You earn the promotion, and on day one you also inherit the way things have been done. In a police department, that may mean expectations shift depending on which supervisor is on duty. In a fire station, it may mean two crews on the same type of apparatus follow their own standards for things like how the hose is loaded, which nozzle gets used, or how the rig is cleaned up after a job. It may simply be a string of small exceptions; each seemed easy to let slide at the time, but add them up and they can create risk and inequity in personnel practices.
Every one of these exceptions becomes yours the moment you take the job, and blaming the person who held it before you won’t change that.
Rather than getting caught up in all the specifics, it can help to take a step back. When people fall short of expectations, it’s often the result of culture rather than a problem with their skill level or the product of willful defiance. And this is why character is so important for leaders, especially when you’re stepping into a role where standards have slipped.
Like a muscle, character grows through consistent action, not by reading about it or attending a conference once a year. What you as a leader allow or endorses, day after day, becomes the culture. Leaders have a moral obligation to be as intentional about culture as they are about tactics, because each small choice shapes the organization’s character.
Strong leadership takes both competence and character. Competence is knowing what to do and how to do it. Character is the sum of your habits, good and bad. Skills may earn you the promotion, but character shapes what the team becomes under your leadership.
We organize character around six habits:
Standards rarely fall apart all at once. They drift through small decisions that each seemed reasonable at the time. Over time, the standard on paper and the standard in practice become two different things, and the gap between what an agency says and what it allows is hypocrisy.
Take a department that runs four shifts, where one crew changes the hose load on its own engine because it works well for them. That is fine until another company has to pull a line off that rig at a fire. If they don’t know how it is loaded, the hose can spill out in the yard and slow the time it takes to get water on the fire. A change that works for one crew can end up costing every other crew time.
Closing a gap like this starts with comparing what the policy says with what is happening in the field. If the policy is sound and the practice has drifted, stop the practice and follow the policy. If the policy is outdated and the practice reflects best practice, rewrite the policy. Policies are living documents, and it’s important to acknowledge that one needs to be fixed. When something goes wrong, the difference between what the policy says and what personnel did is what shows up in an injury, a loss, or even court.
Start by taking an inventory of yourself and making sure you are ready for the job. Then gather what you need by reading, researching, asking questions, and collecting feedback from people at every level. You may not have a long grace period, so use the time you have before people start waiting on your decisions.
Early in a new role, congratulations can come with requests, and someone who supported your promotion may ask for a favor. It can feel uncomfortable to turn down someone who helped you get there, and integrity and duty are the habits that help a leader weigh that against what the job requires. How you handle a small request like this can shape how you handle bigger ones later, since each choice makes the next one easier. The favor itself may be minor, but it can show your team a lot about how you make decisions.
Leading people who used to be your peers can be tricky. A promotion is a brand-new job, and it helps to set expectations early, explain your reasons and stay positive. Your former peers know your history, so if someone asks how you can enforce a standard you once skipped, tell them the truth: It was wrong then and it would be wrong now, and you would like their help doing better.
Resetting an expectation means telling your team what the standard is, explaining why it matters and applying it the same way to everyone. The explanation is crucial because people are more likely to follow a standard when they understand the reason behind it. Correct those who go against it, fairly and consistently, whether the lapse was a mistake or intentional.
Recognize the people who meet the expectation. Discipline includes more than correction, and if most of a leader’s attention goes to correcting, people may start trying only to stay out of trouble. Catching people doing the right thing, and explaining why it was right, shows them what to aim for.
Be the example you are asking them to follow. An expectation only holds if the person setting it meets it too.
Own what you inherit instead of blaming the last leader. Blaming gets you off on the wrong foot with your crew. It sounds like an excuse; it can come across as insecurity, and it dodges the ownership that comes with the job. Address the behavior without criticizing the people who left, because once you sit in the chair, the problems are yours to own and yours to fix.
Correct the behavior, not the person. You cannot manage how people feel, but you can coach, counsel, or correct what they do. When the conversation ends, let it end. Nothing gets held over anyone. Tell the person that this was a moment in time and not a reflection of who they are, then move forward together.
Finally, hold the line if the leaders above you are not backing you. You still control the decisions at your level, so know the expectation, document what you do, and expect some pushback.
On day one, you inherit the way things have been done. What you do with that starts with the very next decision in front of you. Explain what you expect and why, hold yourself to it and apply it the same way to everyone. Some of those conversations will be uncomfortable, and that is where courage and humility matter most.
Character grows through repetition, and so does the culture around it. Your team will notice what you correct, what you recognize, and what you let slide, and over time those small choices become what your people see as the standard. You do not have to fix everything at once. Start by choosing one expectation to focus on today, explain the reason behind it, and follow it yourself. It may feel like a small step, but this is how character gets built. Your position is entrusted to you for a season, and the standard you set becomes part of the legacy you leave behind.
