The Real Hot Seat
Ca. Richard Smith is a no-nonsense kind of fire captain. He is tough but fair. The kind of fire captain who will take his crew out at 2am to drill if there was some sort of mishap on a 911 call earlier that day. His crew was straightlaced, polished and always striving to be the best; he demanded it. The name Richard often has a common nickname, and it was used often for him. Ca. Smith longed to be a legend like his father. Even today, decades later, heroic tales of Ca. Smith’s father are told around the fire house dinner table elevating the ideal fire captain. Young fire recruits are fed these legendry tales and given a role model to look up to.
As I was eagerly working towards promoting from paramedic/firefighter to fire captain I had some obstacles to overcome. Though I tested well enough to be put on the promotional list, I was the youngest person on the list, and I had the least seniority. Nobody else from my academy class had made the list but when I did, I realized I had to prepare myself well. Becoming a respected fire captain does not come from having a badge but rather having a good reputation. Therefore, as a young apprentice, I wanted to learn from the master.[2]
I went to Ca. Smith and asked if I could be on his crew. We barely knew each other, and I was very fearful of him. His presence was demanding, his work ethic strong, and his crew had to adapt to his pattern and habits of work.[3] I told him that I was on the promotional list, and I needed more experience and wanted to learn from him. He accepted my request, and I began a two-year apprenticeship with him. After about six months, he began to finally trust me and stopped simply testing me. Our crew worked hard, we drilled at night and on the weekends. Ca. Smith and I sure had our disagreements, and it never became easier to work for him, but I trusted his leadership when a fire raged on.
One aspect that Eve Poole focuses on in her book, is the idea of character. She writes, “Blessed are those leaders who have a wisdom tradition or spiritual practice to help them at this point.”[4] This is where the beauty of a Christian life can be helpful. She neglects to point out the helpful aspects of spiritual disciplines and how these might shape our character. Character matters, but whose character are we following? As Christians, we should be following and seeking after the character of Christ. I wanted to learn from Ca. Smith how to be a good captain, but I was not seeking to emulate his character. It was helpful during this period to focus on developing my Christian character in the likes of Christ as I endured the endless fire drills.
The author and his son.
I finally promoted. I had hours and hours of study, drills, and practice. Yet, all the study and learning are only fluff until there comes a time in which the test really comes. In fact, Poole iterates, “All wisdom tradition have tales of trials, where a hero has to be tested and found true.”[5] It was a fire on a very hot July 4th (Independence Day for those outside of America) that my trial came. I was the captain on engine 19 and the fire alarm went off. As we ran to our engine, we could see a huge column of smoke from our driveway. We would be first to arrive, and I would be charged with taking command. As we quickly approached, the dispatcher kept squawking with more information, more units enroute. Time was speeding by, but I was seeing things in slow motion. We rolled down the street, I asked for radio silence and began my size-up report. There had been a propane explosion and so we had four different houses on fire. People were everywhere, half-dressed and in swimsuits, all of them trying to get our attention. I zoned in on the problem at hand, ignored the fluff and directed my crew to attack the fire on the right side. I directed the other engines enroute to the left side and the rear. I directed the truck company to perform a quick search for victims and it was determined that this was not going to be a search and rescue. I called for more resources as this fire was burning in four different houses. My battalion chief arrived and encouraged me to keep command of the fire for a while to get more experience. We called for a 3rd alarm, the biggest fire I had been to in years. The fire went out, nobody was hurt, and we stopped the damage from extending beyond where it was when we arrived.
Campbell might say that my “… hero quest [has] been accomplished, through penetration to the source…”[6] I had gone through the fire, quite literally, and had come out of it a stronger and better leader. I had learned to perform under stress and resort to my training. I reflected on the apprenticeship of working for Ca. Smith and knew that he would be proud of the way his protégé had performed on that fire. I was on the journey of becoming the leader I wanted to be.
In my new role, in a church-based ministry setting, I find it hard to find those mentors to apprentice under. They are few and far between and often not in the same location as I am. Do you have a leader whom you are apprenticing under?
[1] Eve Poole, Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership (London Oxford New York, NY: Bloomsbury Business, 2017), 29.
[2] Poole, 3.
[3] Poole, 16.
[4] Poole, 50.
[5] Poole, 49.
[6] Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 1. Princeton/Bollingen paperback print., 3. print, Bollingen Series 17 (Princeton, NJ: Univ. Press, 1973), 193.
About the Author
Adam Cheney
I grew up in California, spent five years living along the beautiful coast of Kenya and now find myself working with refugees in the snow crusted tundra of Minnesota. My wife and I have seven children, four of whom have been adopted. I spend my time drinking lots of coffee, working in my garden, and baking sourdough bread.12 responses to “The Real Hot Seat”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Oh Adam, what an amazing story. I love how you took on the challenge of finding the toughest, most experienced mentor you could find. I’m so glad it all paid off when you were under such great pressure.
I agree with you about finding Christian mentors that have that kind of stature. I had one, for four and a half years, my pastor in a small church. Her willingness to take me on literally changed my life (I wouldn’t be here if not for her!). She moved across the country 20 months ago (but who’s counting?), and I miss her weekly presence and wisdom in my life every day.
What were some of the qualities that made Captain Smith such a great mentor for you? How would you translate that into finding – or being – such a mentor today?
Debbie,
Thanks for the questions. Ca. Smith was a great guy once I really got to know him and learned the quirky things about him. He was respected by all, partially because of his tendency to yell for minor infractions. This made everyone careful to do the right thing by him.
I think that the hard thing for me finding a ministry leader to learn from is that I don’t know exactly where God is taking me. I know that he has brought me into this program but I don’t know where it will lead me. Contrary to working as a firefighter and knowing the next promotional step.
Some things I learned from him were, dress the part, work harder than others, practice and then practice more, be prepared for the unexpected and take real good care of your crew. I did not appreciate the yelling, but I did appreciate the way he would take us out to ice cream after a night of drills. He protected his crew at all costs and always took ownership of any failure whether it was his fault or not.
Thanks for sharing your story and the way you integrated your learning from Poole into your self-reflection. There seems to be something to the daily or weekly interaction, side by side, or a leader/mentor for you (and perhaps best for everyone) which can make it more challenging in a ministry setting.
While I’ve had the models in my life, I’m finding mentorship in peer relationships now, which is different, but still fulfilling and compelling.
Ryan,
Our peer groups and cohort based learning is very valuable indeed. I certainly learn a lot from those around me. A couple of years ago, I went through a leadership development course for our church. Essentially, it is a homegrown pathway towards eldership. It was okay and I did it, but I had some issue with a lot of it. We read some books and discussed them, and basically called it good. What I offered instead at the end of the time was what I would have wanted to do instead. What if I had spent 3 hours each week with the pastor leading the group? What if I saw how he prepared for his sermons? What if I saw how he counseled couples? What if I saw how he led meetings? What if I saw the real work being done that leaders need to do? What I was really looking for was apprenticeship and instead a few books were offered.
Great story, Adam! When I was in college, I had two friends try to talk me into going to the fire academy. They both did and are now retired. Besides missing an opportunity to be a chef, not listening to them is one of my regrets. Thanks for your service!
Finding mentors in doing what we do in ministry is not easy (there is probably a doctorate project in there somewhere!). Is there anything that you can take from Ca. Smith in your ministry today, and what could you take from your July 4th experience to help you in what you do?
Chris,
I certainly learned how to assess a situation really quickly and determine what was needed. I learned that we need to practice and work hard. I learned to protect my team. I also learned that we will go through the challenging times and that I can rely on what I have learned and practiced to carry me through it.
So good, Adam – I was hanging onto the edges of my seat. The more I know about your life, the more in awe of you I am.
In answer to your question, I do have someone I am apprenticing under. I’m of the opinion that every pastor should have a pastor, and therefore in keeping with the 2 Timothy 2:2 mandate, my pastor (Australia-based) teaches me much about leadership, character, anointing and ecclesiology, amongst other topics. I thank God for him.
Regarding your blog, what specific aspects of Ca. Richard Smith’s leadership style and approach to mentorship do you believe contributed most significantly to your development as a fire captain?
Glyn,
Thanks mate. Now you know where I get my quick wit and borderline inappropriate humor:) Days and days on end at a firehouse will do that to you. I have come a long ways.
Ca. Smith took me under his wing. As part of his crew, I was a reflection of him. He took ownership of my training and preparation. He made sure that I was on par with the rest of the crew. As I reflect on it, it makes me think of Jesus’s disciples and how they were known by their relation to Jesus. They had no street credit on their own. Their street cred came from Jesus. Likewise, my street cred came from working on Truck 1, downtown, with Ca. Smith.
Great post, Adam. Appreciate the story. I went through a church fire (I’ll save the details for a blog of some kind) that destroyed the building. We were inside and had to escape. I gained a new appreciation for our fire department as I watched them work on the fire to try to salvage the building and also ensure that the buildings around it didn’t get damaged. So, first of all, thank you for your service.
How did learning to perform under stress prepare you for your next role which was very different?
Secondly, I have taken Critical Incident Stress Management Training. In what ways did they teach you to cope with stress back then? How has that helped you in your next role?
Graham,
I took my 15 years of emergency services with me to Kenya. That many years gave me a pretty good b.s. detector and I was often able to discern the truth in the situation without actually getting told the truth. It also made me aware of dangerous situations fairly quickly. The fire department also prepared me for self-study. The work ethic I learned as a firefighter has carried with me.
We definitely learned to deal with stress right away. Usually it was in the form of crude jokes that HR wouldn’t have wanted to hear. The fire house is probably every HR persons nightmare. We weren’t supposed to talk about religion or politics on duty but what else is there when you work 24 hour shifts? I learned to talk about the stress and that has certainly carried over into my new role. When there have been particularly stressful times, I have sought out the wise counsel of a friend who knew enough of the situations but was not directly involved. Also, excercise has always been a good stress coping mechanism.
Adam, I enjoyed hearing more of your firefighting days and you and your son are rocking those uniforms! I commend you for reaching out to Ca. Smith and asking him to take you on his crew. With that training and boldness, you would be the type of EMS responder I would want at my emergency!
I did something similar in my nursing training. People thought I was crazy for asking Prof Avillo to take me on and to give me the hardest patients. But adversity is how one learns best! She was a military nurse and excellent at her job and I wanted to learn from the best.
Finding a spiritual leader to apprentice under is a challenge for me as well. Two weeks ago I met a lovely, Godly woman who exhibits Christ-like joy, love, and care to those she serves. I hope to “apprentice” under her.
Who in ministry is apprenticing under you?
Kari,
Good question. I do have a few people mentoring under me in an unofficial kind of way. As part of my work, I teach 3 different ESL groups each week. I was the one to start the group and often am happy to teach but usually I have allowed a few other volunteers to step into the role. So, I am not necessarily mentoring others on how to do my job but rather on how to engage cross-culturally as Christians. I often invite others to participate with me along the way. The reach I have is broad, but not super deep as I am with a person once a week on average.