I Shall Return

"We feel that it is in the best interest of the department that you should be transferred to Station 6 B Shift. We believe that you are ready to have a command of you own. Further we feel, after careful examination of the other candidates, you are best suited for this assignment. We will be placing a recently promoted Captain at Station 2 so that he may receive the same excellent guidance that you, yourself, have repeatedly stated that you have benefited from."

That's pretty much how the conversation went. It's one of those compliments that you don't ask for.

So for those of you that don't know it yet, I have been transferred from Station 2 in Brookhaven. My new station is Station 6 which is near Flat Shoals Road and I-20.

The change in assignment has weighed heavy on my poor brain for the last week. I have always worked on the north side of the county, and for the last two years I have enjoyed the cushion of working with a senior captain who could guide and help me when I needed it. I am unfamiliar with the territory and the south side of the department is often referred to as a separate department entirely.

The change in assignment brought to mind a scene from a movie. More about that in a second.

Saturday night, Paula and I met David, Tonya, and Brian at the Fox Sports Grill to watch Georgia play. By the end of the night David and I were talking about my new assignment and the nature of leadership. I commented that, "if asked I could not define what makes a good leader."

But as we talked more I realized that I have stored away a few moments from different movies that all relate to leadership (at least in my mind.) So here goes.

1. The scene I mentioned before that popped in my head was from Saving Private Ryan. Captain Miller (Hanks' character) is instructed to take a squad of men on a special detail and that the rest of his men will be folded into other companies. His sergeant, upon hearing this, remarks to the effect that, "they took your company away from you?" to which Captain Miller responds, "It wasn't my company. It was the Army's." It's hard for me to explain, but even though I feel a very close bond with everyone at Station 2, I still understand and agree with what Captain Miller expressed.

2. Another scene from a movie that seems to pop up into my mind consistently while at work is from the film Zulu. For those that are not familiar, Zulu is about a small British outpost of 100 soldiers in Africa that was attacked by 4,000 Zulu soldiers in the latter part of the 19th century. It is a dramatization of a true story. At the beginning, as the soldiers realize the impending battle before them and make preparations, there is a power struggle between the two senior men in the outpost. One of the officers has seniority by only a few months but uses it to take charge of the defenses. A little while later he asks the other officer for assistance enforcing his commands and the exchange goes like this:

Lieutenant John Chard: You didn't say a thing to help, Bromhead.
Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead: Well, when you take command, old boy, you're on your own. One of the first things that the general - my grandfather - ever taught me.

I've always remembered that and think of it often as a reminder to take all of the blame but pass along all of the praise.

3. The third scene comes from the movie U571. About halfway through the film, the crew of a US submarine finds themselves in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in a German U-Boat with highly coveted code encryption machines which might win the war for the Allies. The man in charge is the Chief Executive Officer of another submarine, which was very suddenly destroyed earlier. When the remaining men begin to question his judgment he replies, "I don't know." His second in command, a salty Harvey Keitel, takes the skipper to the side and chews his officer out saying that words like those can kill a crew. He reminds the skipper that an officer is all-knowing and someone to be feared. He says, "you're the skipper now. And the skipper always knows what to do whether he does or not."

I am always cautious and would prefer to wait until I have amassed sufficient information to make a very educated decision. However, in situations like fires there isn't always time to get the facts. A course of action must be decided and acted on and you pray for the best.

4. The last thing that I will say about leadership is that as a leader you must realize that you are there to serve those under you; not the other way around. That's not from a movie (at least not one that I remember.) I just came to that realization a few months ago. It was something that I understood but hadn't said out loud before. I think that a lot of the bad leaders have this part backward and see their people as something to use.

So that's it. I didn't really have a reason to write this. It was just on my mind. Don't misunderstand me. I haven't learned all of what little I know about leadership from movies. A lot of it came from Captain Craig Guinn, to whom I owe a huge debt, which I probably will never be able to repay. I also owe the men and women of Station 2 B Shift. I love them all. And contrary to some of the officers of this department, I don't think that makes me a bad supervisor.