The founder of one of the most effective companies in the world once said, “Courage is the main quality of leadership.” That man was Walt Disney. Another acknowledged scholar in the business and the non-profit world, Peter Drucker noted in The Effective Executive that to be effective in any organization, one should always keep in mind the word “contribution.”

As a former fire commissioner, passionate advocate for the fire service, and member of the Walt Disney Co., I would like to contribute some observations, perspective and direction for the organizational effectiveness of the fire service community.

Janet Wilmoth's editorial in February, “The Top 100,” spoke to the possible measurements of a great fire department, intimating the need for a way to determine the quality of a fire and life safety organization. There are approximately 38,000 fire departments in this country. Many of them are great fire departments. I've seen them myself, and they don't have to be large to be great. But every one of them requires great leadership to be effective, to carry out the mission every citizen in their jurisdiction expects: the safety of themselves and their property.

The preamble to the U.S. Constitution states that every citizen is entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” I like to believe that the fire service protects that first right — life — so every citizen can enjoy the other two. If we all believe that this country possesses many great fire departments that are fulfilling their mission every day, then why does the United States continue to have the dubious distinction of having the worst record of fire loss in lives and property in the Western world?

In the end, the measurement of the effectiveness of any person, organization or business will be the ability to fulfill its mission. This year we've seen a disturbing increase in multiple deaths in house fires from various parts of the country. Could this mean that we have hit a plateau in our ability to stem the fire problem?

Ultimately, the question is a simple one. Who has the courage to lead the fire service to fulfill its mission while creating its own future, all for the good of our citizens?

Leading a noble cause

Some years ago, a USA Today poll showed that the fire department held the trust of its citizens second only to family members. I'm sure that holds true today. What elements help a fire service organization keep that trust and fulfill its mission? This is not an easy question because it requires understanding how the mission may change and how the organization and the fire service may need to change to continue to fulfill the mission. As Stephen Covey would say, “Make sure your ladder is leaning against the right wall.”

The phrase “300 years of tradition unimpeded by progress” also comes to mind. We need to just take the best parts of that phrase, the words that can lead us forward: tradition and progress.

When I was a fire commissioner for a small but mighty department in Woodinville, Wash., I always felt that as fire commissioner I had not only the wonderful responsibility of taking care of the citizens' safety, but of taking care of the firefighters and officers who took care of the citizens. So who or what organization ensures the same thing is being done for the fire service as a whole?

There are many fire service organizations in this country with many missions; in most cases, the departments have too much work and not enough resources to carry them out. In the end, however, shouldn't the measurement of these organizations' success be the fulfillment of the mission to keep citizens safe from fire and the multitude of other emergencies? Just as important, shouldn't one of the key indicators of organizational success be the satisfaction of those who the organization leads: the fire service community and the members of the organization?

Naturally, none of this can be achieved if those who are responsible for the development and operation of the organization don't have the resources and leadership to achieve the mission. This means that much of the organization's effectiveness depends on optimizing the strengths of its members while minimizing their weaknesses. If you think about it, an organization is one of the few entities with the ability to do this. Those companies and non-profit organizations that do this well accomplish extraordinary things; I've observed it in great fire departments and I experience it every day at the Walt Disney Co.

The problem

The way to organizational effectiveness lies in the strength of a few key things done extremely well that are derived from effective leadership. I don't mean to insinuate that it is easy, but it's not as complex as one might believe.

The first step in this journey is to make sure that the ladder is indeed leaning against the right wall. This means making certain that our mission makes sense and is current and achievable. The fire service retains one of the most significant and noble missions, to protect our citizens from the ravages of fire gone out of control, but that mission has expanded considerably since Ben Franklin founded the first fire department so many years ago.

Since the 1973 publication of America Burning, we have made some significant strides in reducing fatalities with the leadership of a number of fire protection organizations, as well as from a number of legislative and technological advances.

Still, according to the 2000 report, America Burning Recommissioned, “America has the highest fire losses in terms of both frequency and total losses of any modern technological society.” Specifically, according to the National Fire Protection Association, in 2003 fire in the United States resulted in the loss of 3,925 lives, $14.5 billion dollars and approximately 100 firefighters and caused 18,000 injuries. Think about these fatalities and injuries another way. Imagine two fully loaded 747 jumbo jets crashing in a head-on collision with everyone onboard dying — every month for every year. Now imagine a third of the nation's gross national product burning up annually. A fire occurs in this country every 80 seconds, and about 10 people die each day from fire — that's how bad it is.

In a certain sense we have come to expect this as part of the ongoing struggle of our mission. When citizens see house fires on the news a few times a week, they believe these fires to be normal occurrences. But compared to many other countries in Western Europe and Japan, they aren't. That is why we continue to have a significant fire problem in the United States.

The U.S. fire service has a suppression mentality. We are an action-oriented service, yet suppression is only one part of the service we deliver — suppression is a catch-up game at best. We are ingenious in our methods to acquire a new piece of apparatus through grants or municipal budgets, but our efforts are misdirected. We invest in the status quo because of the continued myopic view we have of our mission. Why not apply that same ingenuity and investment to prevention, sprinkler legislation, engineering and public education? Our citizens, our customers, will thank us for it.

We know the exhilaration we feel after we have made a rescue or knocked down a fire initially out of control. But how do the people who experienced the fire feel in its aftermath? They don't share in our glory; they just wish it had never happened. That's the point. Our job is to try to make certain it never happens. I will make you a wager that the mission statement of most fire departments includes prevention and education.

It all begins with mission

A mission statement should drive all of the activities in any organization. The core of the mission usually is an action verb and gives the members of the organization a way to make decisions. It also serves as a way to measure the direction and results of the organization's actions. How much of your department's budget is dedicated to prevention and public education?

This brings us to leadership and the courage to do what our mission tells us. Do we have the strength of leadership to embrace the very reasons for our existence? Much of this has to do with the way we see ourselves, our image. The fantastic thing about being a firefighter is that it is such a noble profession, including in its ranks some of the brightest, strongest and kindest people in our society. It's a calling, and every firefighter can become a leader in that calling. We need to view ourselves not only as the intelligent leaders we can become but also as the marshal of all resources to protect our citizens and communities from all harm in a total fire and life-safety system.

Viewing our mission from that perspective opens the world to us when acquiring talent and fiscal resources while attacking all of those safety issues for which we are and can become responsible. It is a job for a courageous organizational leader who can weave the traditions of our profession into the realities of the future. Nowhere is this more important than for those very few international fire service organizations that could have the ability to take us there.

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Ben May has been involved in fire and emergency services marketing management for the past 15 years. He has served as a firefighter for Montgomery County (Md.) Fire and Rescue and fire commissioner for the Woodinville (Wash.) Fire and Life Safety District. May holds a bachelor's degree in public affairs from the University of Oklahoma and a master's degree in international communication from the American University in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the National Society of Executive Fire Officers, the Society of Fire Protection Engineers, The Institution of Fire Engineers, the Florida Fire Chiefs Association and the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes. May is responsible for business development for Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort.