BY JOHN F. FITZWILLIAM
It is a basic human instinct: We are attracted to that which gives us pleasure and repulsed by that which is unpleasant. Which is the appropriate category for your volunteer fire/rescue department? Do the members enjoy participating in your organization? Does the fire station provide a comfortable atmosphere? Is it a friendly environment free of stress, personal animosities, grudges, bad tempers, backstabbers, shirkers, exclusive cliques, and arrogant officers?
What about the fireground or rescue scene itself? Do your volunteers feel as safe as possible? Do they have confidence in their line officers and chiefs? Is your training effective and reality-based? Are departmental problems addressed or merely swept under the rug? Is the workload equally distributed? Are fewer and fewer members doing more and more work?
The wise fire chief should keep his finger on the department’s pulse. When the volunteer fire department and its activities are no longer a source of satisfaction (i.e., pleasure), the members will “vote with their feet” and start to walk away. Your volunteers will cease to come around. Turnout will be noticeably lighter. The members will look for other activities in which to invest their valuable free time. That trickle of absent volunteers will become a flash flood before you know it! What can be done to save such an organization? Restoring motivation and morale is the key.
THE FORK IN THE ROAD
For our purposes, morale can be considered the group’s feeling of confidence and comfort with the organization. The members “buy into” the goals, objectives, and philosophy of their department. Pride, self- discipline, and esprit de corps are obvious characteristics. As morale deteriorates, group members lose these qualities. The positive morale is replaced with internal conflict, tension, absence (from work details, meetings, and alarms), sloppiness, and overall organizational dissatisfaction. A fork in the road soon appears: The member travels one road; his department takes another. This is a growing cancer that can kill a volunteer department. The members, officers, and chiefs must all work together to put the department back on track. To ignore the warning signs is organizational suicide. A healthy dose of motivation and self-assessment can turn the tide.
ADDRESSING THE ISSUES
The first order of business should be to overcome the internal conflicts and tensions. The department must return to a state of stability. Corrective action is needed to restore cooperation and team spirit. So how do we resolve conflict? According to EMS consultant Dr. Robert Porter of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, this involves six steps:
- Depersonalize the problem. Separate the issues from the people.
- Find root causes. Distinguish the symptoms from the actual problem.
- Commit to constructive confrontation. Everyone should agree to work this out. Use a neutral facilitator for volatile issues.
- Schedule a session dedicated to solving this problem. Preferably this should occur in an informal atmosphere.
- Begin by stating a positive goal. Avoid negativism.
- Strive for satisfaction of all parties.
Dale Carnegie offered leaders the following advice for getting people to change for the better. Begin with praise and honest appreciation. Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders. Let the other person save face. Praise every improvement, even a slight one. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to. Use encouragement to make the fault seem easy to correct. Make the other person happy about doing the things you suggest.
After the conflict is controlled, team building must resume. In their excellent book Recruiting, Training, and Maintaining Volunteer Firefighters (Management Development Institute, 1982), Jack Snook and Dan Olsen state that effective teams require five basic conditions:
- Mutual trust. Each member feels free to state opinions without negative consequences.
- Mutual support. Genuine concern for each other.
- Genuine communication. A quality of openness.
- Accepting conflicts as normal and working them out.
- Mutual respect for individual differences.
Motivation should be near and dear to everyone who ever hopes to lead a volunteer organization. It exists when someone wishes to perform a specific activity because doing that satisfies a need within that individual. The successful leader knows exactly what he wants done by other people and what human needs/desires will fuel a member’s motivation to perform that task. Which worker is more motivated-one who performs simply because the boss wants him to or one who performs because he himself wants to?
What are these human motivations? There is no magic to motivating volunteers if we remember that they joined the department to fill a personal need. The standard human desires include recognition, social contact, earning respect, learning new skills, enhancing self-esteem, enjoying new experiences, putting excitement into their lives, and generally seeking activities that are pleasurable and avoiding those that are not.
When these needs are no longer being met (for whatever reason), volunteers drift away from the organization-first mentally, then physically. They walk away to continue their search elsewhere. If the environment in the station is no longer enjoyable or causes aggravation and frustration, the member will look elsewhere for personal satisfaction. How many times have you heard that financial situations led to a volunteer’s leaving the group? Yes, financial considerations are valid reasons for taking second jobs, having a spouse work, going back to college to get that degree, and so forth. I believe, however, that many times the true reason for resignation goes deeper. When you conduct an exit interview (and I hope you do that), listen to the reasons people give for bailing out. How often do you think they are giving you the full picture? When a member tells you “I’m leaving because I don’t have enough time,” dig deeper. Frequently, you will find it’s because the department has failed to meet this member’s expectations. The member (and family?) would rather spend free time elsewhere! That should send up a red flag indicating a need for departmental self-examination.
Another good book about incentives and motivation besides Snook and Olsen’s is The EMS Recruitment & Retention Manual (FA-157), which is free from the United States Fire Administration. Both these books contain suggestions for motivating volunteers. It is said that “motivation starts with the leaders.” Officers should become familiar with motivational theories like Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and study management publications on that topic.
BURNED OUT OR BURNED UP?
A frequently cited cause for failing to retain members (both volunteer and career) is burnout. We hear people say, “He’s not coming around anymore because he is burned out.” Burnout is generally found in high-volume, high-stress systems (EMS, fire, and law enforcement). The emergency service provider is overwhelmed emotionally. He has seen enough sorrow, horror, inhumanity, and depravity to last a lifetime. The member withdraws totally or exhibits uncaring, bizarre behavior. Burnout is a term incorrectly applied to many of our colleagues. A wise lecturer once said most of these people are not burned out, they are burned up! They are not victims of a mental health crisis; they are simply angry. That’s why they no longer come down to the fire station or respond to calls.
These volunteers have joined their organizations with noble intentions and full of enthusiasm. Somewhere along the road, they got fed up with ridiculous regulations, incompetent leadership, outdated traditions, poor training, moronic coworkers, lack of respect, being taken for granted, being treated as a child, unnecessary waste of the volunteer’s free time, unyielding procedures, scheduling snafus, lack of recognition for their efforts, being left out of the decision-making process, or being forced to participate in distasteful activities (walking door to door asking for donations is my personal gripe).
WHAT LEADERS CAN DO
Leaders of volunteer emergency service organizations must anticipate such typical complaints and stay ahead of the problems. This is not rocket science; it’s basic human relations. Read Dale Carnegie’s classic book How To Win Friends and Influence People (Simon and Schuster, Pocket Books, 1982). First published in 1936, it is still an excellent guide to handling people. It is an easy-to-read, no-nonsense book that should be devoured by anyone who aspires to be a successful leader.
Successful leaders ask their troops how things are going. How can we improve? What can the department do to make your job more rewarding? Do you have the proper tools and training to accomplish your tasks? A good leader thanks the members for their efforts and follows up on their complaints. Leaders do not dwell on mistakes. Encourage the members to continue on the right path.
The competent leader delegates jobs among the members to build positive attitudes. The early recognition of internal tension is also critical. Monitor the formation of cliques, and reduce tension. Hold people accountable for their behavior. Encourage teamwork. Give them challenges to triumph over. Management author Kenneth Blanchard wrote, “People who produce good results feel good about themselves.” Volunteers who work hard should not have to tolerate the “knife and fork” members who come to all the social events but evade work. The volunteer looks to the leader to maintain organizational justice. Once a volunteer sees that management tolerates malingerers, things will rapidly deteriorate. No one likes to be taken advantage of and watch others skate by. The leader has an obligation to support his workers. If the volunteers think that their leaders no longer stand up for them, they will drift away from the organization.
