Evaluate to Motivate
Officers can use training and objectives as the basis for evaluations that will spur companies on to achieving their best.
MANAGEMENT
A firefighter frequently displayed outbursts of anger when confronted with unpleasant house duties such as cleaning the bathroom. After several of these outbursts, the company officer pointed out that the firefighter’s conduct accomplished nothing other than making him even more unhappy about his chores. The firefighter has grown by his awareness of the effect that displaying anger has on his work satisfaction.
Growth, in this case, is defined as expansion in a quantity or a quality, or an increase in awareness or knowledge.
This is complemented bv development, the internalization or incorporation into behavior of a style, method, way, or ability. It can also be defined as a progression from simple to complex abilities; increased competence; or increased maturity.
Here’s what happens when the same firefighter then experiences development:
Over a period of several months, the officer observed that the firefighter showed no overt anger when carrying out house duties. The firefighter was using a more effective way of dealing with unavoidable chores. Positive development in team contribution was apparent in the observed behavior.
To make the most of its human resources, a fire department has to work hard to encourage growth and development in all its members. Getting this productivity from the individual firefighter is the responsibility of the companylevel officer, who accomplishes the task through training and evaluation. A department’s adherence to the National Fire Protection Association standards for Fire Officer I (1021) would prepare company officers with NFPA Instructor I (1041) qualifications and permit the use of prepared instructional materials.
The growth and development processes start, though, when the top leadership identifies and formally communicates the department’s objectives. This reduces speculation and confusion by making objectives readily available to all employees. Written, distributed objectives let employees know what outcomes the department expects and what work performance is required to achieve those outcomes. Employees are thus given control over their destinies, and the department makes the work important to them.
Company officers, in particular, must understand the relationship between department objectives and anticipated work performances in order to lead subordinates toward results compatible with the objectives. Once objectives have been determined, company officers should be thoroughly briefed as to meaning, including actual and potential plans for implementation. Company officers are vested with responsibility for devising, presenting, and carrying out specific activities to help each subordinate realize the stated goals.
These activities are companylevel training and objective-based evaluation, two ideas that are tied up together—because the training provides an important setting for evaluation. The data gathered from training helps identify subordinates’ strengths and limitations through observation of deficiencies, maintenance, and improvement demonstrated during structured job performances.
Scheduled, structured, company-level training sessions allow the company officer to observe subordinates in a wide range of simulated activities. This is important, since actual fire and rescue emergencies aren’t well suited to observing individual performances. During an incident, the officer is preoccupied with successfully completing the mission. And, in most incidents, emergency work is a team effort. Thus, the officer doesn’t have a real opportunity to monitor an individual worker’s performance. Indeed, the only individual performances the officer has time to note during emergencies are gross deficiency or inefficiency, or conspicuous efficiency or proficiency. Therefore, incident scene observation shouldn’t be the sole opportunity for evaluating the worker.
An officer may think a competent worker doesn’t require objectives. Nonsense!
The structured sessions give officers a much better chance to observe. Not only do they occur free of emergency status; they’re also preplanned, concentrated on specific skills, and created around a prior determination of acceptable performance that’s based on standards such as the NFPA’s. As a result of the data collected, the officer can more readily recognize the subordinate’s needs and accomplishments.
However, the structured training, like fire and rescue incidents, shouldn’t be the only setting for the growth and development processes. Other methods should be used to gather a comprehensive overview of the subordinate’s work performance, such as the mutual drafting of written statements designed to challenge the subordinate into improving his or her performance. The statements agree on defined outcomes. This isn’t based on past performance. Instead, it’s designed to focus on expected performance consistent with the department objectives.
Defining the what and when in each objective statement is critical to the measurement of the subordinate’s success. If the what and when are specified, the officer has something precise to use in monitoring progress. For both the officer and subordinate, behaviorial changes become the gauge for judging accomplishments. In other words, the what is the expected result. The identification of when that behavior change must be demonstrated establishes a time frame.
Objective-based evaluation can assist in assessing each employee’s worth as a resource for contributions, creativity, and continued growth and development for the department’s successful pursuit of its objectives.
And make no mistake, this training and evaluation process is for every employee. An officer may believe a particular subordinate is a competent worker who doesn’t rec]uire an individual statement of objectives. But that’s nonsense! All viable employees must be able to grow and develop. To challenge subordinates, the officer assists in defining objectives directed at employee improvement and advancement beyond the minimum.
The fire department’s efforts toward this end must themselves also be subject to growth and development. The fire service is a dynamic entity, constantly changing through the acquisition of new information and expanding technology. Programs must continually evolve to meet the changing needs of the community, the department, and the employee. Therefore, training and evaluation processes must be amenable to adaptation, modification, and evaluation in order to deal with increasing fire service complexities.
The public nature of the fire service’s purpose demands accountability. This requires that both the department and its employees provide evidence of accomplishments and successes. Achievement of objectives provides that evidence. Based on the principle that a fire department is only as good as the individuals working for it, training and evaluation should be paramount in helping employees and the department meet their responsibilities as defined in the objectives.
Growth and development processes aren’t intended to pamper the employee. To cite from In Search of Excellence by R.J. Peters and R.H. Waterman (Warner Communications, 1982), “We are talking about tough-minded respect for the individual and the willingness to train him, to set reasonable and clear expectations for him, and to grant him practical autonomy to set out and contribute directly to his job.”
