Page 11 - UFRA Straight Tip Spring 2021 - Volume 22 Issue 2

It’s time to emerge from the office and do a little ‘Leading by Driving Around’ to connect with members.
I have been blessed to work for some chiefs like this in the past. Yes, blessed. I was able to witness the incompetence and ineptness of their leadership, and it taught me that their actions were not true leadership.
LEADING BY DRIVING AROUND
Fire departments are not your typical business environment where the CEO may be in the same building as all the other employees.
Fire departments are decentralized, and firefighters can be widely dispersed in many work sites. And the larger the department and sta- tions, the more decentralized they are. The only exceptions to this is the single-station department where administration and all firefight- ers are in the same building.
The business world uses the management phrase Managing by Walk- ing Around (MBWA). In the case of fire departments, this would be Managing by Driving Around (MBDA). Still others advocate that the word “managing” should be replaced with the word “leading,” since we should be leading people and managing things like budgets, payroll and fleets. That means for us, the phrase is really Leading by Driving Around (LBDA).
As a chief, there are many advantages to Leading by Driving Around to fire stations and responding on calls. I know of chiefs, and I do it myself from time to time, who jump on an apparatus and respond on a call with the crew. I also know of chiefs, including myself, who will eat lunch and/or dinner with their firefighters, or maybe get some ramp time with them as they wind down after a day of training and chores.
These actions make you more approachable and create an opportunity for great discussions and communication.
Many problems I have confronted in the past were solved by smart firefighters who shared an ingenious way of solving the problem – some- thing that wouldn’t have been possible without open lines of communi- cation. I have always said, firefighters are smart. Give them a problem and they will find a solution. It is no different than any call. They are faced with a problem when they arrive on the scene, and they will find a solution to deal with the problem.
One of the keys to Leading by Driving Around is to listen and observe more than talk. You cannot hear and learn while your mouth is running.
I also suspect that you will hear things that will upset you or make you mad. Hearing what is wrong is sometimes tough for chiefs who think they run a pretty tight ship. My advice is to accept what you are hearing and gauge the quality of what you are hearing. If one person is saying something is wrong and no one else is, or it is something that will benefit
them personally, the quality of what they are saying is not of signifi- cance. However, if you are hearing the same problem over and over from multiple firefighters, that is something you should pay attention to and deal with.
Of course, during these unprecedented times of a pandemic, it is challenging to provide true Leadership by Driving Around. Purpose-
ful social distancing is recommended, making it difficult to visit your firefighters. However, chiefs these days are using Zoom, Microsoft Teams or other videoconferencing platforms. Some chiefs are recording video messages to their firefighters and sending them out via email or loading them into the training software. Some chiefs are still visiting stations, but the visits are limited to standing in the parking lot, with everyone wear- ing masks and remaining six feet apart.
LEARN FROM ALL THE CHIEFS AROUND YOU
I have learned many wonderful things about leadership from some amazing chiefs whom I have had the opportunity to work for and who took the time to coach and mentor me. They taught me to interact with my firefighters, get out of the office, and learn first-hand what is hap- pening. It will help you immensely in your leadership role. I am also extremely grateful for those socially distanced chiefs who showed me what NOT to do by their example.
Gary Ludwig is the fire chief of the ISO Class 1 Champaign (Illinois) Fire Depart- ment. He is the most recent past president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, having concluded his term in Au- gust 2020. He has 41 years of fire, rescue
and EMS experience. Ludwig started his career with the City of St. Louis at age 18, rising through the ranks and retiring as the chief paramedic of the St. Louis Fire Department after 25 years of service. He has also served 10 years as a deputy fire chief for the Memphis Fire Department. Ludwig previously served on the EMS Executive Board for the IAFC for 22 years, with six years as chair. He has a master’s degree in business and management, and has been a licensed paramedic for
over 39 years. Ludwig has written over 500 articles for almost every professional publication in the fire and EMS profession. He has also been invited to speak at over 250 professional EMS and fire conferences or seminars. His latest book is titled "Fully Involved Leadership." Ludwig has won numerous awards, including those for heroism, the James O. Page EMS Leadership Award (2014) and the IAFC EMS Section’s James O. Page Achievement Award (2018). He is a member of the FireRescue1 Editorial Advisory Board. Connect with Ludwig on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
Originally posted on FireRescue1.com on November 10, 2020. Reprinted with permission.
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