IMPROVING VOLUNTEER OFFICERS THROUGH MANAGEMENT TRAINING
TRAINING NOTEBOOK
As we approach the 21st century, we find the American fire service (especially volunteers) at a crossroad. Diverse problems and opportunities are out there awaiting our response. It is safe to say that some departments will be facing reduction, consolidation, or extinction within the next five to 10 years. Whether the outcome will be positive or negative is in the hands of today’s junior officers and middle managers. From their ranks will emerge tomorrow’s chiefs. Improved officer training will be a deciding factor.
Read any textbook or journal article on the volunteer fire service and you will learn where the weaknesses lie. The most common weakness is not in the area of technical ability but in that of management skills—supervision, leadership, motivation, human relations, counseling, finance, and communication. In the not too distant past, technical ability was everything. From the newest probie to the chief, it seemed that technical skill and expertise were all you needed to climb the promotional ladder. Conventional wisdom held that if you were a good firefighter, it automatically followed that you also would be a good company captain. The unfortunate result of such a policy, the subject of Tom Peter’s book The Peter Principle, is that employees are promoted in an organization until they have reached the level of their incompetence. By then, of course, the damage has been done.
Fortunately, more and more departments are realizing that just because a firefighter has good technical skills does not guarantee that he will be a successful officer. Does this mean that higher ranking officers no longer need technical training? Absolutely not! Technical training should never end. I have observed, however, that as a member progresses from firefighter to company officer to chief officer, the need for better managerial and leadership training becomes more pressing. This is true for career and volunteer fire departments. Volunteers hoping to improve their organization must never permit the term “volunteer” to become an excuse for lack of professionalism. Whenever I hear someone whine, “I’m only a volunteer,” I get angry. The smoke and flames do not know the difference; neither do cemeteries!
WHERE DO WE BEGIN?
Where do you start to improve the ranks of volunteer officers? First, you must recruit g;xd members. Even if your department is experiencing a manpower shortage, it ultimately is better to recruit one gixxl candidate than three unqualified candidates. Next, review the qualifications for becoming an officer in your department. Have they changed in the past 30 years? Are there educational requirements? Most volunteer departments I know’ still elect their officers. This in itself is not a bad thing as long as all the nominees meet a standard set of requirements. At a minimum, these requirements should be based on experience and successful completion of specific training courses. Whenever I am told that some officer was elected because he bought the most beers for the voters, I just cringe. As some wise person once observed, “People deserve the type of leaders they elect!”
SOME WARNING SIGNS
In some agencies, the fire chief appoints the staff and line officers. The chief (or voters) should be alert to certain warning signs when choosing officers. Avoid the person on an ego trip, the power-hungry authority addict, the political chameleon, the morally bankrupt, the substance abuser, and the “knife-and-fork” firefighter whose only interest is social functions.
Traits consistently found in successful officers include honesty, reliability, maturity, a sense of responsibility, placing the troops’ well-being above their own, coaching ability, intelligence, and common sense. The successful officer makes the tough choices when necessary and isn’t afraid to be labeled the “bad guy” when he knows he is right. As General Colin Powell has said, “Sometimes being responsible means pissing people off.” The officer who constantly changes his mind in a quest for popularity instead of making decisions based on what’s right ultimately will self-destruct. The company officer who takes his responsibility seriously deserves the troops’ loyalty and upper management’s support. We should never forget that we recruit from the human race and that no one is perfect. All organizations have problems. The better managed ones, however, seem to have much fewer.
EDUCATION MUST BE A PRIORITY
Once you have a nucleus of promising officers, you then must properly educate them. Continuous and varied education is a key element in any fire service agency. Show me a fire department (career or volunteer) that has a serious commitment to education and you will find people who can tackle any problem. Their state of mind is receptive to change. They are forward thinking and proactive, not mired in the past. They are not mindless slaves to tradition but rather explorers and inventors. Young officers must add supervisory training courses to their resumes. They must begin to construct the bridge that will take them from the “front line” to the “front office.” An officer or chief whose only asset is being a “good firefighter” will not be able to effectively manage a modern fire department.
Tlie department must seek out officer development courses: Explore local fire training schools, the Open Learning Program from the National Fire Academy, community college management classes, and seminars offered by business groups. Do not limit yourself to traditional fire department resources. Many low-cost seminars covering supervision, computers, increased office efficiency, report writing, public speaking, understanding government regulations, motivation, team building, and dealing with difficult people are available in the private sector. If you have a large corporation in town, it probably has an in-house training program. Ask if you could send several of your officers to their managerial classes. It would be good public relations and probably would cost nothing. There are also numerous videotapes on the market that cover these topics. Determine which ideas from the business world would be useful in managing your department. Talk with organizations that can provide access to training resources such as libraries, hospitals, the chamber of commerce, military bases, utility companies, and other government agencies.
The fire department with strong leadership, supervisory training, employee development programs, pride, and a sense of purpose can better meet the challenges of the 1990s and beyond. Those who continue to operate as they did in the 1960s are doomed.
