Authoritative and situational leadership in fire service management

Fire Service Leadership and Ethics To be a successful leader in public safety one has to understand the how to respond in various situations and how to keep a team motivated so that they are ready to respond when the time comes. It is not going to be the kind of job that requires action every day. Instead, it requires a lot of preparation and training and maintaining a state of readiness for when the alarm bell rings. Individuals who join the fire service because they believe it will be one exciting moment after another like in the film Backdraft will likely find that the fire service is actually a lot of learning, a lot of preparation, and a lot of repetitive actions done over and over again to ensure safety of the team and safety of the public. The type of leadership required for this sort of work is one suited to motivating and suited to commanding.
Authoritative leadership and Situational leadership are the two types of leadership that can best apply in the realm of public safety. Authoritative leadership is also known as visionary leadership and it is best summed up in the two words: “Follow me.” The authoritative leader presents himself as the example for others to follow, but he also takes the time to explain what he is doing and how he is doing it. The Authoritative leader is different from the autocratic leader in that the latter mainly gives orders (which are needed) without giving the example. The Authoritative leader sets the stage for how to act by leading the way personally (Martinuzzi, 2019). So in the fire service, if a leader wants his personnel to be physically fit, he gives the example by running the track with them and setting the time in his own run that they need to be able to beat. He explains why it is important to stay fit and to be healthy and why the routine exercises and training facilitate the maintenance of readiness. Situational leadership is a style of leadership that focuses on adapting to the needs of the environment and the organization. Situational leaders have to be good at communicating, and they have to be flexible and capable of identifying the needs of any given situation quickly and thoroughly (Hersey & Blanchard, 1977).
The leadership approach that would likely be the least successful in public safety would be democratic leadership or servant leadership. The reason for this is that when it comes to public safety there is not time for making sure everyone feels involved in the decision making process or for the leader to provide one-on-one time to help each individual reach his fullest potential. There is a lot of work to be done in terms of passing on information, educating service members, and getting them in shape—and it requires a leader who can take charge, command respect, lead by example, communicate a vision, and motivate be speaking to the group as a whole. In a more corporate setting, democratic leadership or servant leadership might be more appropriate but in a real world setting where lives are on the line, there has to be a leader who knows what accountability means and who knows how to communicate that meaning to the service members so that they feel it as well.
My current Fire Chief is set to retire and has not been the kind of hands-on leader that service members look for and want in a Chief. He has delegated a lot of authority to others, which means service members are looking around for a leader, and some gravitate to one and others gravitate to another, which creates a problem of cliques and undermines the morale and unity of the squad overall. The Chief is not looking at the needs of the organization but rather at his own future and has thus adapted a semi-democratic style, allowing others to make decisions or to have a vote in how the fire service department is organized and operated. It is not a very successful method as it creates tension and uncertainty among the ranks.
The problem could be addressed by focusing on values and ethics within the department. For a leader to be successful, one of the best things he can do is focus on values and ethics as these essentially act as guideposts by which he can operate without fear of running off course or into a ditch. Values tell the department what concepts are important and what the department aims to achieve with its thinking and actions. Ethics provide the principles upon which the justification for how the department acts and thinks is based. So, for example, our Chief sets the bar low by his own example indirectly promotes indifference and fails to ensure that the service members are maintaining a state of readiness. That state of readiness is not valued. If the ethical principle of serving the community and saving lives is not constantly promoted, slack begins to build until the service members are lazy and out of shape and slow in their responses. This is a terrible state to be in for a fire department and it occurs because the leader has lost sight of the values and ethical principles that need to be communicated and promoted throughout the department.
My personal leadership approach is Authoritative: I believe in setting the example for others through my own actions because I think it is disingenuous and dishonest to ask or order others to do what you yourself do not or are incapable of doing. Actions speak louder than words, so when others see me working out and running the track they get the sense that these are some of the things that need to be done to be healthy and fit and ready to serve when the alarm bell rings. I believe in setting the bar high and motivating others to improve so that they can maintain the highest standards of discipline and training. I am flexible and can adapt to just about any situation by seeing what is needed. In this way, I act like a pacesetting leader because I instantly begin setting the pace for others to follow whatever the situation or requirements for the job may be (STU Online, 2019).
However, to be a successful motivator it is also important to have good people skills, and this is where my main weakness becomes apparent: I need to improve my relationship behaviors and improve my behavioral approach to leading. Because I am a task-oriented kind of person, I neglect the development of people skills—so building my emotional and social intelligence could help me when it comes to motivating and inspiring others with words. Actions speak louder than words—but that does not mean words are useless and without importance, and that is something I need to work on and be better about. Communicating a vision and motivating others to follow requires a total approach that includes behaving towards others in a positive and relational way that they can appreciate and that will show them that I care about them.
To improve my relational skills, I can join different associations so as to spend more time building relationships, sharing knowledge and information, and working with people rather than working by way of example. This would allow me to develop and improve my listening skills, my person-reading skills, and my ability to communicate effectively—all of which go into strengthening emotional and social intelligence skills (Bhalerao & Kumar, 2016). Understanding how emotion plays a part in dictating behavior can help me to better control my own emotions and to give others an example of how to control their emotions, too, so that we are using our emotional and social energy for a positive goal (Lerner, Valdesolo & Kassam, 2015). Joining associations and interacting with others can help me to develop the skills to build relationships as a leader by listening and sharing information, and providing supportiveness. However, I also believe I can have a positive impact on my organization by continuing to do what I do, which is to focus on the standards and getting my service department to focus on them, too. I have pushed for more paid staff members to improve readiness, and I have pushed for more emphasis on public safety by working with the city to get more funding for warning sirens throughout the community.
A problem area for me is the divide between my professional and personal life: at work, I am driven and motivated, but at home I just want to relax and let go of some of the stress. However, this is not fair to my family and I know it, so I need to apply another leadership style at home that is conducive to what I can do and what my family needs.