As Firehouse Sees It: Restoring Faith and Trust Within Departments

Trust is the foundation of any effective group or organization, and fire departments are no exception. There’s a reason why the public recognizes firefighters as the most trusted people in our country year after year. They call 9-1-1, and you show up to handle their situation, no matter what. If you can’t handle it, you dial a friend (mutual-aid organization) to bring the specialized training, skills and resources to resolve the problem.

Who does the fire service call when help is needed?

Passive aggression
After an email exchange with a reader about his department, we talked on the phone for a bit about his department’s most challenging situation: the department’s leadership, with problems at every level. The lack of trust within the organization was top down and bottom up. The members’ lack of faith in their leadership had gone public by way of social media posts.

The reader shared how firefighters post their grievances about department leadership after each shift. Some posted about the lackluster leadership skills of the top chiefs, others about their assigned or covering officers.

When I asked whether the members took their concerns directly to the leaders before they posted to social media, his response was, “I don’t believe so, but it’s already well known in the department that [the officers] are not prepared.”

I laughed and said, “Listen, I lived in the Midwest for a while, so I understand passive-aggressive, and this is an example.”

I get it. We go to social media to air our grievances, complaints and politics. We already know “thoughts and prayers” comments rarely help any situation, but what good does someone in the Northeast sharing a comment about a company officer in the Pacific Northwest really do? Although the posts might generate some ideas to mediate the issues, it isn’t putting water on the seat of the fire to help to bring the situation under control.

Restoring faith
Last year, I had the opportunity to attend a leadership development program by a lesser-known instructor who teaches with passion and drive. Each time that the instructor asked whether the attendees had particular issues in their organization, hands shot up. When he asked them to share what they did to try to overcome the situation, no hands went up, and he put them in that uncomfortable position: He called on them to share feedback. Surprisingly, most said that they talked to others about the person and the problem but never faced the person directly.

Of course, some leaders are in a position because of political popularity or as a favor, but with some hard facts and materials to back it up—because their bosses likely are data-driven—there’s hope that leadership can be trusted, and that faith can be restored.

The reality is, restoring faith and trust within fire departments isn’t an overnight process. That said, it is achievable through open communications, transparency and hard work from both sides. Accountability and clear policies also go a long way, as does having people in place to answer questions about both.

In a speech, well-known author Stephen Covey said, “Contrary to what most people believe, trust is not some soft, illusive quality that you either have or you don’t; rather, trust is a pragmatic, tangible, actionable asset that you can create.”

As a chief/officer, start the new year with an honest assessment of your organization by having a top-down and bottom-up look at leadership, culture and communication. Look for the root cause of problems and solicit solutions.

For firefighters, start an email if face-to-face communication won’t be effective. Outline the issues and then add ideas. After all, firefighters are known as the problem solvers.

Even if you start on this organizational reset today, it’ll take months before things move in the right direction. However, channeling that effort internally instead of externally is the first step to success.