By Ron Hiraki
Most people would prefer to bethought of asleaders. Just the sound and meaning of the word “leader”似乎tha和重要性更有分量t the word “manager.” In the 1990s, many organizational development articles and instructors stated that a supervisor or CEO“manages things”and“leads people.”In stepping up to be a goodfire officeror acting fire officer, one has to be both a manager and a leader.
At an emergency incident scene, you have to manage resources to make sure that the operation is organized properly and that the fire goes out or the emergency is mitigated safely. You must also have theleadershipqualities that make firefighters feel safe working under your command. Your people skills should make those firefighters feel comfortable about approaching you to say, “I’m worried about thisroof structure.” Your leadership must give you the ability to ascertain the facts, weigh the costs and benefits, make a decision, and react to that concern.
Around the station, you must get everything done based on your fire station or fire department schedules or timelines. Whether these tasks are scheduled on a monthly, quarterly, oran annual basis, you need to get those things done. Some fire officers do them because
1.They want to keep the chief “off their back.”2.They just want to check the “done” box.3.It’s a standard operating procedure (SOP) or task that needs to be done, and they don’t want to “rock the boat.”4.It’s the right thing to do.
Completing the task is management, but the reason you do it is leadership.
There are lots of definitions of management and leadership. For management, you may find a French origin, referring to a person directing or conducting activities. You will also find a Latin origin, referring to “leading someone by the hand.” The Latin origin implies that management is applicable to leading people. For years, the term management referred to effective, good, or wise of resources. Resources included people, physical items (e.g., materials, equipment, and property), money, and items that can’t be touched (e.g., time, ideas). For simplicity, we will define management as controlling the use of materials, equipment, and property. I have purposely left out time. We have read about and can talk about time management, but a student in one of my classes astutely said that managing time was managing the labor of people. Therefore, controlling time really should be thought of as leading people.
For simplicity, we will define leadership as directing or coordinating people. It also includes leading people by motivating and developing them to accomplish the fire department’s mission. Because the fire service is a family, many fire officers believe that leadership includes an element of caring and patience as we would practice with our family members.
这些不是要全包定义s of management or leadership. Different leaders, experts, books, articles will have different opinions and some good additions. Some of you will probably have different views on leadership, too. One firefighter told me that he really couldn’t verbally define leadership, but he knew when he felt it and when he didn’t.
Let’s look at a few examples of management and leadership in action . . .OR NOT IN ACTION.
Example 1:I knew one fire officer who put off doing all of those monthly station tasks until the last shift of the month. They included non-critical but necessary tasks such as cleaning the oven, waxing the floors, ordering and organizing supplies, changing hose, painting equipment, and cleaning compartments. On the last shift of the month, the fire officer would hope that they’d be really busy with a lot of alarms, their chief would schedule them for some all-daytrainingsession or move-up, or a big fire. Naturally, the fire officer and his crew could not get all of those things done in one shift. That crew always had a bona fide excuse and very humble apology.
Can you identify the good and bad management and/or leadership in this example?
Example 2:A fire department requires every firefighter to do a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) drill every quarter, during which the firefighters must don their SCBA properly in 60 seconds. A fire officer tells his crew that they must do the drill, and so they all do the drill. Each member “passes” the drill on the first attempt. The times range from 43 seconds to 56 seconds. The fire officer said to the firefighters, “Good job, people. We did our duty. I’ll be sure to enter the drill and our times in the training records right away.” All of the SCBAs are made response-ready and placed back on the apparatus. The drill is over in less than 20 minutes.
Can you identify the good and bad management and/or leadership in this example?
Example 3:Another fire department requires every firefighter to do a SCBA drill every quarter, during which the firefighters must don their SCBA properly in 60 seconds. The captain tells his crew at roll call that they will do the drill following the morning physical training. Each member “passes” the drill on the first attempt. The times range from 36 seconds to 50 seconds. The captain said, “I’m not as spry as I used to be. I’d like to do that again and shave at least five seconds off my time.” The captain prepares to repeat the drill. One of the firefighters who had a time of 44 seconds said, “I’ll do it again, too, Cap. I want to see if I can knock down my time a little.” All of the SCBAs are made response-ready and placed back on the apparatus. The drill is over in 45 minutes.
When the captain was entering the SCBA drill and times in the training records, one of the firefighters commented that entering the drill in the records was a “necessary evil” management function. The captain explained that recordkeeping is also a leadership function. A leader understands the laws or regulationsthat require firefighters to do the drill and the importance of documenting the drill. A leader wants to “protect” firefighters not only by doing the drill properly but also by documenting it and supporting the good reputation of the firefighters. The value of recordkeeping becomes extremely clear if a firefighter is injured. One of the first things safety investigators want to see are the firefighter’s training records.
Can you identify the good and bad management and/or leadership in this example?
Example 4:One fire officer oversaw a program with an annual dedicated budget. The fire officer “pinched pennies” all year long. The fire officer questioned every repair, requisition, and purchase requests of the firefighters. Throughout the year, the fire officer directed firefighters to put extra time into tasks rather than approve repairs,requisitions, or purchases. In the late fall, the fire officer preserved a fair amount of the program budget and bragged about being a good manager. Morale among the firefighters was less than desirable, and there was a noticeable reduction in the effectiveness of the program.
Can you identify the good and bad management and/or leadership in this example?
Example 5:One chief officer rarely corrected behavior, gave feedback, or challenged subordinates to improve. Subordinates did not describe the chief officer as a great leader, but they also did not criticize him or complain about him because he rarely said anything about their work or performance. Subordinates who went to work for other chief officers found themselves at a disadvantage because they either had to bring their work up to par, get used to receiving feedback, orget accustomed to being challenged.
Can you identify the good and bad management and/or leadership in this example?
Example 6:Some fire departments use the term Incident Command System, and some use the term Incident Management System. One firefighter commented that the incident management system was about creating a chain of command and maintaining an appropriate span of control in order tocoordinate peopleto mitigate an emergency incident. As such, the firefighter felt that the IncidentManagementSystem should really be called the IncidentLeadershipSystem. A second firefighter said he favored the term “management” because he wanted the incident commander to keep track of his location on the fireground, ensure that he had enough hose and water to fight the fire, and monitor their progress. The management function was much more important than the leadership function of being encouraged and motivated.
Incident Management, Incident Leadership, or Both?
We have described and defined management and leadership. We want fire officers or acting fire officers to be both managersandleaders. Management is not a bad thing and should be viewed as a necessary thing. Management involves people; and people need and are looking for leadership.
Next month, we’ll present some functions or characteristics of firefighters and fire officers for you toidentify as management, leadership, or both.
Ron Hiraki
began his career as a firefighter in the Seattle
(WA)
Fire Department, working in a variety of operational and administrative positions leading to his final assignment as assistant chief of employee development. Completing his career as an assistant chief for a small combination fire department, Hiraki has nearly 30 years of fire service experience in urban and suburban settings. Hiraki holds a Master of Science in human resources development, and is a consultant to number of public safety agencies for their selection and performance evaluation programs.
