Juliette Alban-Metcalfe, CEO of Real World Group, examines five critical leadership and culture factors that Fire & Rescue Services must address to drive meaningful and lasting change
For those familiar with Fire & Rescue Service (FRS) culture pre-2023, the findings published in the headline-grabbing report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), often referred to as “the Wilsher report”, about leadership and culture in the FRS came as little surprise.
Perhaps surprisingly, given this mandatory requirement to improve, required change has been slow, even impossible, for many. A follow up report published in May 2024 found that while the grades awarded for values and culture had improved in some services, they had fallen further in others.
It doesn’t take an expert to observe that the FRS is far from unique in having leadership and cultural challenges, despite the clear evidence that better leadership and culture not only reduces costs such as grievances and absenteeism but also leads to untold benefits including greater performance, motivation and wellbeing.
So why do organisations find it so challenging to change, and what are the keys to success? Here are five critical factors that make all the difference:
1) Ownership from the very top
The unpalatable but common saying is that “fish rots from the head down” and the same premise applies to organisational culture. Research over decades shows that culture is most strongly influenced by the behaviour of the most senior leaders.
It’s the trickle-down effect that goes on to shape how other leaders in the organisation act, and the impact they have on others. The leaders themselves may be either aware, or blissfully ignorant, of the impact their behaviours are having on others.
Either way, these leadership approaches have a shaping effect on the organisations culture and what the organisation is able to achieve. Senior managers need to actively decide which is it they want?
The starting point for addressing this is building a business case to enable senior managers in your organisation to see the impact they are having. What data do you have? At Real World Group we start by explaining to these leaders just how much impact day-to-day leadership has on performance, how much senior leadership behaviour impacts culture.
We then encourage organisations to undertake leadership culture surveys that explicitly include questions about how employees feel about the most senior leaders in the organisation so that hard data can be presented about them specifically – to reduce any room for excuses.
2) Visible role modelling
Once senior leaders understand how influential their visible and behind-closed-doors behaviours and actions are in their organisation, they need to visibly and consistently role-model what they want to see others doing.
Research shows that the biggest barrier to the success of culture change comes down to the behavior of the most senior leaders.
Research shows that the biggest barrier to the success of culture change comes down to the behavior of the most senior leaders.
Juliette Alban-Metcalfe
Most programmes of improvement start with the agreement of a senior team that there is a leadership issue in the organisation that needs addressing. What makes all the difference, however, is whether or not they believe they may be part of the problem.
The bottom line is, whenever possible start with the very top, or at least have a clear plan as to how they can be involved soon after initiating leadership development for others in the organisation.
Ideally, encourage your senior team to undertake a team 360 to understand their unique influence on the culture such as this one. To allow them to sit out a leadership programme is an expensive folly.
3) Clear, behavioural expectations for leadership
Leadership is no different than anything else essential in an organisation – if we are genuinely committed to making it happen right we can’t be too explicit about what we want to see.
The National Fire Chief’s Council (NFCC) leadership framework is an excellent example of a clear set of behavioural expectations that go beyond laying down what is expected to be a good manager in a leadership role and describe what it means to be a positively contributing leader.
We have mapped the NFCC framework to our more than 20 years’ research into what leaders do day-to-day that is proven to increase performance, motivation, commitment, wellbeing and a range of other factors, and there is strong alignment. The key for FRS organisations is to avoid oversimplifying guidance for leaders.
While it is important that an organisation’s values are translated into easily digestible behavioural expectations for employees, they must be backed up with more extensive and explicit expectations for leaders.
It is a mistake to think that people can simply translate in their heads what they need to do to bring the behavioural expectations to life – most people need much clearer guidance than that.
4) Opportunity to reflect on leadership behaviour
The most effective leaders regularly seek feedback from those around them on an ongoing basis. It can be as simple as ensuring that one-to-one conversations often include the question “Is there anything I can do/do differently to support you better?”
The power of feedback from others is the reason why the Wilsher Report required that all FRS organisation leaders and managers undertake 360-degree feedback. Being mindful of what is being asked, though, is key.
Undertaking a 360 assessment that is focused only on managerial or professional competencies, or one that only assesses underlying traits (such as personality or strengths) can have the opposite effect than intended as they reduce, rather than increase, focus on leadership behaviours – which are different and must be front and centre.
We have created a 360-degree feedback tool utilised by a number of FRS organisations that not only assesses leadership proven to have a direct impact on performance, motivation, commitment, and wellbeing, but which also maps closely to the NFCC framework.
We have designed versions of the FRS360® tool for different levels of leader – Senior, Middle, and Supervisory – as well as one for Firefighters.
Simply being presented with 360-degree feedback, however, is neither effective nor ethical. It is essential that each leader is provided with a confidential, facilitated session to help them interpret and act on the feedback. This needn’t be costly and we encourage others to do the same to make this a sustainable process.
5) Embedding accountability & celebrating success
If we all had great role models during our careers, if we didn’t have the concurrent challenges of resource constraints and increasing demands, if the world wasn’t ever-changing, we might have more time to naturally focus on leading well. However, the vast majority of us don’t, and we can’t expect that of others.
Leadership, like everything else, falls into the category of “what’s measured gets done”. If we want our organisations to benefit from the right leadership and culture we need to embed our behavioural expectations clearly in how we select our leaders, how we formally assess their performance, and we must address the wrong behaviours with consequences that are visible.
We must also highlight, reward and celebrate when it’s right.
Juliette Alban-Metcalfe
We must also highlight, reward and celebrate when it’s right. Any culture surveys organisations undertake should be explored to find out what’s working well, and which are the departments or teams where are is great success that should be celebrated and which others can learn from.
Once we take leadership and culture as seriously as we do other performance matters, then our FRS organisations can truly thrive.
This article was originally published in the March 2025 issue of International Fire & Safety Journal – to read your FREE digital copy, click here.