SELECTING LEADERS

SELECTING LEADERS

VOLUNTEERS CORNER

In the past several years, the leadership responsibilities in volunteer departments have changed drastically. Gone are the days when popularity was the most significant qualification of an officer. The challenges for that leadership role today include standard personnel management techniques, human relations skills, diplomacy, organizational skills, communication skills, chemical dependency issues, male/female working relations, personnel training (technical and managerial), and volunteer retention and recruitment.

Following are ideas for developing programs and plans volunteer companies can use to implement an effective leadership qualification development and selection process.

BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE

Several processes for selecting leaders are used by volunteer departments The traditional and most commonly used process, according to a 1991 survey conducted by the Volunteer Chiefs Committee of the International Association of Fire Chiefs and information received from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania fireservice organizations, is the election. This process, which is clearly democratic, has allowed the membership to “pick” their favorite candidate, but it also has resulted in producing leaders with varied ranges of qualifications. For example, one New York department requires that a chief officer be elected out of available former company captains. To reach the rank of captain in that department, a member must have served as a lieutenant. To be elected a lieutenant, a member must be a qualified driver. To be a qualified apparatus driver requires a significant amount of classroom and practical training (80 to 100 hours), which is followed by an exam. The process for becoming certified as an apparatus driver is a good one, but it is the only “check point” in the process requiring any qualification, other than popularity, to become chief of this volunteer organization.

In contrast, a volunteer fire company in Virginia requires that the volunteer chief be a certified firefighter Ill, instructor I. emergency vehicle operator. and emergency medical technician and have five years of active fire rescue management experience. Similar requirements exist for all officer positions in that organization.

In the past, selecting volunteer leadership may not have been as critical due to the low frequency of emergency calls, social and cultural similarities among members, and little tear of liability . Today, however, the executive fire officer of a volunteer organization must deal with a larger population (due to suburban areas becoming urban and rural areas becoming suburban), resulting in additional needs for services (including varied levels of emergency medical services in formerly “fire only” organizations); the introduction of all “collar” ty’pe members, women, and minority men; and the veryreal issue of liability, which includes being sued.

The challenge to reinvent a leadership selection process is a very tough one. Some very critical issues exist today, and the leader must be qualified to deal with them. The leader is accountable for managing the less frequent tactical-related issues and also the more dominant day-to-day personnel management issues.

Literature searches, other research, and interviews I conducted reveal that the volunteer fire service, as a whole, still selects its leadership primarily through a popularity-contesttype election process in which the chosen leaders have limited, minimal, or irrelevant qualifications, such as in the example given above, in which the maximum qualification of the elected chief of one volunteer department was qualification as a driver.

As our society has changed, so has its general perception of what a leader must be. A volunteer fire organization, at the minimum, can assess itself to identify the attributes it requires of its leadership. One way to accomplish this assessment is to form an assessment group made up of members and nonmembers. This group must focus on three primary goals:

• To identify and embrace the fact that the community’s needs are its highest priority.
• To identify the organization’s needs, as a second priority (based on No. 1).
• To establish a leadership profile that considers qualifications and training to match the priorities listed in Nos. 1 and 2.

The following three methods for selecting leaders in a volunteer department have emerged from my research.

• The traditional process with little or no qualifications and an organizationwide election.
• A process in which the organization assesses its needs, sets minimum qualifications based on a community and organizational profile, and then elects leaders from among the qualified candidates.
• A process similar to that in No. 2 in which a board of directors or a similar governing body “hires” the leaders, using standard hiring practices, This process eliminates the election process.

We can assume for this article that there is an interest in improving the volunteer leadership selection process.

IMPROVEMENT IS POSSIBLE

My research shows that the process of selecting leaders of volunteer departments can be improved by instituting changes of various degrees. Most of the new objectives require some significant cultural changes—in such areas as electing pals as leaders and requiring minimal or no certification—and commitment to the organization. Some of the changes involve simple, minor revisions. Executive fire officers desiring to establish a new leadership selection process in their organizations have available to them realistic and proven objectives for review . They can be used as a guide for implementing a new system. Some of these objectives follow:

• Set a plan. This is a simple, but
• critical, step that requires commitment. In a volunteer organization, voting for policy (or change of policy) may be the only way to accomplish goals. Work with the membership to gain approval for evaluating the current selection process. The “approval-to-evaluate” step may be time-consuming and frustrating, but it is the only way to attain a majority “buy-in,” which (in reality) is the first step in establishing a new foundation.
• Establish an assessment group to function as a task force. With the membership’s approval, establish a balanced, well-represented assessment group, whose mission is to draff new selection procedures. Participants of this group should include representatives from all segments of the organization. A critical consideration in this process is to invite “nonmembers” to participate as representatives of the citizens. These individuals could be the mayor, a member of the municipal council or a commission, and prominent members of the business community. The role of these nonmembers is to ensure that the group focuses on the needs of the community and not only on the internal needs of the organization. This group should create the “road map” that guides the organization in conducting a needs assessment.
• Set objectives. The goal is to establish a leadership selection process that reflects the challenges the organization must meet. The objectives, the steps the assessment group takes to establish the new selection process, will identify the “who,” “what,” “when.” and “why” aspects of a new selection policy.
• Maintain regular communication with the membership during the assessment process. Doing this can effectively manage rumors. Remember that the process may be threatening to specific organization members or even to existing leaders. By publishing meeting highlights, the members are kept up to date, which can help to affirm the initial buy-in.
• Idently an organizational profile. This step involves assessing the organization: What are its needs? Its
• future challenges? The problems that consistently plague it? What is the current status of external relations with other agencies, departments, and so on? What aspects are critical to the culture of the organization? Answers to these questions can assist in matching the leaders’ qualifications to the existing issues. Prioritize these needs and use them as a guide when developing and implementing the new selection process.

When the chief of a fire department in Florida resigned, the fire commission asked itself similar questions to determine what the new chief should “look like.” The members’ careful assessment and evaluation, resulting from implementing the procedural steps listed here, produced a candidate who has successfully led the department since 1983-

• Identify the minimum qualifications. In some jurisdictions, laws may outline minimum qualifications. In most, however, minimum qualifications are just that —minimum and perhaps even outdated. Some states, such as Florida, have strict certification requirements for career personnel and less stringent ones for volunteers. Although this may appear to be helpful to volunteer departments, it reduces the qualifications for their leaders. In a discussion I had with Carl Holmes, a former assistant chief of a department in Oklahoma City’, Oklahoma, he commented, “There are career fire departments and volunteer fire departments; however, the fire and personnel issues do not recognize the difference.” Chief Holmes’ comment points out that the only real difference between these departments when it comes to fire servicerelated issues is a paycheck. Based on his observation, qualifications for volunteer department leaders should include tactical, operational, and managerial training based on established standards in the fire service and the business world. Of course, consider the standard “officer certifications” such as those available through the National Fire Protection Association and state and local courses. Also, consider “people” training such as
• that available through local community college courses and seminars frequently offered to the business community. These courses, in addition to an assessed ability to work with and get along with people, are vital. According to the statistics I have seen from the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the National Fire Academy, the NFPA, and other sources, officers spend less than five percent of
• their time commanding at a technical level (such as at emergencies). The majority of an officer’s time is spent dealing with people. This nonglamourous role easily can be ignored, but it must be recognized and acknowledged that this is what being “chief” is all about.
• Make a comparison. Once the assessment group has determined some of the proposed new plans, compare an outline of these plans with the present selection procedure. Compare roles, traditions, and proce-
• dures. Evaluate the cultural changes that may occur as the new plan is implemented, and try to determine how the changes will affect your organization.
• Prepare to “sell” the proposed changes to the membership. Up until this point, all facets of the organization have been participants in the evaluation process either through representation, providing active input (which has been sought), or receiving feedback on a regular basis (through written/verbal progress reports). Marketing efforts, therefore, have been continual, but a formal presentation to the entire membership still is needed to ensure that the “buy-in” process will continue.
• Continue to carefully market, monitor, and manage the changes in the organization as they occur. Provide the opportunities for implementing the changes. For example, if it is determined that NFPA fire officer I certification is required for a specific position, ensure that the opportunity to achieve this level is conveniently available to all members. In addition, allow interested members enough time to be trained before the policy is put into effect.

The key to successfully implementing a new leadership selection process is to “sell” the program to the entire organization. An alternative is to have overseeing bodies such as a board of directors, board of commissioners, or city council mandate the new selection process. This approach, however, has not proved as successful as that of having at least a majority of the members of the volunteer organization “buy in.”

The chances for success also improve when the turmoil that may result from the revisions in the newprocess is dealt with in a proactivemanner. While implementing a new leadership selection process, the organization’s commitment to protect and serve the community must remain in focus. If the organization ignores the identified problems and suggested solutions, it is only a matter of time before these problems will be reflected in an emergency situation or within the membership itself. Such a situation could lead to a personal tragedy in which individuals (citizens and fire department members alike) may be injured or killed, or a professional tragedy for the organization in which the organization and individual members become involved in a legal situation with regrettable results. Less dramatically, negative results can be in the forms of a declining membership, minimal to no participation by members, or multiple “splits” in the organization, creating a situation in which unofficial leaders provide irresponsible direction.

In effect, then, the volunteer organization has three choices, outlined as follows:

1. Use a leadership selection process that requires no training and experience critera.
2. Develop a process that requires qualifications (and provides the means to attain them) and allows the membership to elect leaders from a qualified field of candidates.
3. Develop a process similar to No. 2 above, but replace elections with an application-interview process in which the selection would be madethrough assessment centers or other standard “hiring” processes. In this case, the hiring process would be directed by a board of commissioners, trustees, or the municipal council. This route would be the most challenging for most volunteer departments, especially those used to the traditional volunteer election process.

The reward for committing to and adopting a leader selection plan “bought into” by the majority of members, the volunteer organization, and the community will be competent and qualified leaders.

References

1. Bennis, Warren and Burt Nanus. 1983. Leaders. The Strategies for Taking Charge. Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc.
2. Cribbin, James J. 1981. Leadership Strategies for Organizational Effectiveness. AMACOM Books.
3. Gardner, John W. “Leadership and the Future.” The Futurist, MayJune 1990.
4. Greathouse, Christina. “10 Common Hiring Mistakes.” Industry Week, January 20, 1992.
5. Gruesel, David. “How to Hire the Right Person for Your Firm.” Architectural Record, May 1990.
6. Head, Robert C. “Systematic Salesperson Selection.” Sales and Marketing, February 1992.
7. Horton, Thomas R. and Peter C. Reid. 1991. Beyond the Trust GapForging a New Partnership Between Managers and Their Employers. Richard D. Irwin, Inc.
8. Matejka, Ken. 1992. Why This Horse Won’t Drink. How to Win — and Keep—Employee Commitment. AMACOM Books.
9. Werther, Dr. William B„ Jr. 1989. Dear Boss —What Every Manager Needs to Hear and Every Employee Wants to Say. Meadowbrook Press.