Marine, Airborne, Ranger, Firefighter: The Case for Effective Small Unit Leadership in the Fire Service.
The fire service has failed in its responsibility to train its company officers. To that end this class is a discussion about one critical aspect of a company officer’s development, leadership. More specifically the fundamental characteristics of the specific type of leadership skills needed for the company officer in the fire service, small-unit leadership. We aren’t going to talk about General Mattis, Schwarzkopf, or Patton. We are going to talk about what a young Corporal or Sergeant does to effectively lead a fire-team, a group of four, a number similar to what comes off the rig at oh-dark in anywhere America, responding to a 911 call with limited information, compressed timelines, and insufficient resources. Those traits and skills needed to transition between direct supervision and task-level action are the absolute bedrock for success on the street. And make no mistake, success on the street does not happen without success in the firehouse, and that’s where leadership begins.
Without an effective model to educate the linchpin for the entire fire service delivery model we will see failure on the street and in the firehouse. And when we look at models for the type of leadership needs specific to our industry, the military provides a compelling prototype from which we could learn. This is not to say that they are perfect. The military has had spectacular failures in leadership. But for all those failures are countless other successes, and with the high regard the fire service holds for our brothers and sisters in uniform, it would seem an easy fit for us to try and duplicate what they offer. But it isn’t. The simplest explanation and that while we love what the military does on television and in the movies, we don’t want to put in the work that it takes to make those Hollywood moments happen. We just want the cool part, not the sweat, blood and tears part that happens every day without a camera crew present. So the purpose of the class is to talk about the fundamental characteristics of the specific type of leadership skills needed for the company officer in the fire service, small-unit leadership. We aren’t going to talk about General Mattis, Schwarzkopf, or Patton. We are going to talk about what a young Corporal or Sergeant does to effectively lead a fire-team, a group of four, a number similar to what comes off the rig at oh-dark in anywhere America, responding to a 911 call with limited information, compressed timelines, and insufficient resources. Those traits and skills needed to transition between direct supervision and task-level action are the absolute bedrock for success on the street. And make no mistake, success on the street does not happen without success in the firehouse, and that’s where leadership begins.
Learning objectives:
- Understand the history of military leadership, the evolution of small unit leadership, and its parallels to the fire service
- Define and distinguish between leadership traits, styles, skills and principle
- “Borrow” some leadership concepts from the military
- Discuss the importance of the effective follower
- Compare/contrast the military model for effective small unit leadership to the needs of the fire service
- Identify clearly what effective firehouse leadership looks like and doesn’t look like
- Introduce a leadership “thing”