Fire Chief Asked, “Does Leadership Ever Get Easier?”
Approximately 40% of CEO’s fail in performance expectations within their first 18 months on the job. Zippia analyzed 2110 Fire Chiefs’ resumes and found 28% of those chiefs remained in their position less than 2 years. So, does leadership get easier?
Leadership is the topic of millions of books. Leadership is abstract. It is fluid. It is ever-changing. And once you think you have it figured out, you are probably in trouble.
I ended a coaching call recently with a fire chief, who asked me one simple question. In fact, he already knew the answer, but still asked me the question.
He asked, “Does leadership ever get easier?”
Although it is a simple question, the answer is not simple nor straightforward. The answer is quite abstract. But, is this surprising? If leadership is abstract, then any question on leadership will tend to be abstract as well.
My quick answer to the Chief was, no. Yet, I wanted to say yes. It makes sense to say yes.
In fact, why would anything get harder over time? Things should always get easier, right? There might be some reasons to explain the confusion of easier and harder in regards to leadership.
Let’s take a shot at it.
3 Reasons Why Leadership Gets Easier
Leadership can be easier in many ways. Over time, leaders can become more efficient and productive in roles and responsibilities.
Below are the three reasons how and why leadership does actually get easier:
- Your Competency Increases – As in any skillset, the more you practice or exercise it, the more efficient you become at the skill. Leadership skills get fine-tuned when exercised. Leaders may never become great at all leadership skills, but their competency in a certain set of skills will make leadership easier.
- Your Confidence Increases – Where competency increases, confidence follows close behind. You could even debate whether competency or confidence comes first. Either way, confidence in leadership increases when you work on it. You know your skill set, your management ability, your understanding of personnel, and much more. Confidence is to know and that knowledge allows you to operate in a leadership role faster and with more conviction. All great leaders have confidence in their abilities.
- Your Capacity Increases – Where leaders grow, capacity expands. Leaders who are competent and confident, can stretch out their capacity to do more, influence more, and lead more. Great leaders grow in their capacity. The amount of tasks and personnel they can lead individually and collectively expands with their growth.
3 Reasons Why Leadership Gets Harder
Leadership complexity is subjective. Nevertheless, since we looked at why leadership is easier, let’s examine the harder side of leadership.
Leadership faces challenges every day. Challenge means a stimulating task or problem. Leadership provides many stimulating tasks multiple times a day. The only question left to understand leadership challenges are the weight of stimulus for each task/problem.
Below are the three reasons how and why leadership gets harder:
- Leadership Responsibility Expands – Whenever you improve your ability, you naturally are given more responsibility. Sometimes your job will increase in responsibilities or maybe you get promoted. People who are efficient and productive in one area will be given more. This is one reason why leadership never gets easier. Those who experience leadership becoming easier are the ones who are more productive and efficient in their roles. Productivity and efficiency invites expanded responsibility.
- Weaknesses Get Exposed – Once a leader improves a certain set of leadership skills, other skills will be needed to achieve a new level of success. Growing leaders will always encounter new skills because growth exposes underdevelopment. Leaders will move from skill awareness to skill development. For example, when you improve your communication ability, you might realize your presenter skills lack efficiency. Growth will always expose areas of weakness or opportunity.
- Leadership Involves People – Outside of leading self, all other leadership involves people. Most leaders grow and develop their skills in empathy and relationship management on their path to leadership development. And while this will make leaders better and more effective at leading people, all people are different. Not only are behaviors and personalities different from person to person, everyone has different triggers, memories, phobias, and biases driving their actions. No matter how good you get at leadership, people will always be one of the greatest challenges you will have as a leader. As long as leadership involves people, leadership will always be challenging and never easy.
Leadership for Fire Chiefs Will Always Get Harder – “Talking to you, Chief!”
No Fire Chief I have coached, talked to, or interviewed ever took on the assignment because of its ease.
In fact, if you were told, “After a year as a Fire Chief, you will be able to coast.” I don’t believe you or any other Fire Chief would have accepted the assignment. Firefighters are fighters in nature and nurture. You went into the fire service because of the great mental, physical, and emotional challenges. Chief, you have the fight in your blood and you were trained to fight. You don’t just fight fires, you fight injuries, you fight loss, you fight stress, you fight family challenges, and you fight the next difficulty presented to you as a Chief.
So no, leadership in the fire service will not only get easier. People will lie, cheat, and betray you. Systems and protocols you created will erode inefficiencies. The apparatuses will fall apart. Teams, crews, and battalions will fight, backstab, and divide.
But would you have it any other way? Your job will never be done. The people, members, support staff, and customers will always need your help in different ways. While you have grown and developed as a leader and as a Fire Chief, your job has gotten harder and is tasking you to rise up. Raise your leadership to another level. Bring your people to the next tier of ability and capability.
Fire Chief, leadership may get easier, but it will also get harder. And that is why you will succeed!
