Delegation for Growth and Survival
FEATURES
MANAGEMENT
How do you get fire officers to act as true managers? This is often a problem, particularly in volunteer fire departments when the question “How authoritative should you be?” arises (see FIRE ENGINEERING, August 1984). Still, there is a pressing need for chief officers to be aware of and respond to the necessity of
George waited for the men to settle down.
“Would you all take a few moments to answer the question on the paper in front of you?” he asked.
“What! A test right off the bat?”
George, the civilian leadership consultant hired by the Volunteer Fire Chiefs’ Association, smiled. “No. It’s just a way of getting into the subject without wasting a lot of time and words.” He waited a few seconds before adding, “Please put a mark in the place that you feel represents where you’re at.”
George saw a confused look creep across a student’s face and he cut him off at the pass. “Just read the instructions, they tell you exactly what to do.”
One by one the men turned to their papers and George took the time to study the 11 volunteer fire chiefs who were sitting at the desks in a classroom that was really too large for the small group.
“You just want us to put an ‘X’ in the box?” the chief with the puzzled look called out from the last row of seats.
“Yes.” George noted that the chief had selected a desk away from most of the other students.
The chief returned to his paper and George read the instructions: “Please indicate how you feel by placing an ‘X’ in the appropriate box.” The question followed: “Think of the most competent subordinate on your staff and ask yourself, ‘Can he do my job?’
□ completely
□
□ 50/50
□
□ not at all”
George called out, “Okay, that’s enough time.” He saw some of the chiefs quickly mark their papers. “Don’t place any identifying mark on your paper and pass it up front.”
When George had all the papers, he studied the sheets for a few moments and then produced the following on the chalkboard:
“Now,” George said, “let s see what we have.” He glanced at the board for a few moments. “Can anyone define the term manager?”
“What’s that got to do with what you just wrote on the board?” a chief asked.
“It would be helpful when you speak to give your first name.”
“Harry,” the chief responded.
“Okay, Harry, can you give me the definition of manager?”
Harry’s face indicated that he did not want to be put on the spot. The rest of the group also seemed reluctant to get involved.
George smiled and said, “All right, I’ll give an answer. It’s not the best definition, but it’s one that we can use. A manager is an individual who achieves a goal through the efforts of others.”
“Steve,” another chief called out. “I don’t get the connection.”
George appreciated the response because it moved him to where he wished to be. “Look at your responses. Only four of you felt that your best officer was 75% qualified to take your place. Six of you felt that your best officer was only 50% ready, and one felt that his best officer was 25% ready. How can you act as a manager if the people who work for you don’t know what your job is?”
Harry remarked, “We act as managers when we direct-them to do their jobs.” A puzzled look entered his eyes. “That’s acting as a manager, isn’t it?”
Steve joined in. “You’re a civilian. You don’t really understand what we mean. And besides, in the fire service, officers go through training. They generally know what to do at an emergency without a chief telling them what to do.”
“Where did you place your ‘X’?” George asked.
Steve remained silent.
“You don’t have to answer, but it could help you and I reach an understanding of what we’re talking about.”
“I felt that my best officer was only 25% ready to take over my job and do it like it should be done. Hell! It took me nearly two years to learn!” He thought for a moment and then continued, “I think it took the guy before me just about the same time. And no one ever taught me what I really needed to know.”
“So,” George softly said, “when you answered the question, your criteria was not based on the fireground or the emergency scene.”
“No way. I was thinking of all the other stuff that I have to do.”
“Like what?”
“Planning, budgeting, and meeting with all the people that I have to meet with. That’s what. I hate it and it takes nearly all of my time.”
continued on page 34
contined from page 32
“But you do it.”
“Sure do.”
Growth
George waited for a few seconds to let Steve’s answer settle, then he said, “Let me tell you all a story. It’s about a wedding shower, that special party that the bride’s girlfriends give her. Each guest gives the bride-to-be a small present, and generally a nice time is had by all. But there is a great deal of work and special fussing that goes into the party, which is only attended by females—some of whom are very critical about the food and all the rest of the trappings needed for the party.
“The bride’s mother became increasingly active in the planning stage of the shower. Her behavior was incorrect, since she was not a girlfriend, and the girlfriends, who had stated their intention to give the shower, were disturbed. The maid-of-honor, who happened to be the bride’s sister and who was in charge of giving the shower, was especially disturbed about her mother’s butting in on the arrangements. When she confronted her mother, she was told that time was running out and nothing had been done. No hall had been hired, and no dinner arrangements had been made. Would the affair be catered or not? Would it be a buffet? What kind of food would be provided? Who was going to prepare the food? What about the invitations? Was there a list of people who were to be invited? Was anything done about mailing out the invitations? Who was going to take care of getting the cake? What kind of filling would the cake have? Who was going to decorate the hall? What about the wishing well? Should the wishing well be made or rented?
Chief Harry remarked, “We act as managers when we direct them to do their jobs … That’s acting as a manager, isn’t it?’’
“During their confrontation, all of these concerns of the mother surfaced. Her daughter told her to stop woriying. ‘Everything will be taken care of.’
“The bride’s father had overheard what had taken place. He also heard his daughter telling her girlfriends how annoyed she was over her mother’s lack of faith in her ability to organize a shower for her sister. He also watched as his wife and his sister-in-law took on more and more of the tasks that his daughter had promised to do. When the father casually mentioned his observation, his wife said, ‘Your daughter has never done anything like this before, and she doesn’t seem to be doing anything at all about getting the shower together.’
“A week before the shower, his wife bitterly complained about all the work that had fallen on her and her sister’s shoulders. ‘It’s not fair,’ she remarked. ‘We are grown women with families to care for. They are young single girls with all the time in the world. Why don’t they do what they’re supposed to?’
” ‘Then,’ her husband answered, ‘why don’t you let them do the job? Let them give the shower.’
” ‘How can you say that? Don’t you want this thing to be right? Do you want me to be ashamed for my daughter who is getting married? All my friends and family will be there.’ “
George paused. “That’s the story.”
“How did it turn out?” Harry asked.
George smiled and answered, “It went off real well. Everyone had a great time.”
“Who did all the work?” Steve asked.
“Oh,” George replied, “the bride’s mother and her aunt.”
“That’s not fair/’ another chief remarked and quickly added, “My name’s John.”
“To whom isn’t it fair?” George quickly asked.
“To the mother and the aunt.”
“Why?”
“Because they did all the work on the shower and the daughter was supposed to do it. And they had to run a family as well.”
“That’s because they wanted it that way,” said the chief from the last row.
“How do you figure that?” George immediately asked.
“Who knows why? There could be a hundred reasons. But one thing for sure is that they didn’t trust the kid and her friends. They had to do everything themselves because no one could do it as good as they. At least that’s the way that they saw it.”
“Do you think they were able to do it all as good as they wanted?” George asked the chief.
“Depends. It depends on how much they had to do. If it was too much, then something had to suffer. They could stay up all night and work and still there wouldn’t be enough time. Something had to give. It only stands to reason.”
“It wasn’t fair to the daughter,” Steve said. He thought for a moment and continued, “How could the girl learn? How could she grow? If her mother is like that with everything, I feel sorry for the kid.”
“Can you connect the story with the fire service? ” George asked Steve.
“Yeah. The mother and the aunt are like some chiefs that I know. The girl is like some officers and firefighters. If it is up to the chiefs, these firefighters will never learn anything about what a chief is supposed to do, or even what a regular officer or a firefighter is supposed to do.”
“What about the families?” George asked.
“That ties in too. Some of the chiefs try to do all the work themselves. The family could be the fire service or even the community. They’re being shortchanged.”
“You make it sound like no one knows what they’re doing,” John remarked. “All of our men receive training.”
George momentarily ignored John. “Steve,” he asked, “do you do the work that your staff is supposed to do?”
“No. I thought I covered that when I told you that my best staff officer is only 25% ready to do my job.”
“And you feel that the fire service training programs do not adequately prepare an officer to do your job?”
“That’s right.”
“Then what’s the answer?” George asked.
“Improve the training programs.”
“That’s a good long-term goal. But what about in the here and now?”
“I train my officers,” Steve thoughtfully answered.
George accepted Steve’s answer and quickly moved the group to another thought. He said, “Look at the definition of a manager, and Harry tell the group if you feel that the girl’s mother and aunt were good managers.”
“They weren’t.”
“Why?”
“Because they did the work themselves. They didn’t get it done using the daughter and her friends.”
“John,” George asked, “was the daughter a good manager?”
John thought for a moment and responded, “Well she got the work done through using other people, her mother and her aunt.” He paused and then added, “But, no, she wasn’t a manager. At least not a good one. She didn’t know what she was doing. She didn’t know her job.” He smiled as he said, “She certainly couldn’t train anyone to plan, organize, staff, direct, coordinate, report, or budget. Good old POSDCORB.”
Survival
“Well,” George said, “if we look at the board we can see that four of you feel that your best officer can do 75% of your jobs. That could mean that you four chiefs are already training your men to take over your jobs. However, 1 feel that you may not have been thinking of POSDCORB when you answered the question. You may have been thinking about fires and emergencies. They are important, but your superiors feel POSDCORB is also very important. They certainly do not want you to behave like the girl’s mother and aunt in our story, and that seems to be the problem.”
George went to the chalkboard and wrote “Delegation.” Under this he wrote “Assist.” Then he asked, “What does delegation mean?”
“We assign part of our job to someone,” Steve answered.
“How can that make us different from the girl’s mother and aunt?” George asked.
“We are letting someone do not only their job but part of ours. That shows trust.”
“What about you, Steve?” George asked, “What would it mean to you?”
Steve thought for a moment and answered, “It would free me up to do other things that I can’t get to. And I guess I would feel good about helping someone to learn about their future job, a job that I walked into with blinders on. I could show them the POSDCORB that I’m involved in.”
“Do you know that at the turn of the century, Frank Gilbreth, a famous father of managerial thought, suggested that managers practice a three position plan for promotion? A manager was required to know the job he held prior to promotion, his present job, and the job that he could be promoted to. A manager’ s job would include teaching those under him and learning from those above him.” George thought for a moment and added, “It was good advice. It certainly should apply to the fire service.”
“Are there any hints that we should be aware of when we delegate?” John asked.
“That’s why I wrote the word assist under the word delegation,” George replied. He went to the board and wrote the following:
A nalyze the job. Break it up into workable pieces.
Select the proper piece for an individual to do.
Select the proper person to tackle the job.
I nstruct the person on what has to be done and how.
Support the person in every way possible, especially in building up morale.
Tally up the individual’sperformance. This is the follow up and accountability aspect of delegation.
George, after looking over what he had written, said, “Let’s briefly touch on the main points and not worry about the order in which we discuss them. First, the word assist conveys the message behind your delegation philosophy. You want to help your personnel to grow. You want them to grow in manageable steps and with a degree of safety. Thus the manageable pieces of a job. It is unfair to expect someone to do a job without instructions and, of course, without the authority and all the supplies that are needed. You should support the individual; and a very important form of support is giving the person the freedom to try without fear of reproach if failure occurs. However, you must get the idea of accountability across. It’s wise to frequently assume a support role and to be available if needed for consultation and direction. It’s also wise to check the person’s progress before he completes an entire assignment. It’s better to set up benchmarks along the way for yourself and for the individual against which performance can be measured. This part of delegation is the difficult part. It requires a sense of balance between being overly cautious and reckless.”
A manager should be required to know the job he held prior to promotion, his present job, and the job that he could be promoted to… teaching those under him and learning from those above.
“Just to put this discussion in focus,” Harry said, “it seems that you’re saying that to be a good manager, delegation is a must.”
George smiled and replied, “Well, at the risk of being reckless, I’ll second that. Just consider that if POSDCORB is what a manager is supposed to be doing when he’s managing, then you’re doing most of that in the process of developing a program of sensible delegation. For example, delegation, as we discussed it, requires planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting. So delegation certainly seems to be a definite step in the correct managerial direction. By providing for growth in the managerial ranks of your subordinates, one sure result is that the department will begin to have a chief who won’t take his whole two years to learn his job. The same department will have a chief who will have his time ‘freed up’ to be creative, more forward thinking, and to be able to train his subordinates—the future fire chiefs.”
