Support in Both Directions: From the Top Down and from the Bottom Up

By WALTER LEWIS

Since May 2014, I have been a chief officer for my department. I’m proud to be in the position and promised myself and others that I would remain as honest and as true to how I was before I became “one of them.” I even asked a few friends to be my barometers out in the field – both on my shift and on other shifts – so that if stories are circulating about what a jerk Chief Lewis has become, I’d be aware of it and have the chance to adjust my methods if necessary. Fortunately, I haven’t been told of any major offenses, and my scouts are still out there monitoring things for me. I’m not perfect, and I’ve learned a few lessons along the way; but I’m always looking to improve.

Why You Should Care

“Why should I care?” some of you may ask. “I’m too nice,” some of you might think. “I want everyone to like me,” still others may respond. Those statements may accurately reflect some chiefs’ attitudes, but my biggest concern is the overall operational effectiveness of our organization and the people we serve.

For good effective operations, it means having effective people, procedures, and equipment. For that, we need to have buy-in and attainable goals. For that, we need honesty, intelligence, training, good equipment, and communication. For all of the above, we need support in both directions, from the top down and from the bottom up.

Support from the Bottom Up

We chiefs often expect more support and effort from the field personnel but give little support or effort to them. Even worse is when we don’t recognize the need or care if they get the support. We expect them to respond to more calls this year than they did last year and to do so with ever-aging apparatus, perhaps inefficient response models, tools that don’t match our duties, and usually an insufficient number of personnel on critical scenes in a timely fashion.

To those chiefs who read this and truly know those points don’t apply to their organization, I applaud you and your department. However, there are way too many officers in departments that still function in this manner, despite classes, seminars, books, programs, and conferences that spell out how to reduce or remove operational roadblocks. Even good departments that have good morale, an effective workforce, and great leaders still have gaps filled by lackluster managers and policy loophole finders. But from our chief officer’s perspective, we need to ensure that our stations, districts, battalions, shifts, and groups have no problems because of our lack of support.

To solve problems, we must first establish the knowns and the unknowns. One of the knowns should be that we provide appropriate support for our workforce. From there, we can set solid expectations for our personnel to meet.

Certainly, the department provides rules and regulations for everyone to follow, and they should. But the expectations I’m talking about are the rules of engagement and personal interaction we should expect from our coworkers and them from us. If we don’t allow them to have some expectations from us, such as helping them with occasional odd situations and the leeway to make decisions on their own within their scope, then we are dictators of mindless workers instead of developers of future department leaders.

Support comes from the troops, for certain. They run the calls. They transport the patients who allow us to bill for services. They give the tours, do the public education demonstrations, and install the smoke detectors. They even test hydrants, handle inspections, do preplans, and change out apparatus in need of repair. They do a lot. What do we do? We command scenes, when necessary; but, how often is that?

Typically, our day is dominated by exception reports, time-off requests, calendar scheduling, staffing management, maybe delivering mail, attending meetings, and dealing with people – sworn and civilian. That’s our world. They have theirs, we have ours. They may not realize that without our world functioning, theirs won’t either. But it’s reciprocal.

They may not see what we do to keep the machine running as we, “the gears,” have things turning. But they are “the motor” that drives it, and support is the grease. Without grease, there’s friction that can greatly reduce the efficiency of the whole operation. Ineffective or halfhearted support is like having the wrong grease in place – it’s somewhat helpful but not really, and it might even be detrimental. How can it be detrimental? Halfheartedness says, “I know you have an issue, but I don’t really care enough to do something about it. However, I’ll put on an act and hope it means something.” Would you want your rapid intervention team to be halfhearted if they were coming to save you? Then don’t do it to your personnel. They deserve your support. Giving it to them will usually lead to their giving it to you – willingly.

Support from the Top Down

How do I support my personnel? If you have to ask this, you need more help than this article alone can give you. You should ask instead, “How can I better support my personnel?” In either case, first, treat them like adults. If you operate with the idea that you have to babysit your personnel, then you are doing it wrong.

Trust them. Set expectations. Hold them accountable. If they don’t do what they are supposed to, hold your line. Rules are rules, and being a pushover sets no boundaries. But understand that you may need some bend on occasion. You, your agency, your personnel, and your department’s culture will dictate when you can bend. But if you do, be consistent. Firm, fair, and consistent are the best tenets of solid leadership.

Be open-minded. When officers or firefighters make decisions that are outside the norm, ask them how they came about their choice before launching your predetermined judgment – you may be surprised. Perhaps they were unwise and need detailed guidance, but perhaps they had a few extenuating circumstances (unknown to you) that forced them into making the decision. Was the result achieved a success? Or did they upset you because they did it in a way that you wouldn’t have done it? Are you that arrogant to think your way is the only way?

Provide guidance. If they missed a factor or could have done something better, then here’s a golden opportunity to provide some guidance rather than chew them out. Perhaps some coaching will yield better future results.

Following are some additional ideas:

• Give them praise when deserved.
• Help them when they can use it – it might mean getting sweaty loading hose after a fire (remember those days?).
• Encourage training, and provide it if you see the need. You can even take part in the training so you keep in touch with how difficult (and fun) the job is.
• Embrace new ideas that make sense, and be willing to let them try out operational considerations (within reason or with the chief’s approval if necessary) to see if they will improve things. If nothing else, they can at least know they tried it to see if it worked or not.
• Be honest. You can’t tell the troops everything; but when you can, tell them something and be honest about it. If you don’t have the answer, encourage them to research it themselves, suggest that you and your firefighters research the question together, or offer to research it yourself and get back to them.
• Be wholehearted. Go to the department functions. If your department doesn’t have promotion and awards ceremonies, start them. Such recognition of your personnel doesn’t cost much to implement, but the yield can be very rewarding.
• Send a note of condolences or flowers when someone’s family member passes away; maybe even attend the service with a few other department personnel. The most basic thing is to treat them how you would want to be treated if you were in their shoes. Remember the Golden Rule? It came about for a reason. It applies to us just as it does to our families.

These are some thoughts and certainly not all that we can do. We want to do a lot for our family; after all, our fellow firefighters are our second family, right? Treat them accordingly. You’ll get what you give.

REFERENCES

Lasky, Rick. Pride & Ownership: A Firefighter’s Love of the Job. PennWell, 2006.

Lasky, Rick; Salka, John. Five Alarm Leadership: From the Firehouse to the Fireground. PennWell. 2013.

WALTER LEWIS has been involved with the fire service since 1990. He is a district chief in the Orlando (FL) Fire Department, where he has been a member for the past 21 years.

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