Leadership Lessons: The Legacy You Paint Is Your Fire Service Tattoo

I recently retired after a 47-year journey in the volunteer and career fire service ranks, including the past 26 years as chief of department in two career organizations. During this time, I witnessed many firefighters and fire officers leave their position. Reasons included retirement, age limits, relocation, enhanced opportunities and the routine “timing was right” justification. When my time to turn over the reins approached, I had numerous insightful conversations with these individuals that uncovered how they viewed their time “on the job,” how others viewed their career and whether they were content with the legacy that they left behind. What I found was intriguing.

Legacy is the long-lasting effect of particular events, behavior and actions. It’s the mark that’s left after walking out the door the last time. Your legacy will be an irreversible impression of personal and organizational accomplishments; ability to influence, mentor and train others; and fireground competency, leadership abilities and concern for people. A legacy is built over the years, not overnight, and it follows you forever. It will be written by the firefighters who you served, not you. You will be remembered as others see you.

You can’t go back and change the way that you have been judged, so be careful of the actions and attitude that you display. You will be evaluated daily. Your legacy will be written without you even knowing.

Firefighters who have positive legacies become legends whose prominence gets engrained into the culture and daily work environment. Those whose legacies are written in the negative are forgotten.

Your legacy will be the fire service tattoo that you will wear for the rest of your life. You will paint it. You will own it. How do you want to be remembered? The choice is yours.

Building a positive legacy

After taking a deep dive into the word legacy itself, I found that each letter of the word—L-E-G-A-C-Y—serves to provide the personal and professional qualities, actions, behaviors and attitude that one should follow—as well as the positive and negative legacies of firefighters and fire officers with whom I worked along with the personal experience that I acquired guiding hundreds of firefighters during my career.

Lead

Being recognized as a leader in today’s fire service is no easy task. It takes years to assemble the knowledge, skills and competencies that are required to build and sustain a legacy of leadership.

This leadership comes at all levels. It’s formal and informal. It’s the senior members, company officers, chief officer and firefighters who are respected for their service before self-attitude and their ability to develop followers through constant influence and mentorship. They “set the example” and demand competency and excellence in every task. They exhibit courage and move with purpose and confidence.

These leaders are trusted, accountable and responsible. They understand absolute ownership during good times and bad. They support the department’s mission and vision of excellence and demonstrate superior levels of teamwork on and off the fireground. Developing outstanding department culture is their purpose. Personal and professional development is their focus. They build legacy moments at every opportunity and never ask for anything in return. They understand how to treat people and have an elevated level of concern for everyone around them.

Individuals who are judged as legacy leaders leave a lasting imprint on everyone who they meet. Author and leadership trainer Simon Sinek’s quote says it best: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

Educate

Firefighters who leave a positive legacy work tirelessly to ensure that they’re aware of and maintain a familiarity with state-of-the-art fire service techniques, systems and technology. They embrace formal and informal education to improve their competency and understanding of the job.

Networking, learning from others, and attending conferences and training events to improve personal job skills is their promise. Participating in department training and sharing experience and knowledge are fundamental principles of their desire to ensure organizational excellence on and off the fireground.

They know the importance of certifications and fully endorse professional and personal development. Their progressive approach and inclusive endorsement of fire service education unlocks the talent and ability of those who wish to follow them.

Guide

During my time in the fire service, I  worked with several forward-thinking and unprejudiced firefighters and fire officers who served daily as a role model. The visionary guidance that they provided was both personal and professional. These enlightened individuals fully understood and championed the benefits that are gained through the long-term support, advice and direction that’s given while mentoring others; the returns that are captured by coaching people to reach particular goals; and the problem-focused support that’s given while they counsel peers on the potential struggles of life as a firefighter.

“How is your family?” and “thank you” became, respectively, the start and end to every one of their conversations.

They possessed elevated levels of job knowledge, emotional intelligence, inclusion and compassion and were exceptional at developing lasting, trusted relationships.

They showed deep care and concern for others and their family and made themselves available, at times to their own detriment. Others knew that they cared. They set the bar for a people-first mindset.

Accomplish

When people join the fire service, they do so with good intentions and the familiar goal of “helping others and serving the community.” Although these undoubtedly are valid ambitions for a probationary firefighter, as time goes by, certain members become more captivated by what goes on around them both organizationally and operationally. These firefighters take the opportunity to become more inquisitive and set newfound personal and professional goals. Informal and formal education, enhanced job knowledge, promotion, resolving organizational challenges and accepting additional responsibilities become their focus. They take on and complete projects that improve operational safety and administrative functions and become go-to people who never say no to a project. They become mission-driven champions of the organization. They never ask for praise and always think of the team first and repeatedly empower others to become involved. Their adopted attitude of “committed action for the greater good,” along with the organizational accomplishments, improvements and enhancements that they complete, affirm the positive legacy that they will enjoy.

Communicate

The ability to understand and apply the fundamentals that are contained in effective communication is an art that can be difficult to acquire. Individuals who master this are known for their proficiency at expressing themselves in an honest and respectful manner. They don’t hold back discussions that are centered on improvement or conflict resolution. They know when to give compliments and when to have private discussions. They are clear, concise and compassionate and never show disrespect when they speak.

Like good mentors, good communicators have elevated levels of emotional intelligence and are keenly aware of their audience and the environment in which they speak. They recognize major differences between fireground and firehouse communication and are adept at utilizing their voice, tone, hand signals and facial expressions to get their point across. They never use anger in their spoken words. One of their best assets is the full attention and active listening that they give to others.

Their ability to communicate respectfully and with concern contribute to the positive legacy that they will leave behind.

You

An individual’s character and personality are major driving forces of the type of legacy that they leave upon departing the fire service. Although these two personal traits are aligned closely, there’s a separation between them that needs clarity.

Character is about values and beliefs. Its foundation is built on upbringing, life experience, friends, associates and morals. It’s the inner qualities that people collect throughout their personal and professional lives. These righteous values include loyalty, trust, honesty, respect, integrity, humility, responsibility and compassion.

Personality is about one’s temperament, thoughts, emotions and behaviors. Some of these favorable mannerisms include confidence, competency, consistency, patience, discipline, courage, decisiveness and composure. Firefighters who possess and share these exceptional personal qualities establish themselves as an individual who is attentive, experienced, honorable and accomplished. The way that they treat others and the superior personal qualities that they display make others want to work for them, follow them and emulate them.

Your last day

There are many professional and personal qualities, traits and behaviors that people must follow and apply if they are to build a positive legacy. Here is a bit of advice: Start early, be trusted, stay humble, train, commit, set the example, mentor, treat people right and always remember actions speak louder than your words.

When it’s your time, assessing the type of legacy that you left will be simple. Look at your last day at work or your planned retirement event. If 200 people show up to say thank you and to wish you well, your legacy is positive. If 10 people show up it’s negative. Only you can make the choice.