Managing Appearance

BY ALAN BRUNACINI

When you are lucky enough to have the monthly job of writing a column in the hit parade fire service trade journal, you must select something that you hope is relevant; slightly interesting; and, once in a while, entertaining. After you glom onto something to write about, you then think about and pay attention to anything that relates to that topic. It seems I am always doing mental "research" on my most recent topic as I travel about. Currently, this column is looking at the details and dynamics of a vertical list of how bosses define their job and what they do to act out what makes up that definition. We called that up/down list the "Bruno Unplugged Hierarchy"-as you trudge through life, you will never know what will be named after you as you evolve (or devolve?) into advanced seniority. I guess attaching your name to "hierarchy" is okay because the names of all the nifty items are already taken, like "Halligan," "Stang Gun," and "Kelly Day."

Last month, we started the hierarchy discussion with appearance management. We covered the basic philosophy that revolved around the leadership function of understanding, appreciating, and then creating comfort when we deliver service to the customer and balancing that with selecting a uniform (among a lot of other things) that is comfortable to wear and easy to maintain for those who deliver street service. As we have said over and over, what we do on the inside gets delivered on the outside. To do this inside/outside math, effective bosses must develop the consistent approach of "working backward": Imagine what you as the leader want to happen when your troops walk into Mrs. Smith's house to help her, and then reproduce that leadership treatment in the fire station from which that crew just responded. Managing both ends of the process requires application of both the art and the science involved in providing the basic care of humans.