I have read several, recent articles that ponders whether firefighters and their fire departments function better with leaders/managers or strategists/tacticians.

There is an axiom out there that says “leaders can manage, but managers can’t lead”.

I guess that could happen if you were foolish enough to hire a fire chief with loads of management skills and no firefighting experience. But, in my management training over the years, I found it to be very beneficial to “know the product”.

But again, when city governments are scurrying to save money and fill funding gaps, while giving themselves raises, they will “combine” their public safety under one head and here’s a surprise…usually, it WON”T be the fire chief who is the public safety director. Of course, the city manager will tell you that they are the top dog anyway(Note: insert heavy sarcasm here).

I happen to be of the opinion that leaders in the fire service cannot rise to that lofty status without first mastering strategy and tactics.

After all, you don’t want to sit there like some wide-eyed kid and listen to the discussions on the pros and cons of a good knockdown; you want to LEAD those discussions. When a phenomenon occurs that raises questions in your most experienced people, you want to give them the answer or at least an explanation that leaves them nodding in agreement.

But, if you aspire to be a leader, where do you go to acquire the skill set? Which book do you read? Whose class or seminar will you take to emerge as a leader? When will you know that you have become a leader?

I have asked some pretty tough questions, eh?

I submit to you for your consideration that you CANNOT learn leadership.

Now; I have thought about this a lot and I suspect that there are many intangibles that goes into the development of a leader and there it is; leadership is developed; not learned!

We all have our personalities. Did we learn that which makes up our personality? Did we learn compassion, charity or our spirit of volunteerism?

If we learn to be leaders, then let me ask you this; was the smartest student in your high school class-your valedictorian-the leader of your high school class or was it someone who gave an unforgettable speech at graduation that you soon forgot?

Because a leader leaves an impact; an indelible and undeniable, emotional reference point from where you can gather an identifiable link to your character and LEADERS HAVE CHARACTER!

And if you were/are uncomfortable with leadership, then you aren’t there yet.

I can almost map my development, starting in the 6^th grade. I wanted to be in the Safety Patrol. Today, they call them crossing guards and adults volunteer their time. Back then (1963), kids did it. We got to wear a bright orange belt that went over the shoulder, then around the waist and snapped together. We didn’t have a stop sign, but we had to stand in the middle of the roadway, stop traffic and make it safe for the kids to cross the road. We “led” them to safety.

Then, it was on to jr. high school, where our coaches would lead us and look for athletes who were their captains on and off the playing field.

I played baseball as a catcher and the catcher was the leader on the field. I had to know the “book” on the opposing team, read scouting reports, know their weaknesses and call the game from behind the plate. I told the pitchers what pitches to throw and set our defense, all the while keeping the heads of teammates “in the game”.

Granted; there were many things that I had to learn, but they would have been worthless had I not developed it into a plan to defeat the other team.

I fervently believe that my early years-years spent with the opportunity to work with leaders-served me well when I entered the fire service.

And let there be no mistake; I have read volumes on management skills and stacks of books on strategies, tactics and yes; leadership.

Those books gave me perspective. They established a base of knowledge that I had to develop into workable plans to allow our fire department to execute and to complete our mission.

It created a belief in them to believe in me and for me to believe in them. That is what leaders do. They don’t lead the cheers; they lead their people.

With that accomplished, you are comfortable with your leadership and it doesn’t matter that your name isn’t spoken alongside the names of other leaders.

What matters is that you are respected by your men and women as their leader and that is a trust that is stronger than any binding on a book.

That is why I say that you cannot learn what isn’t taught.

And the payoff comes when YOUR leadership develops new leaders!

TCSS.

Art

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