the objectives are for the day and gives everyone a sense of responsibility and accountability to accomplish the daily goals as a company.
Serve Below Your Rank
It is said that rank has its privileges, and I strongly believe the only privilege that should come with rank is the opportunity to serve more people below you. This is where you can have the biggest influence as a leadership figure–to be an example. As a company officer, everything you do is seen, heard, and emulated by your juniors. Your daily appearance, your readiness for work, and your physical fitness for duty go a long way in letting your subordinates know you are not going to let them down. Just the simple act of consistently placing your prepared gear on the rig makes them feel at ease, knowing you are ready to lead them into a serious situation and you will not be the weakest link. Think back on the times you were in the back seat or driving the rig and you had “that officer”–the one who was slow getting to the truck, never had his equipment or PPE ready, and seemingly struggled with the most minute tasks. It did not boost your confidence for going into uncertain environments, did it? Even as a covering officer or working overtime with a crew you are not familiar with, these nonverbal cues can have an immediate impact on the tone of the company.
Another way to serve those below you is to genuinely take an interest in their development as professionals, as citizens, and as future leaders (they will also fall into the sixth side). Talk to them, find out about their families, their life experiences, goals, and ambitions; ask them what their plans are and help them achieve them. Follow up with them throughout the year and see how they are progressing on their goals. Did they ask you for a uniform item? Check in with the logistics section and see what the holdup was and keep following up until it’s done. Did they need to get into a class? See if you can find out when the next one is offered. Not only ask questions but continue to follow up with the details until everyone is satisfied. It’s easy to be discouraged in a bureaucratic slowdown, but showing them that you have the focus and care to take care of their needs will go a long way in fostering trust. A great officer once told me, “If you work for them, they will work for you.” The whole weight of this statement didn’t fall on me when I heard it early in my career, but as the years go by, its meaning and impact could not be more profound.
Serve Brothers and Sisters to the Left and the Right
We stand beside them, shoulder to shoulder, as leaders in our organizations. How do we serve our peers? Well, just ask them and they will tell you. “Hey, is there anything you need me to do for you? Is there something I am doing that you don’t like me doing? What do you want to do for drill today?” Being a leader is not always about commanding and doing; it’s equally if not more about listening. Communicating, sharing ideas, setting goals, and being honest with each other are so paramount in this job. It builds stronger camaraderie and, as a company, can take the esprit de corps to another level. When all the company officers grow into a united front, there is no force that can bring them down. The entire company begins to become a self-fulfilling prophecy, the company members see the accomplishments, the morale increases, the prophecy continues to perpetuate itself, and the company rolls forward.
Outstanding leadership will not always be easy and may not be perceived as a positive experience; you must also maintain standards. This means you might have to make the hard choice with another officer to let him know that his behavior is not acceptable. I have found the most effective means of modifying behavior in the fire service is peer pressure. We have to look out for each other, and that doesn’t mean turning a blind eye to potentially wrong or unprofessional conduct. You are not going to be doing that officer any favors by looking the other way or just ignoring it altogether. When other officers or department members think it’s someone else’s problem or just frankly don’t care about unacceptable behaviors, it fuels the offender into more unacceptable realms and potentially harmful behaviors on and off duty. We especially need to be vigilant in this post-COVID era, where burnout and “self-medication” at home seem to be more prevalent than ever before. It’s hard to walk the line between trust and help, and there are several avenues outside of the workplace that can be taken in confidentiality. Make sure you are checking up with yourself and your peers.
Serve Those Who Came Before Us
Now that we have focused on the tangibles, let’s dive into the intangible people we can serve. The first group to discuss is those who came before us–those members of your department who have already left and made your department what it is today. They invested their time and energy, much like you are doing now, establishing the culture and climate of the agency you have the privilege to be a part of. They fought their own fires, their own battles for progress, and cultivated many of the leaders you work underneath now. Try and place yourself in their boots when looking at “modern problems.” Chances are, your modern problem was already solved by a prior generation, only the names and equipment have changed. Horses to combustion, chemical engines to triple pumpers, mustaches to SCBA–some of these changes were driven by the supreme sacrifice, and we should truly honor it by embracing the progress brought forth from their losses. By using an empathetic approach to department changes, we can preserve the truly great culture and traditions as we move forward through time while also innovating solutions to new challenges. We are only stewards of this great job while we are able to serve, and our mission should be to leave it better than when we found it.
Serve Those Who Will Come After Us
Possibly the most challenging aspect of outstanding leadership, this will require you to not only draw upon your experiences throughout your career thus far but to use imagination and vision to predict how future environments will affect future members’ needs and how they will operate. Once you have figured out the future landscape and requirements to meet it, you have to make others understand and buy into your theory or prediction. This is not purely an equipment or tactic discussion, but behaviors may be affected or decision-making processes altered in anticipation of future climates. Vigilance and discipline will be required to maintain proactivity for potentially long periods of time before these changes are ever seen or needed. This is where tactical leadership and organizational leadership converge. How do you shape an organizational change for an uncertain future?
Communication! Exceptional leaders must be able to adequately communicate their optimist views of the future landscape of the organization, especially for people who may not have the imagination or the optimism to see it. All the great leaders throughout history were able to communicate lucidly and effectively to whatever audience they were trying to rally. Intelligent communication requires a leader to speak and write with legitimacy, accuracy, and conviction. Know your audience, know your history and geography of where you work, and soon you will find you have empowered a group of peers, subordinates, and superiors to meet future organizational challenges. These changes may not even be fully achieved in your career, but you must be able to see the broader picture, find a way to see the smaller gains within the larger, and stay motivated to stay the course no matter what.
What are outlined in this approach are consistency and example. Having a plan or a framework to work from helps you to be consistent no matter what the days, weeks, or months hold. Natural disasters, global emergencies, good days, bad days–you can always fall back on your framework to make sure all your sides are being covered. Ultimately, the goal should be to internalize and make all of these considerations part of your character, an automatic part of your decision making. That way you don’t have to stop all the time and think, “What should I do in this situation?” The answer will come naturally and quickly. When a bigger challenge arises, you can reflect back on six-sided leadership and hopefully make the right decision that serves everyone as best as possible.
BIO:
Timothy Young began his fire service career in 2002 and is a lieutenant with St Johns County (FL) Fire Rescue. He has an associate of arts degree and is a Florida State fire instructor, delivering hands-on and classroom training for emergency response and leadership throughout the state.
