Many of us pride ourselves on words like family andbrotherhood. Don’t just toss those words around so easily. If you are acompany officer, your crew should know how much you care about them. They can make or break the officer. I remember how I was treated by some of my department’s best officers; I still look up to many of them today. The positive environment they created made me feel special—not just one in a department of more than 500.
Your crew members need to know you offer an environment where problems are brought up and handled at the lowest level possible. When I enter the firehouse every shift, I think, “It is not about me, it is about them.” My job as their company officer is around the clock. They know they can call me at any time, and I am here to help them. We arefamily，即使我们第二天早上离开了消防站，它也是如此。
以身作则
When I was adriver-engineer，我从高级官员那里学到了这一重要规则：始终照顾您的船员。有一天，在第一次医疗通话中，我们的引擎破裂了，我们不得不将设备交换为预备汽车。五人（发动机和救援）的整个船员都来帮助转移设备。在我们的第二个电话中，我们回应了一场小型住宅厨房大火。到达后，发动机消防员伸展了线路，我处理了供水和现场所需的工具。救援人员强迫进入，进行了快速搜索，然后开始大修。除了指挥并确保机组人员的安全外，军官的工作很容易。并非每个场景都像这一场景那样顺利。回到消防站，整个工作人员都帮助清理了包装和软管，从不抱怨或质疑手头的任务。在繁忙的轮班上，我们跑了典型的20个电话，并比预期的晚了两顿饭。
At 8 p.m., the battalion chief called the captain, telling him to swap into our frontline engine. Although we never complained, we weren’t happy about another vehicle swap. This was poor timing. Our captain stood up for the crew and respectfully asked thebattalion chiefto hold off on the swap until the morning when the next shift came into work. We didn’t have to swap twice and slept through the night. He took a small opportunity to do the right thing for the crew, and it paid off in respect gained.
尊重
Now that I am acaptain, I realize my job is all about them and not about me. I think about that shift and company officer often. When he retired, I thanked him for making me the officer I am today. He led from the front and cared for the crew. Some new officers with limited fire or life experience assume that because they are “the boss,” the respect is automatically granted, not earned. Leadership doesn’t come from a textbook; it is obtained through experience and working alongside the right career mentors.
Taking Care of Our Assets
As our members rise through the ranks and take on various roles and responsibilities, how is our organization caring for our greatest assets, our people, to ensure we are retaining our greatleaders? What is your fire department’s succession plan? How is it managing演替? What’s your contingency plan when leaders retire or leave the department? Is there a written plan in place?
- Succession Planning: Identifying, Developing, and Retaining Quality Chief Fire Officers
- Practical Fire Service Succession Planning
- Succession Planning 101: Are We Doing the Best We Can for Our Personnel?
在继任计划, future organization leaders are identified and developed for major roles atalllevels. It starts with the new hire and continues with every rank preparing subordinates for the next rank or role. Fire departments interview, hire, and invest a large amount of capital in future leaders. You build your training program starting with basic hard skills and then move on to soft skills, followed by advanced knowledge and education. Along the way, you add lots of experience.
Firefighter Today, Officer Tomorrow
The试用消防员today could be the deputy chief tomorrow, running operations. The recruit today could be the captain who saves two children in a house fire tomorrow and creates a new policy or technique on making members better at their jobs.
在继任计划，您通过指导，培训，教育和发展来识别和准备适当的候选人，以取代主要员工。这不仅与消防队长有关。这是关于在各个级别查看您的主要资产（员工）；他们的离开可能会在没有警告的情况下出现。这是每个消防组织都应该做的事情，因为营业额在每个组织的每个级别都会继续发生。
Vacancies occur because of promotions and as mid-level and senior officers leave your organization for other opportunities elsewhere. You must replace such people with appropriate, qualified successors.
为什么这很关键
Supervisors must prepare employees for advancement so a qualified person can step in when the supervisor leaves for whatever reason. Officers have the implicit duty to prepare subordinates to take their place; your department is only as good as the people running it. Unfortunately, not many organizations practice succession planning.
继承计划在国家消防学院的188博金宝体育1Executive Leadershipmanual as “an organized and systemic way to ensure employees in a particular organization are capable, competent, and willing to replace and/or succeed to strategic roles within the organization.”
Succession planning is critical for the following reasons:
- 它通过从内部而晋升而保持士气。
- It ensures the agency can readily fill key positions—e.g., chief, deputy chief, and battalion chief.
- It reduces the chance of promoting underqualified and unprepared individuals.
- It avoids the “great badge giveaway” when departments have more positions to fill than people on an eligibility list.
Why It Is Not Done
Some fire departments don’t have succession plans in place because of the following reasons:
- 无法决定谁推广。
- A candidate passes the test but doesn’t have the skills or talents needed for the next step.
- Bias against potential successors.
- 害怕士气令人不安。
- 公司和首席官没有结构化正式的官员发展计划。
- No training funds because leaders feel this cost delivers no immediate benefit.
- 无知从哪里开始和寻求帮助。
- Leaders are unable to disconnect from the day-to-day issues to focus on long-term planning.
- Leaders don’t believe successors are ready to assume control, and so they feel nothing can be done.
Hopefully, your organization is committed to developing succession plans, which should be in place for department/bureau heads and administrative positions too, not just the top. The plan must consider the organization’s strategic goals and interests. It must have validly evaluated employee skills. The performance measurements should be specific, measurable, attainable, reliable, and timely. Training/development, advancement opportunities, and recognition for succession candidates must be a big part of the plan, which should be a living working document and integrated into the hiring strategy. The plan should be tried and tested, like all good strategies.
Identifying Your Successors
如果你们部门的职位出现空缺托托ay, is someone readily identified who is willing and able to fill it? If not, start identifying that successor now.
Fire department leaders can help lay the foundation for succession planning. First, at the top of the chain, the chief must lead the department in creating a culture that values education and personal development at all levels. Identify and communicate the requirements and opportunities for advancement clearly to all ranks. Firefighters’ performance improves when they receive the right set of skills, abilities, and training to do their jobs. Employees tend to remain with an organization where they experience personal and professional growth. They leave when they don’t feel valued. If a department fails to train their employees, assumes the risk and liability.
The chief or deputy chiefs should identify successor candidates for different organization operations and levels. The chief should seek out the advice of not only the chief but company officers, since the company officer has the single most influential role in the department. This individual is a great resource for identifying future department leaders.
Candidate Attributes
虽然我在rotatio工作n with various firefighters on my shift, I know I am responsible as their officer to invest time into their future not only for promotional opportunities but for their growth as firefighters to better serve our citizens. I have an informal succession plan for those department members who I see as the organization’s future leaders.
I work with a rescue lieutenant who is an ideal candidate for the captain position and will soon be promoted. For the past two years, I have prepared her for the role she will soon assume. During a recent shift, I gave her my captain seat for the entire shift, and I worked on her rescue so she could gain some experience. It is my implicit duty to train viable candidates for the next role and its responsibilities. Perhaps one day I will be in a position in my department to help write our organization’s succession plan from the top down. Until then, in developing a succession plan, I would include considering the following traits, ideas, and components based on my observations as a captain.
Soft (People) Skills
Soft skills such as reading, writing, following orders, all forms of communication, and the ability to process and understand concepts are crucial to a leader’s success. As a captain, I must complete annual employee performance evaluations. I am aware of those who have demonstrated their ability to be responsible for others, take charge of a situation, delegate tasks as needed, and influence and motivate others. I also seek out the employees who take constructive criticism, receive feedback, and grow and improve from the feedback.
I seek out members who like to learn. Learning is the ability to comprehend, not just to memorize something; it includes having the common sense to use the new knowledge properly.
Proactive Thinking
Proactive thinkers come to the table with solutions for handling a problem. They have identified a problem and the obvious and unseen causes, researched various solutions, and choose the best ones. They have developed a plan to solve the problem, implement the plan, and follow up on the results.
在动态环境中适应
Adaptable individuals can remain calm on scene, especially at the most chaotic calls to which we respond. As officers, we must constantly adapt and overcome fireground problems. Sometimes, we must make split-second decisions based on the unknown and limited information.
当处理管理和领导任何组织中的许多问题时，这项技能也很重要 - 现场生活，人事问题，劳动力与管理等。个人如何根据决策的决定与后果（好坏）恢复与决策本身一样重要。
Results Driven/Open to Change
我喜欢训练个体关注服务台ination and are not dismayed by the path needed to get there. Change is inevitable. It is also among the hardest things to adapt to in the fire department and obtain buy-in from the members who have been doing something for a very long time. Results-oriented employees understand that they are responsible for their own career development and are committed to making this happen. Good succession plan candidates understand the long-term fire department goals and culture. If they resist change or are negative, they will never be able to adapt at the command and administration level.
Sustaining It Long-Term
现在您已经制定了该计划并在组织中执行了计划，从长远来看，如何维持它？招聘，积极/正在进行的培训，绩效评估/测量和反馈是成功计划的一些关键。
继任计划从新员工开始。招聘可以制定或打破您的继任计划。当人力资源希望引入新的消防员时，他们会着眼于候选人的潜力和能力。潜力是能够证明在组织下一个最高级别上取得成功所需的行为。能力和行为是潜力的良好指标。能力是目前表明某人现在如何执行技能的迹象，而潜力可以预期未来的技能表现。任何消防实体总是可以改善其招聘流程。我们应归功于消防服务，将基于绩效的测试包括在招聘中。火场技能，身体健康和紧急医疗服务技能应成为每个招聘过程的一部分。消防员的工作与软技能一样依赖动手技能。
Leadership Skills
训练your members in leadership skills and knowledge is critical to success. Fire departments often bring in outside vendors for training. Training makes the members more productive and efficient. In return, the organization becomes more successful, and your future succession plan leaders grow.
Performance Evaluation
企业利用绩效评估来衡量how well people are performing and how they can improve. In fire service organizations, it is important to give feedback to our people often. We are in the service industry to our citizens. We should be consistently evaluating how we are doing and how we can grow and learn from our successes and challenges. As a company officer, I rely on consistent feedback not just from the crews and supervisors but from the citizens we serve. If an issue arises, we fix the issue in-house. If we receive a complaint, we will do our best to remedy the situation. Feedback provides positive criticism and allows all of us to see what everyone can change to improve our focus and results.
继任计划是组织发展的关键组成部分，以确保组织的长期成功和持续的领导能力。这是我们应该在日常活动，新员工过程和年度计划中建立的常规业务元素。组织发展包括招聘，培训，绩效评估和衡量成功。作为消防官员，我们应归功于我们的人民（我们最大的资产）专业发展他们。他们是消防组织的未来领导者。
References
Bierster，格雷格。参谋长的继任计划[sic] for the New York City Fire Department. New York Fire Department, Brooklyn, New York.
Daley, Ryan. (August 24, 2020). 21 Shocking Statistics on the State of Succession Planning. Aiir Consulting.https://bit.ly/3op5i3v.
在ternational Association of Fire Chiefs. (September 2016) Succession Planning or Succession Program?https://bit.ly/3ETxxnS.
Jenaway, William F. Who Is the Next Leader in Your Organization? The Case for Succession Planning! Firemen’s Association for the State of New York.https://bit.ly/3GJPplJ/.
国家消防学院（20188博金宝体育105）执行领导手册。SM 7-3。
Nawaz, Sabina. (May 15, 2017) The Biggest Mistakes New Executives Make.Harvard Business Review.https://bit.ly/3eso2p3.
Robert Half Talent Solutions. What Is Succession Planning? 7 Steps to Success.https://bit.ly/3oQbk4s.
MARK J. ROSSIis a captain and 20-year veteran of the Fort Lauderdale (FL) Fire Department, assigned to a busy engine company in the downtown district. He is the co-founder for the (South Florida) First-Due Engine/Truck Program at Coral Springs Regional Institute of Public Safety. Rossi is an accredited fire officer and has a BS degree in finance and an MBA from the University of Florida.
