LEADING FROM THE FRONT

By Lloyd Ogan

In the HBO series “Band of Brothers”, an event is depicted that occurred during WWII on a battlefield in the European theater of war involving the 101st Airborne. It stirs the aspirations of leaders and potential leaders everywhere. Company Commander, Captain Dick Winters is seen charging across an open field. Several steps behind him is every soldier and non-commissioned officer of the 1st and 2nd Platoons of Easy Company. He charges a dirt works well in front of his entire command and runs down a lone SS German soldier and quickly dispatches him. This small band of soldiers took on and defeated two entire companies of Germany’s elite SS troops, behind enemy lines. Capt. Winters displayed great courage, valor and honor that day because he took the lead and literally took the point. The spear always flies true and runs deep if the point is razor sharp. Becoming sharp is not an accident.

It seems that there are some popular terms and notions being bandied about these days in the fire service like “leading from the front” and the “point of the spear”. Every leader, no matter their position, likes to fancy themselves walking tall into the throat of danger and extreme challenges with dedicated people close on their heels hanging on every order.

Leading from the front is a noble undertaking that should be the goal of every fire service leader. However, leading from the front is more than just a catchy phrase and public relations opportunity. It has nothing to do with resume building, and everything to do with organizational commitment.

How do we measure effective leadership? Today’s obsession with management by objectives has created all kinds of attempts to measure just about anything. Matrix’s have been developed and Gant charts created to visually display leadership. However, while these things may quantify leadership, but they do not qualify it. It seems that there is really only one way to qualify effective leadership — followership. If a leader does not have a significant percentage of their command as committed followers, some serious reevaluation needs to occur.

Followership is earned, not learned. Without it, you are just a manager and in that instance your most valuable assets, the people, are only things to be moved around on a sand board. They may as well be inanimate objects. This is probably the most critical mistake made by bureaucratically trained, public sector executives. It is easy to fall into this trap and only intentional effort will combat the tendency. Leadership courses everywhere these days include in their curriculums the reminder that managers manage things and leaders lead people. If decision making does not start with consideration of the people who deliver the service, then you are not leading, you are managing.

Effective leadership is not something that is academically learned. Please do not misunderstand that statement. Leadership is definitely a skill and character trait that can be developed. Fundamentals about leadership can, and should be gained in an academic setting by studying the case histories of those who have successfully and unsuccessfully demonstrated leadership. However, leadership is mostly learned in the proverbial trenches.

Learning to be a good leader starts in the academy. Attention to subject matter expertise in the basics is where it all begins. If you cannot be a subject matter expert in the basics of fireground tasks and tactics, you can never effectively lead with a committed followership. The credibility simply will not be there. In addition, a good leader maintains and develops that expertise throughout their career. Credibility also means remaining relevant. This may seem like an overly simplified element to address in a leadership document. However, failure to intentionally address this, is the death nell to committed followership.

We often see photos of fire chiefs, deputy chiefs and assistant chiefs in their turnout gear on an incident or at a training event. Public Information Officers commonly use these shots for public relations purposes. However, a picture of an officer in turnout gear does not demonstrate leadership. Leadership is not demonstrated by a series of compiled public relations images. Again, do not misunderstand this point. It is a good thing for the troops and the community to see their leader, but what is the motive for the images? They must be pure and authentic.

So, are there some simple, common sense ways to develop good leadership skills and create followership? They study of successful leaders seem to indicate that there are some components that are common among good leaders. Some of the critical components required to step into the role of being a good leader include:

1. A solid work ethic demonstrated during the journey to leadership.
2. Technical competency in the skills, knowledge and abilities of the fire service, and maintain them.
3. Unselfish demonstration of Organizational Commitment. You must live, breath, eat, and bleed the organizations Core, Mission and Vision as a way of life.
4. When the leadership opportunity comes, you cannot ride the desk chair to glory. You must lead from the field. The organizations people and the community must see their leader take the point as an advocate for them. You must be visibly present. It is called “Command Presence”.
5. You must be a continuous student of the game. You must strive to be a subject matter expert in the delivery of fire protection, EMS and rescue services. This is where your academic effort should be focused.
6. Communication. Leaders never leave their subordinates or their customers guessing. Do it regularly and substantively. Answer their questions.

The above components are not intended to be a comprehensive list, but, they will go to great lengths in fostering followership. The people who you lead must have confidence in your ability, skills and knowledge. Your commitment to the organization must be beyond question. You must be able to not only demonstrate the Core, Mission and Vision of the organization, but you must be able clearly articulate it inside and outside the department. How does all this look when it actually is put to the test?

When you are at a public event, you must be the leading voice of advocacy for the department and the profession. When you are at a commemorative event, you must take the lead, even if it is only largely symbolic. The organization has to see you in the lead. If you never take it, they will never follow. Servant leadership is a noble goal, but the core of that word is LEAD! When you are at a training event, and you should strive to attend at least one session of every delivery, PARTICIPATE! The fear of subpar performance keeps many department executives from participating. Give your people more credit than that, more benefit is realized from you participating than by any negatives from making a mistake. At least you were there, every time. It sends a subtle message that you will always be there at other times for them as well.

Whenever the organization has a critical incident, make every effort to respond. You don’t have to take command, but you must be there. When the public wants information, do not relegate it to someone else, you deliver it. When the media wants information, you deliver it. Your people and the community need to be reassured by the CEO that the organization is quickly and competently initiating a plan to bring calm into chaos.

Intentionally schedule time on a regular basis, at least once weekly, to spend time in the field visiting the fire stations. The best opportunities that create casual environments for dialogue are coffee, lunches or dinners with the crews. If the company gets a call for service while you are there, ride along with them to the incident. If the opportunity presents itself jump in and provide service yourself, demonstrating that you can still do the job you expect them to do. It also gives you the opportunity to see the policies and the equipment you are responsible for in action. There is no better way to determine their effectiveness than by using them yourself.

The bottom line is that leadership is not rocket science. It is learning the art of combining common sense, skill, knowledge, ability, passion, compassion, communication, experience, education, and science into an authentic package that inspires people to follow your lead, willingly. This is your Command, take it!

Now, lets go and lead the American fire service into the future.

-Lloyd Ogan is a retired Operations Deputy Chief with 33 years with the Sacramento Fire Department. He is also a consultant and teacher.