‘Becoming engaged with the team and allowing them room to develop is one sure way to build and strengthen the dynamic for success and the never ending road towards excellence.’

I have spent many years observing the plethora of leadership methods used by individuals as they clamber their way up the promotional ladder to aspire to the greatness that is embodied in the title of Chief Fire Officer or Fire Chief. Most of these methods have been carefully cultivated using a combination of guidance and mentoring from peers already undertaking a similar journey and from what can be taken from the many publications and literary masterpieces from the likes of Jack Welch, Patrick Lencioni and the internationally recognised father of all, Abraham Maslow.

Many of these up-and-coming officers place their faith in being able to adapt their persona to a particularly admired style whether it be from a colleague who has already achieved or is on their way to stature or from a publication which has been adopted by their organisation with many of its prophecies cut and pasted into PowerPoint presentations and used as an influencing tool.

Leaders in Fire Service circles are faced with many dilemmas whether it be directing movement and operations at incidents, motivating and encouraging performance improvements for skills or providing counselling and advice to team members in support of their activities to name but a few.

To do this they have to be engaged with those they lead and not be remote and unavailable for valuable enabling and direction setting. Leading by interface and engagement is far more productive than distant commanding and puts the leader in the center of the situation to provide that valuable advocacy. This philosophy works through all levels of the Fire Service organisation by each leader understanding the required mindset for effective engagement.

The leader who engages with their subordinates is the leader who understands the issues which affect the organisation through their people and can differentiate between the varieties of work and the messy reality of what is actually going on.

In my experience it is common that some less engaged leaders have a perception that work as imagined is an accurate reflection of what their teams are busy with in line with the work as prescribed. In fact, generally the case is that the work as disclosed ends up as the work as done and differs from the former which puts the non-engaged leader in a situation where whilst he thinks he knows what is going on, he actually doesn’t.

In practice, a leader who cares about and provides support to his teams is a people centric leader who sees the bigger picture and makes sure they understand what is facing their teams. Even if their style is rough and or abrasive the fact they appear to be interested enough in what’s going on provides the teams with confidence to achieve results. In the face of adversity, when stress levels are high during fire incidents a people centric leader has established trust and rapport with the team which fills them with the belief in their abilities to succeed.

This leader knows when and how to coach individuals and provide them with support and advocacy instilling desired levels of confidence to push the boundaries of accomplishment which in turn will lead to safe, effective operations resulting in saved lives, protected property and mitigation of damage by fire.

Of course, some may argue that this “touchy, feely” way of leadership may lead to lack of discipline or too much emphasis on how the needs of the team is put above the needs of the task. This type of traditional approach or autocratic style should have its place in leadership traits and values but in my opinion, which is based on experience gained over a number of years, this type of approach has produced much more successful results than a traditional observer centric leader.

One of the defining skills of a people centric leader is to be able to decide when it is appropriate to challenge his team both courageously and effectively. This skill is not found to be easy amongst many aspiring leaders but is essential to maintain both trust and reputation in the leader and to maintain positive motivation within and outside the team.

Nobody ever said the journey to successful leadership was easy, however, becoming engaged with the team and allowing them room to develop is one sure way to build and strengthen the dynamic for success and the never ending road towards excellence.

About the IFSJ Influencer

Sinclair Duffie, currently serving as Team Leader at Nawah since 2018, has a distinguished career beginning in 1983 with the Scottish Fire Service. He transitioned to ADNOC in 2012, focusing on incident response planning. A veteran with over three decades of experience, Duffie is active in the Middle East conference circuit and resides in Al Dhannah city, Abu Dhabi.

This article was originally published in the December 2023 issue of International Fire & Safety Journal. To read your FREE digital copy, click here.