Photo by Tony Greco.
By Thomas A. Merrill
领导力是一个引起广泛关注的主题。关于领导力的书籍正在淹没市场。提供了无数的课程，许多著名的军事，政治和消防领袖也可以讨论这一主题。有太多的领导材料可用，而且有很多人参与谈论它的事实必须意味着对此有巨大的需求。根据我收到的电子邮件和电话，在志愿者消防站中讨论领导问题和问题，这一需求是显而易见的。因此，我们的志愿消防服务渴望良好，坚实的领导能力。
所有消防员都可以学会成为一个好领导者。请记住，领导者不必担任部门官员。话虽如此，所有部门官员都应努力成为好领导人。从火灾官员一方到行政官员一方，组织的各个领域都需要坚实的领导。重要的是，领导者必须做出良好的判断力并努力以积极的方式领导他们的部门。否则，我所说的“浪费能量”的大部分投资都投入到领导力困境中，这些困境真正地陷入了组织，并防止了良好的工作完成。这也可能导致好人离开。
Leading volunteers can certainly be challenging. As a matter of fact, it can be much harder leading volunteers than leading members in any paid organization. Volunteers obviously have other things competing for their personal time and the fire department is not putting food on their table or paying their bills. While volunteer officers can certainly order their members to do things, that style can grow old and tiresome after a while, especially if done in a nasty or disrespectful manner. Members may simply decide to stay home and not attend the department work detail, fund raising event, or worse yet not respond to the emergency call. The goal in good volunteer fire department leadership is to inspire your people and make them want to participate and be at the firehouse and on that emergency call, not force them.
所有伟大的书籍和培训课程leadership list many similar traits that all great leaders possess; Not all these great leaders are from the fire service, either. Indeed, the traits of great leaders are learned from successful military leaders, business icons, and even respected politicians. If fire service leaders—especially the officer—work to apply these traits, success will follow.
However, leading is not that easy. Hard decisions are made and people won’t always agree with you, but if you listen to people, understand them, treat them well, and communicate effectively, you will find less conflict and more harmony within the halls of your volunteer firehouse.
Let’s discuss of those “must-have” traits that are employed not only by good leaders but successful fire department officers as well.
所有权
的主题my most recent article, ownership is an attitude that any leader in any organization needs to embrace. A true fire service leader takes ownership of the fire service, his department, his firehouse, and himself as a professional firefighter. He also owns whatever tasks and duties he is delegated. On any team—in any organization—all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. When a leader embraces the ownership mentality, there is never anyone else to blame when things go wrong. He owns everything in his world. The leader must acknowledge mistakes, admit failures, and take ownership of those failures. On doing so, he can then focus on developing a plan to overcome the failure and move forward. An organization flourishes and members become highly effective leaders by taking ownership in their volunteer fire department.
Consistency
领导者也是一致的。他无法选择何时戴上领导帽。任何组织中的官员都分配了各种工作和职责。其中一些委派工作似乎并不重要，无聊或平凡。实际上，该官员甚至可能不想完成他的分配工作。但是，这样做至关重要。有时，您会发现官员和消防员开始定期，彻底地做他们所需的工作。但是，一段时间后，他们对做得好的工作变得无聊或不太感兴趣，并且他们开始采取捷径，或者更糟糕的是，他们不再像应该做的那样彻底完成这项工作。
A good leader will do the jobs for which he is responsible in a consistent and regular manner, all while maintaining a positive attitude. The rank and file does not want to hear an officer complaining about being in charge of the radio receivers, the community events, or hose inventory. They want an officer who is happy in his wok and someone who they can count on to take care of his responsibilities in a consistent and proficient manner.
Tired
所有领导人都应该期望累。简而言之，如果您是作为领导者的工作，您会很累。我并不是说您需要几天不睡觉，但这意味着您会去那些可怕的晚上的电话，您将在消防站长时间完成工作，或者您可能正在计划进行演习或在您上床睡觉或下班回家后，在部门分钟工作（请记住，领导者在组织的两边）。是的，成为一个好的领导者意味着您会很累。
A Positive Example
所有伟大的领导人都学会了以自己的个人榜样为首。当您不这样做时，您如何期望新成员在深夜回答那个警报？您如何通过不参加铁杆培训来宣讲铁杆培训的价值？学会以示例的力量来领导，而不是以自己的力量为例。
Organization
All officers and leaders need to develop an organizational plan that works for them. Our families and the jobs we have that feed them come first, but when a member takes on an officer’s role, he is saying that he has the time management skills necessary to get the required work done. Find a system that works for you and strive to be as organized as possible. A professional officer is anorganizedofficer.
Integrity
Integrity is one of the traits identified in every book about leadership. Why? Because it is so universally important. Unfortunately, it is still not recognized and embraced by everyone. Recognize that your overall character is important to gain respect as an officer and leader in your fire department. Remember, as an officer, your people are watching you all the time; they pay attention to what you say and how your handle yourself. That’s just the way it is in any organization. Loosely defined, integrity is how you act when nobody is watching you. It means you do the right thing, always. It certainly is one of the most critical traits for any officer to possess. Once it’s lost you may never get it back. Don’t think for a moment you can be a successful officer or a successful leader without it. An officer without integrity is doomed to fail not only as an officer, but as a leader as well, and a leader without integrity is certainly not a professional in any organization.
Honesty
再加上正直，诚实同样重要。永远不要以为您的人不知道您是否对他们撒谎。与失去诚信类似，一旦您被贴上骗子，它就会永远坚持下去，您的人民将失去对您的全部信任和信心。没有问题的答案是可以的。不知道该怎么做是可以的。编造答案并假装自己不是的东西是不行的。始终对您的会员资格保持诚实，永远不要对他们撒谎。
Trust
与诚实密切相处是信任。所有好的领导者都是值得信赖的。您的成员必须知道您始终有他们的支持。他们需要知道，当您告诉他们您会做某事或为他们获得答案时，您将继续进行并做。他们需要知道您不参与谣言。毫无疑问，他们知道您是否在谈论他背后的成员，那么您无疑也可以谈论他们的背后。学会使您的会员信任，更重要的是，努力维护它。
I will discuss several other “must-have” leadership traits in my next article. These traits will be expected of any competent fire service officer. For now, I hope you will reflect on those listed here. Don’t just read them; embrace and employ them, and I guarantee that you will be well on your way to being a much more effective and professional fire service leader.
THOMAS A. MERRILLis a 35-year fire department veteran and a former chief of the Snyder Fire Department in Amherst, New York. He is a fire commissioner for the Snyder Fire District. He served 26 years as a department officer including 15 years in the chief officer ranks. Merrill recently completed five years as chief of department. He has conducted various fire service presentations throughout the Western New York area as well as at FDIC. He also is a fire dispatcher for the Amherst (NY) Fire Alarm Office. He can be reached attamerrill63@aol.com。
