What I learned about earning trust—one conversation, one decision, one name at a time.

By Pat Dale
B Shifter Buckslip, Jan. 6, 2026

Trust is an essential element of any successful fire department. When it is overlooked—which happens all too often—distrust begins to take hold. Distrust is toxic and lies at the root of many problems. And yet, building trust is not likely something to make a fire chief’s daily to-do list. But it was on my mind every day as I drove to my office. To my point, here’s an excerpt from the letter I sent to our members as I was retiring (one of my many retirements …).

“Serving as fire chief of Graham (Wash.) Fire & Rescue has been the greatest professional privilege of my life. Every day that I held the position, I had one major goal: to earn your trust one day at a time.”

The Foundations of Trust

Trust has many qualities. Honesty is the most obvious place to start; we all know that leadership based on integrity provides the stability our members need to do their best work. However, there are other important components of trust. Two of the most impactful are compassion and connection.

Compassion—Compassion directly builds trust. Leading with compassion shows the workers that you genuinely care about them. It also has a direct impact on their willingness to follow and embrace change.

Workers trust a leader who they believe cares about them. This has been demonstrated by the work of Dr. Jennifer Taylor and her team at the Center for Firefighter Injury Research and Safety Trends (FIRST) at Drexel University, using tools such as the Fire Service Occupational Culture of Safety (FOCUS). A survey of more than 45,000 firefighters, including members of Graham Fire & Rescue, revealed that when top-level leaders demonstrate a genuine commitment to workforce safety and well-being, safety behaviors improve at every level. As an added benefit, these behaviors have the downstream effect of improving engagement, job satisfaction, morale and retention, while also reducing injuries, burnout, anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation.

What can leaders do to show workers that their leaders care about their safety and well-being? In my experience, they can listen to the workforce and address their needs. When we asked department members to share their most significant need, staffing was brought up time and time again. Our efforts to increase staffing demonstrated our genuine commitment to our members’ safety and well-being—one that was clearly felt by our workforce. Of course, increasing staffing involves some heavy lifting—not the least of which is additional funding. In my experience, this meant going to the members of our community and asking them to increase their property taxes. Creating the ballot measure took a well-organized, clearly communicated and collaborative effort. Our success helped demonstrate a genuine commitment to our members’ safety and well-being.

Bruno said, “Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.” Praise goes a long way in creating connection & connection is a key element of trust.

Connection—Being present. Showing up at the right place at the right time. Always starting with praise and honest appreciation. Connection humanizes leadership. When leaders connect with the workers, it demonstrates that they respect them as people, not just employees. It signals that relationships matter and helps to develop trust within the culture of the organization.

When I was fire chief, I would occasionally show up at incidents. Workers typically want their bosses to show up, pay attention and notice the good work they’re doing. Shaking hands and talking to the troops about what they did and how it went for them can strengthen relationships and bolster trust. I praised every improvement, no matter how slight. Chief Bruno carried a small card in his (Hawaiian) shirt pocket that listed the nine principles of being a leader. One of the principles stated, “Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.” Praise goes a long way in creating connection, and connection is a key element of trust.

There are undoubtedly several ways to build connection. Some take heavy lifting. Others are subtler and can be simple, like learning people’s names. On numerous occasions, I saw Chief Brunacini meet someone for the first time. During these casual first encounters, he would learn the person’s name and commit it to memory—forever. He was masterful at this. I came to realize that he wasn’t a freak of nature; he put effort into it. Dale Carnegie famously said, “A person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”

As a new fire chief, I didn’t know the names of most of the members. I realized that by continuing to say, “I’m terrible with names,” I was simply giving myself an excuse. So, I made a conscious effort to change. I used the staff directory to review the members on duty at each station I visited and did my best to address everyone by name.

Later, as I was retiring, one of the grumpiest captains in the American Fire Service told me it had meant a lot to the members that I had taken the time to learn their names. It was music to their ears and went a long way toward earning their trust.

Trust Paves the Way for More Perfect Labor-Management Unions

Bruno said, “The most powerful, enduring organizational element is relationships. Everything revolves around relationships—and relationships revolve around trust.” One of the most critical relationships is the one between labor and management. Our partnership with labor leaders is vital to our success and is built on a shared purpose. That shared purpose is the work, the service that we deliver.

When I first became a fire chief, I joined the department as an outsider. One of the early steps I took was to ask the union president how often labor and management met. The meetings were supposed to take place monthly, but he said they only met when they needed to argue about something. The relationship at the time was contentious. Distrust was extremely high on both sides of the table. As an alternative, I suggested that we meet weekly on neutral ground, the local coffee shop. My intention was to build trust. I looked for some quick wins, then gradually started addressing the loftier issues. Some of these quick wins included minor modifications to uniform policies, such as wearing shorts during specific times of the year, and station/company logos on ball caps. Then, we gradually started addressing loftier issues, such as developing plans to increase staffing levels.

We continued to meet weekly for the next five years, minus the rare scheduling conflict or holiday. It was a significant time commitment, but the return on investment was worth it. Over time, we were able to collaborate on what we collectively agreed were the most significant needs of the organization: increasing our funding and increasing staffing levels, all with the shared goal of improving our service to our customers.

Together, we forged a strong alliance and developed The Eight Commitments of Labor & Management:
1. The labor and management relationship is vital to the health of our organization.
2. We strive to build trust.
3. We value each other’s “presence at the table” and each person’s point of view.
4. We solve problems through dialogue.
5. We enter discussions from an interest-based perspective.
6. We have shared goals for our members and the organization.
7. We embrace the notion of not blindsiding each other.
8. When we work together, we can accomplish any desired outcome.

Occasionally, I would bring up the document at a labor and management meeting and discuss openly what the commitments meant to each of us. Creating this document together and occasionally referring to it helped remind us of the importance of the relationship. It also helped me highlight the belief that our success would revolve around a healthy partnership, and that partnership revolved around trust.

There’s no magic bullet to building trust. Trust is built through several critical factors, and leaders must be deliberate in their pursuit of it within their organization, one day at a time. This means showing members that you care by listening to their concerns and following through to address their needs. It means developing and maintaining genuine connections with the workforce—showing up, offering praise and giving honest appreciation for the good work they are doing. It also means treating the labor and management relationship with respect, building mutual trust with labor leaders and leading together toward a shared purpose: the work.

Building and restoring trust requires an all-in commitment from leaders. In my experience, time and again, the return on that investment is well worth the effort.

Pat Dale has spent 42 years in the fire service. His formative years were spent at the Kent (Wash.) Fire Department, where he progressed through the ranks to battalion chief. He then spent nearly 17 years as the Assistant Chief of Operations at the Olympia (Wash.) Fire Department. He was the Fire Chief at Graham (Wash.) Fire & Rescue for five years before spending 2 years as the chief of Redmond (Ore.) Fire & Rescue. He briefly held the position of Director of Fire Service Training at Bates Technical College in Tacoma (Wash.) He has been a proud Blue Card Lead instructor since 2010.