Embracing Daily Gratitude: Honoring John This Thanksgiving Season, Day 2

Today I am grateful for John's leadership.

John made the transition into the chief's role at FBFD amid significant difficulties, tension, and personnel issues. To say that it was a rough season within the department was an understatement. There was quite a mess to clean up, and once some of those issues were sorted out, his mission became figuring out how to start from a clean slate.

Anytime you take a leadership position, especially the role of a chief, you automatically get a target placed on your back. When you are a leader trying to make a change, the darts thrown your way seem bigger and more damaging. Change is always challenging, even when the change is needed to alleviate pain and suffering. He was willing to take the arrows if it meant to bettering our department in order to serve our community with excellence.

John took his leadership position seriously. He was very much a black-and-white type of person, so policies and guidelines were important to him. Even though he didn't always come off this way, he genuinely and deeply cared for the men and women under his watch. He wanted to make sure everyone returned to the station and home as healthy as when they stepped on the rig. That meant training and response revolved around policies and guidelines.

He was the type of leader who was willing to be in the foxhole with the rest of his crew. He was not one to give orders and then step away, letting them figure out how to carry them forward. He was never going to ask his people to do something that he wasn't willing to do himself. He tried to model that often. If he was going to require his crew to take a training, he was going to take the training first. If he wanted to use a specific type of strategy on the fireground, you better believe he knew everything about that strategy or tactic. He didn't expect someone to give or do more than he required of himself.

John also did not care if his first responders were career or volunteer; he wanted them to excel and to be as educated and experienced as possible. He required a high level of training, which ruffled some feathers and caused considerable angst. He wanted to ensure that his volunteers were just as well-trained as career firefighters and could stand side-by-side with them on an incident and know that they were just as knowledgeable. Education and knowledge building were what he was most passionate about, and he set the tone for that when he took the leadership role. Again, there were lots of hard feelings at first, but in the end, many of the firefighters felt more sure, steady, and confident in their skills.

John was the type of leader who would be the first one in, the last one to leave, and the last person to eat. While he knew he had to improve his communication skills, the door to his office was always open. He was always willing to listen. He was always willing to offer grace, as long as you were willing to put the work in to be better and do better. He wanted to mentor, he wanted to educate, and he wanted to serve.

I can honestly say that on the day he died, you could look at the department and tell that because of his efforts, it was in a much better place. He left it better than he found it. I learned a lot from his leadership style and I hope that I can carry his leadership legacy forward in some meaningful way.