By Dave Casey
How do officers sharpen their skills to become stronger, more respected officers? What aboutfirefighters渴望成为官员，他们如何决定准备别人，而不是仅仅把鼻子放在考试的教科书中？
There has been a great deal written aboutleadership, and, specific to the fire service, there is no shortage of excellent seminars, books, DVDs, and blogs on the subject. Two of the Facebook pages I follow, Frank Viscuso’s “Step Up and Lead” and Mark vonAppen’s “Fully Involved” feature inspirational eye-catching photos/illustrations that can instill a thought or bring one into better focus. The quick visual with a reminder or a call to action regarding our role, responsibility, or mission can be a good reminder and even serve to provoke thought or reflection. An “in your face” vonAppen quote like “MORALE–It can’t be put on like your boots; it is built one day at a time” can leave a mark, which is its intent. So beyond the media, what does the person who wants to improve his leadership skills do?
Following is a discussion on how we “learn” our leadership skills, the different perspectives of leadership, the attributes of a leader, self-analysis, taking the next step, generational changes in leadership, and the time-tested truths of being the company officer (these apply also to all officer positions).
SOURCES OF LEARNING
With variations, most fire service leaders will tell you that learning leadership comes from observation, formal training, experience, and mentors. There probably would not be great debate on the sources of learning unless we try to quantify or prioritize each.
Frequently, parallels and similarities are drawn between the fire service and the military–shared terminology, mission-centered beliefs, organizational structure, unit leadership traits, teamwork, “combat readiness,” the use of tactics and strategy, and leadership beliefs.
Regarding some of the sharedleadershiptraits, recently, U.S. military executive officers attended an executive leadership program hosted by a private training and consulting group.[一世]As part of the program, surveys were conducted to help determine how these executive leaders learned their leadership skills. “Respondents were asked to reflect on their careers and to share the key developmental experiences that led to a lasting change in the way they lead or manage.”（他们确定了“关键的发展事件”和从他们那里学到的教训。尽管这些信息不能完全应用于美国消防局，尤其是在公司官员与指挥官级别的情况下，结果仍然很有趣。在论点开始之前, this was a survey of senior officers, not a conclusively validated, scientific research study. All listed items were considered to be very important and were not intended to yield 100 percent of an individual’s learning. It does not reflect a quantitative value of how much learning came from each event; it reflects the value of how many officers indicated the item as one of their personal top 10 key developmental events. The survey yields some very interesting information that we can relate to and should consider as we plan to groom new officers or as prospective candidates planning for promotion.
Most of us probably appreciated that much of our learning ofleadershipcomes from observation of good and bad role models. In this study, the participants said more than half (64%) of their learning came from the observation of good and bad role models. We don’t consciously rate our leaders on everything they say or do (or don’t do when they should), their technical skills, or even their character. However, as you read this, you can think of many “vignettes” when you observed an interaction on either end of the scale–inappropriate behavior, comments, bullying, laziness; being too timid to rock the boat when needed; or all negative interactions. Positive actions include mentoring, caring, interest in personnel, technical competence, and many things that make us better prepared to do our job and be more of a team (more on these later). Although leaders can be put into the category of “good” or “bad,” most often we rate them good or bad according to the majority of their actions. We must remember that good官swill have the occasional failing, and the officers deemed as bad will rise to the occasion and do good.
InIt Doesn’t Take a Hero[ii],诺曼·施瓦茨科普（Norman Schwarzkopf）将军表示，他相信您从负面领导中学到的比从积极领导中学到的更多。因此，您将学习如何做。”负面决定会产生负面影响，这些影响可能会留下情感或身体上的伤痕。
The next highest-rankingdevelopmental军事领导人引用的活动是“失败和错误”（19％）。当与“负面榜样”结合使用时，底片总计近50％（如果要检查数学，则为46％）。这些错误被观察到，参与或拥有；在Schwarzkopf将军对负面领导的评论的背景下，它们似乎是正确的。一个非常重要的教训是如何不做某事。这可以从战略性的消防场决定到晚餐时没有足够的主菜来训练 - 您会从任何一个人那里学习，并且可能会以令人不愉快的方式提醒它。主要问题是您认识到失败/错误并从中学习。
“在高风险情况下领先”占17％。就像在fire service, this pertains to officers’ leading during high-risk situations such as combat missions. Serving as the leader, which involves using the knowledge and skills you learned earlier, becomes a “key developmental event” from which learning occurs.
The next four groups—“Increase in Scope” (15%), “Coursework” (14%), “Personal Trauma” (14%), and “Mentors” (14%)– are virtually ties.
The “Increase in Scope (of work)” is new responsibilities, not necessarily a promotion. It still allows the individual to apply knowledge and skills learned earlier, most likely under pressure, but without the physical threat to self and others found in the “High Risk.”
That “Coursework” and “Mentors得分比观察得分要低得多令人惊讶。合并后，关键事件仅近似于“否定榜样”观察到的数值，而“正面榜样”的价值只有四分之三。这将表明观察到的榜样对学习的领导知识的影响远远超过正规培训或教育。
“Personal Trauma,” part of the four-way tie, refers to powerful emotional events such as the death of a loved one or a significant person, divorce, personal injury, a close call, and other emotionally or physically frightening events.
军方选择的最后发展影响leaders, although at the bottom, are still quite significant. “Values Playing Out” (12%) involves an event the individual observed or participated in. From the white paper, the event is “out of context”– that is, the “snapshot” had survived while the larger scenario in which it happened had dimmed. The event involves an individual doing something to another person (or persons or to self/self-destruct), and the observer develops a value-driven conclusion that remains long after the event.
A mainstay of many消防部门operations is to move “up and coming” officers through the different functional branches to learn how they interact and to gain a better understanding of the agency as an entity. “Lateral Moves” was rated at 10%.
OBSERVATION PERSPECTIVES
In the above discussion, observation of others for good and negative examples was the primary method of学习. In deciding to be a better officer or to start the journey toward becoming an officer, one of the steps is to look at the expectations the fire service has for its officers–not just the written job description but also the different perspectives of the expectations of those we work with, work for, and supervise.
There are five perspectives (they are not weighted evenly or scientifically):
- How the company perceives the officer. This group gets the biggest part of the evaluation. These people see and interact with the官最多。
- How peers perceive the company officer. If it is a multicompany station or a volunteer station with several officers, these people interact with each other as opposed to only the officer in a station/shift.
- How the supervisors perceive the company officer. In averyinformal survey, the “next up the food chain” identified the following as desirable traits: companyleadership（（fair, positive, mentoring), proficient technical skills, low maintenance.
- How the public perceives the company officer. This is normally a very narrow view based on a very short interaction. That interaction can be how technically proficient and caring the officer was when your company treated Aunt Mable or if the company seemed to have its act together and was nice afterwards when the laundry room caught fire.
- 该官员如何看待自己/她自己是一名官员。通常，我们是我们自己最严厉的批评家。官员应仅与所选的导师和顾问分享自我意见，以获得他们的意见。
Those perceptions–including what you think when you look in the mirror–come from many “scenarios” in which you were involved. As discussed previously, you informally, often without conscious consideration, evaluate others by the interactions you observe: the decisions they make (or don’t make), the way they treat others, and actions they take every day–from the lunch plans to true life-and-death tactical situations.
Do not expect rave reviews for everything you do. You will not be thrilled with all of the people with whom you interact.
ATTRIBUTES OF THE OFFICER
Over several offerings of “Lead from the Right Seat” class, slightly more than half of the attendees were firefighters; the remainder were officers. Group members were asked to think of their favorite官and the attributes that officer displayed, and then to do the same for their least favorite officer. A consensus of the input follows:
Favorite Officer (Positive Role Model)
· Technical knowledge/practical skills
·决定性
· Fair
· Confident
· Listens
· Leads from front
· Remembers where they came from
· Respected/respects others
· Effective
· Shares knowledge/mentors
· Shares expectations
· Inclusive
· Clear with direction
· The right thing to do
· Helps with duties
Least Favorite Officer (Negative Role Model)
· Lazy
· Not knowledgeable/lacking skills
·专制
· Evasive/indecisive
· Speaks down to company and bad mouths brass and other officers
· Ambiguous
· Favoritism
· Not the best thing to do
· More interested in paycheck than mission
· Doesn’t remember where he/she came from
·坐在其他人工作的时候
THE NEXT STEP
Back to the aspiring officer or the officer who wants to become a stronger or better officer. There are many positive and negative traits listed above. Compare these attributes with those you see in the officers you observe. Check to see how your attributes match up.
Looking at the list of attributes fromclassmembers, they generally fall into two groups, technical and character, and most of them deal with character. There are a number of reasons for this. The biggest reason is that you spend more time in the station socializing than responding to emergencies or training. As General Schwarzkopf stated, “There’s no question about the fact that you have to have competence to be a leader, but you also have to have character. Good leaders are men of competence and character.”ii
您可以从中学习出色的课程和研讨会。当您掌握这些知识时，将所学的知识应用于您欣赏的官员，并查看“积极的榜样”属性是否匹配。您会在大多数情况下发现。
You have many potential “learning moments” every time you are at the station. Observe the interactions; think how successful an interaction was and how else it might have been handled. Then determine how you would handle it. Read the trade journals, the fire service blogs, and the news: consider how you would handle the events. Add the different perspectives; see if your actions would differ.
LOOKING IN THE MIRROR
你真的是吗官type? That is a pretty awkward question to answer. The various lists that follow include a number of desired qualities of officers; not all are technical skills. Have you ever known an officer who can recite passages from textbooks but cannot decide the kind of doughnut he wants from the coffee shop? How about the officer who seemed more interested in the badge than in the people for whom he was now responsible?
可以说，您需要问自己的最大问题是，为什么您想成为一名官员？几本消防官教科书讨论了马斯洛的需求层次结构。[iii] There is a lot of reality in his concept. The five-tier pyramid reflects personal motivation and meeting one’s needs. The two lowest tiers are related to the personal needs of sustainment and safety. The third tier applies to social needs and reflects the sense of camaraderie, of “family” thefire service通常是体现的。第二层是尊敬需求 - 实验，掌握，独立，地位，声望，管理责任，这再次巧妙地满足消防部门的官员身份的崛起。顶级是自我实现的。（（Note: Maslow expanded the five-stage model to include Cognitive Needs and Aesthetic Needs (seven tiers)ivand later added Transcendence Needs (eight tiers), helping others to achieve self-actualization.v
You may be wondering what that has to do with you. The “connection” is that perhaps once you are comfortable as a member of the fire department family (tier 3), you may want to reach for additional responsibility as a company officer.
In the chapter “A Leader of One” in Frank Viscuso’s加紧领导，he differentiates between being an officer and being a leader and discusses what it takes to be a good officerand一个好的领导者。他提出的早期点是，领导者必须能够管理自己和他的事务：“一个人的领导者可以成为许多人的领导者；但是，如果您不能领导一个，那么您将永远不会领导。”他说。
When you are afirefighter, you are morally responsible for your company, your station, and your department’s firefighters. When you are an officer, you have the legal or assigned responsibility as an officer. “Your time” at the station is now your company’s time much more than it is your fire department’s time. You are responsible for everything from directing crews under dangerous conditions to directing who needs to clean the bathroom.
When I first yearned to climb theladder, my primary motivator seemed to be the desire to make changes that were badly needed. I was frustrated that the very young fire department I belonged to was not keeping up with our neighboring departments as they progressed. Probably because we were so young, company officers had maybe more of a voice than they would have had in the same size department if it had been around longer. Most of our officers were “first round”–that is, the most experienced officers had only three years in. With the shiny new badge on a very young person (I got over that), I was ready to change everything, save lives, protect property, and update our surprisingly old-fashioned fire department. I wasn’t planning on the mounds of paperwork just to maintain the status quo–evaluations, hydrant testing, hose testing, journals, run reports, evaluations, supplies, inventory, vehicle maintenance–an absolutely mind-numbing array of forms in carbonless triplicate. And much to my surprise, many of the firefighters were satisfied with how things were and did not see the need to do things as our neighbors (in this case, I refer to changes such as bunker pants instead of pull-up boots and large-diameter hose). That was quite a disheartening part of the overall experience for me, but the good far outweighed the bad.
Look closely at the interactions and activities your officers have every day, and make sure you are up for that type of schedule.
GENERATIONS
Much has been written about Generation X, Y, and such. How does this affect how you make decisions and how you work with others? Subordinates in another survey cited the attributes listed below as those they wanted to see in their officers:
• Knows the job
• 是公平的
•有积极的态度，从未感到兴奋
•平易近人
• Understands the job of each person.
• Earns the confidence and respect of his personnel
•符合自己的规则
• Participates in company tactical operations
• Is decisive
•是适当的侵略性
• Assumes responsibility
• Maintains control
• Has personal contact with the subordinates.
That survey was taken in 1945 and applied to U.S. Army soldiers as they fought their way from the invasion in France to Germany. From this response, we can see that technology certainly changes, tactics and strategy change more slowly, and leadership skills and character don’t seem to change all that much.
TIME-TESTED TRUTHS FOR RIDING IN THE RIGHT SEAT
在视频记录公司中官developmentDVD series正确的座位, a series of scenarios were presented for viewers to critique. Consider it the “application step” of much of your learning, be it from observation, coursework, or other sources. Much of the information below comes from Captain Mike Gagliano of the Seattle (WA) Fire Department and newly retired Captain Mike Dugan of the Fire Department of New York, with input from a number of officers who participated in the series.
• The officer has ownership of everything that happens in firehouse.
• Be the officer. If you lose the role of the leader, you abdicate the authority to be in charge, and you may not get it back.
• Be the officer: Communicate the plan, make sure everyone knows what is expected of him or her.
• When you can, involve the crew in the decision making and planning. It fosters buy-in and good ideas and mentors the crew for future roles.
• Do not be the dictator or the micromanager if you want the crew be able to think on their own.
•有时候你需要间歇雨刷ene.
• There will be times to talk with other officers and mentors for advice and support.
• There will be times when you will need to advise and support your fellow officers.
• Never let those who follow you think you are ignoring them.
• Never allow a member of your crew to be uncomfortable being at the station. If this happens, there is something wrong.
•如果你的军队不支持你,你需要我ook at respect issues and your leadership.
• You do not have to hurt firehouse morale to be the leader; firehouse life should be fun.
• Build a firehouse culture that self-limits behavior to prevent injury and emotional distress.
• Once behavior harms a member, it is not camaraderie or esprit de corps.
• What your company does represents the entire department and maybe also our profession, and chances are some joker will get cell phone video.
• Show that you know; don’t just tell them you know.
• Check before acting.
• Skip the bait, and avoid the snare; don’t get trapped in a bad situation.
• Watch for “blind spots”–other officers not realizing their level of behavior or not understanding its effect on others.
• Treat other people’s property as if it were your mother’s.
•如果消防员觉得周围的不适当开玩笑是针对他们的，则有一项开放的门政策，让他们与您交谈。
• Make yourself and your company the good example.
If you ask many chief officers and almost all company and station officers, they will tell you the power for company success and effectiveness is the company officer. If you are the officer, be the officer, and Lead from the Right Seat.
[一世]Van Velsor, Ellen; Corey Criswell; Katie Puryear; and Neil Hollenbeck.Learning Leadership in the
军事：高级官员的主要发展活动和课程。（（2011). The Center for Creative Leadership.
[ii] Schwarzkopf, H. Norman.不需要英雄。（（1992). Bantam Books.
[iii] McLeod, S. A.Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,(2007)。简单的心理学。从检索http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html.
ivMaslow, A. H. (1970a).Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper & Row.
vMaslow, A. H.（1970b）。Religions, values, and peak experiences.New York: Penguin.
