Creating and Inspiring Exceptional Fire Department Leaders

By Dennis Compton

Competent fire officers of all ranks are critical to the success of a fire department. It's hard to single out a particular rank and say that those members' performances as leaders are more (or less) critical than those of other ranks. It would be a mistake for senior fire department officers or others in organizations to underestimate, or undervalue, the role that all fire officers play within the mission. Their leadership, management, supervision, and overall job performance impact the members of the fire department every day in all aspects of the department's work. Their technical competence, people skills, attitude, and commitment have a direct effect on performance outcomes, morale, culture, and the overall work environment. Whether they're called lieutenants, captains, chiefs, or whatever, the role of the fire officer is of great value to the organization. They are the fire department's formal leaders, and the organization is simply not going to excel without their commitment to excellence.

We could easily go to a textbook or the Internet and capture a list of positive fire officer skills and characteristics. Each of them would have importance and should be among our list of expectations of all leaders. We should train on the content of that list, and those items should certainly be part of the criteria for evaluating fire officer performance. However, there are some key characteristics and capabilities of exceptional fire officers that are worth visiting on a regular basis. Within that context, following are some of my observations about exceptional fire officers I've known: