During my almost 30 years in the fire service, I have tried to take the lessons learned wherever they may present themselves. And where do they present themselves most often? In our mistakes! Nothing drives the point home harder, and with more undeniable clarity, than making mistakes.
This is one of the many reasons the NIOSH 5 is such a valuable tool for any firefighter serious about the craft. The NIOSH 5 are as follows: improper risk assessment, lack of incident command, lack of accountability, inadequate communications, and lack of SOPs or failure to follow established SOPs. These are the top five causal factors that contribute to the ultimate outcomes in the investigated line-of-duty-death (LODD) reports.
What does the NIOSH 5 have to do with fire service leadership? Everything. Let’s break this down.
Inadequate Communications
I am not discussing these in order because I believe communication is a common thread throughout the other four factors. What is the first thing to deteriorate, or just outright fail, on just about every fireground, disaster site, live fire training event, or annual retirement dinner organization meeting? Communication! And what is one of the first things to fail when leadership starts to waver? You guessed it: communication.
Whether it’s dealing with the “big fires” like conflict resolution and change management or just the day-to-day issues like job assignments, nonemergency tasks, working out in the community with the public, or interacting with partner agencies, communication is a key component of good leadership. And the first, and arguably most important, part of great leadership communication is listening. When we think of leadership, we picture the image of the salty, mustachioed captain, silhouetted by the fire, looking like an epic warrior of old and shouting out commands while pointing in some nonspecific direction. Perhaps what we should be thinking about is the sage and stoic mentor, chin in hand and mouth shut, listening carefully with both his ears and eyes to what is being said (and not said). Pastor Andy Stanley said, “Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say.” Leaders listen.
Once we have listening locked down, we need to recognize and develop our messaging skills. This includes, but is not limited to, our command abilities, our public speaking, our one-on-one conversational skills, our report writing, our e-mail skills, and our social media savvy—the latter is often possessing the wisdom to steer clear of it! A leader ensures that those who need to know are kept in the loop. This can be as simple as asking yourself, “Who else needs to know this?” and then making that happen. Many issues can be avoided by keeping your team informed with “the whats”; “the hows”; and, most importantly, “the whys.” When the troops are up to speed on the “Commander’s Intent,” they are better able to make decisions and perform actions that will achieve the intended end state.
Leaders also don’t waste anyone’s time on unnecessary messaging—for example, sending e-mails to a mailing list when a targeted few would be more effective or a meeting with the team when a conversation with those specifically involved would be more appropriate.
On the fireground, it needs to be clear, concise, and “common.” The terminology needs to be consistent of type and format so it is immediately recognizable by all involved. And when it comes to radio air time, communicate—don’t conversate. Treat it like the air in your SCBA cylinder—valuable and limited.
Lack of Incident Command
Someone has to be in charge. It is just as undesirable to have no one in charge as it is to have too many people claiming to be in charge. A serious failure in leadership is when the individual identified as the boss fails to embrace the role.
We have all worked with, and for, certain individuals who just can’t seem to make a decision. This could be on a strategic, tactical, or task level. And we all know how frustrating this can be. As a leader, we can’t be “decision averse.” People look to you to gather the information, compare it against your training and experience, factor in your available resources, consider the options, throw in some good sense, and then make a call.
When the GPS arrow is spinning, there are two ways to get it to stop: turn it off (not advisable) or start moving. The worst-case scenario is that you are moving in the wrong direction. But you’ll never know until you take those first couple of steps. So, when you start to make decisions, try with a few small ones to get your bearings. This will make a change of course easy to manage and it will limit any negative outcomes.
In the military, we were taught if you have 70% of the information, it is actionable. Don’t wait until you know everything. It will never happen, and meanwhile “the house” will burn down around your ears. Make a call.
When you have the luxury of time, and this is the case far more often than not, access your people! They are an incredible source of brainpower.
And don’t forget that as with almost every fire, so goes every change within the organization: It will get worse before it gets better.
Lack of Accountability
This is reflected in a number of the characteristics required of a leader, including character, integrity, commitment, and discipline. As a leader, you are accountable for all that you say and do personally. That’s the “easy” part.
We are also accountable for our teams—for their actions, their outcomes, their health and wellness, their training, their development, and their safety.
We are accountable to the department. We have to represent the department publicly and privately by knowing and modeling the values of the organization.
This is also actioned by supporting the chief and the job—knowing, understanding, instructing, and enforcing established departmental policies and procedures.
We are accountable to city hall, to be the best employee we can be, to know and support the vision and the direction the city is moving.
We are accountable to the community. That goes all the way from station pop-in visits to treating the citizens on their very worst day. These are the people we pledged to serve. We all talked the talk when we interviewed. Now is the time to put the muscle behind our hustle.
We are accountable for our words and our deeds—all of them. And, as leaders, we must always place Them before Us—and then the We before the Me.
It is a huge responsibility, one that we cannot lose sight of.
Lack of SOPs or Failure to Follow Established SOPs
Consultant Gordon Graham makes a great point regarding fire officers and policy and procedure. To paraphrase him, “That’s your freakin’ job!”
When you said “yes” to the position of officer, you agreed that you will learn and stay up to date on departmental policies, educate and train the troops regarding them, and then enforce them.
But what if the policy is out of date, ineffective, or just downright dangerous? Then do something about it! It’s our job as fire officers to lead up and down the chain of command. That means we assist our leaders by anticipating pitfalls and helping them navigate the gaps that are currently in the system. Sit down with that outdated policy and your crew (the combined IQ of your team is a force multiplier!) and sort it out. Once you have a good draft, run it by a couple of peers on the other shifts. When it passes muster with the folks that are “boots on the ground,” bring it to the boss. I can almost guarantee you the boss will be exceptionally grateful!
Leaders don’t bring problems; they bring solutions. And if you aren’t willing to do that work, shut up about it. Act or accept. Regardless, at the end of the day, as a team member or team leader, you are obligated to follow departmental policy and procedure. If you don’t want to enforce it as an officer, hand in your bugles and bars. If you don’t want to adhere to it as a firefighter, hand in your uniform. Others are lined up and eager to do the job you won’t.
Improper Risk Assessment
This is a biggie! In the NIOSH 5, this most often refers to the lack of a complete 360. In leadership, it is primarily the very same.
To again quote Gordon Graham, “If it’s predictable, it’s preventable.” How do we predict events? Step one is through situational awareness and self-awareness. What is situational awareness? It is the ability to perceive, understand, and predict in the context of time.
And how do we develop situational awareness? First and foremost, you have to care—legitimately and actually care. If you are reading this article, I will assume you do. And then you have to do the work; you have to do the “sets and reps.” We need to make a habit of paying attention to all things, big and small. We need to practice and hone our ability to look, listen, and feel what is happening around us, whether that is out in the community, on the fireground, or in the fire station.
And through those daily sets and reps, we develop our experience. When we are practicing this regularly, we improve at the micro level. When we develop these “muscles” at the micro level, we are conditioned and ready to employ them when things get “macro”! The bonus to being dialed in at the micro level is that it often prevents it from going macro.
The catch is that the higher in rank you are, the farther you get from where “IT” is. I have occupied a few of the managerial positions and understand the demands that can be placed on you. But, we need to carve out that time, regularly, to spend quality time with the team that we are building and serve.
We need to get boots on the ground, at the bay floor and kitchen level with our folks. That is where the information is, many questions are, and quite often where the answers are found as well.
What is self-awareness? It is the knowledge of one’s own values, character, feelings, and motives.
When I deliver my leadership workshops, I always ask, “Who thinks that having a good set of values is important?” As you can imagine, almost every hand goes up, every time. And then I ask, “Who knows what their values are and can name them right now?” Far, far fewer hands go up. How do we expect to lead by our values when we don’t know what they are?
A big part of being self-aware is knowing when you are falling out of alignment with your values. Character is acting with integrity within the value system you have established. You need that foundation.
Self-awareness is also being mindful of your feelings and emotions. The catalyst for your feelings is when your values are being “strained” by internal or external influencers. If you don’t understand what your actual values are, how can you understand the source of your feeing and emotions?
Now that we have established our situational awareness and self-awareness, we need to keep up our “360s.” This means keeping our eyes, ears, and gut tuned up and tuned in. We need to be ever vigilant for what’s happened and what’s going on now and anticipate the consequences of the first two. We shouldn’t look at these as “fatal flaws” but instead as identified, examined, and quantified opportunities—opportunities to bring your leadership to the next level; opportunities for us to make the team stronger; and, most importantly, opportunities to make our communities safer.
If we are not diligent and dedicated to avoiding the NIOSH 5 in our leadership, we will lose the trust and commitment of the teams we lead and serve. If we don’t have those key components, we will inevitably fail in our mission to the communities we all swore to protect.
We said, “Yes.” We have been provided with an incredible opportunity and privilege. We must continue to earn it.
Jeff Snider is the chief instructor for the Practical N Tactical Training Group. He has served with the Canadian military as a Special Forces operator (3 CDO); as a correctional officer at a maximum-security facility; and in the fire service for 28 years, serving in the Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services and the Abbotsford Fire Rescue Service. He has been an instructor in the fire service since 1997.
