By Shannon Pieper
Managing Editor, FireRescue Magazine and Wildland Firefighter

“At the end of this session, some of you are going to say, damn, I don’t do any of this.” That’s how Buddy Martinette led off his session on Friday, Nov. 10, during the FireRescue Conference & Expo in Las Vegas. Martinette, assistant county administrator for Hanover County, Va., began by challenging participants to determine whether they are working on the right things: telling people what to do, empowering them to do it and creating a contest of accountability.

Martinette focused in part on the importance of time allocation. “All of the people in the organization perform every aspect of it to some degree,” he said. “The key to success is getting them to spend the right amount of time doing it.” For example, firefighters must spend most of their time operating the system, providing direct service on the street level, while fire chiefs must spend most of their time “creating the future”—preparing the organization for the next challenge. “Too many fire chiefs manage day-to-day operations, which leaves them unfocused on future challenges,” Martinette said.

Martinette stressed personal accountability and trust over rules. “Organizations that have the most rules are the least effective at managing people,” he said. “Tell employees what their jobs are and let them do their jobs. The most powerful people in the world are the people most comfortable with giving their power away.”

The mixed crowd, ranging from firefighters to fire chiefs, was small enough to allow discussion, and Martinette opened the floor to questions, including whether pay for performance is an effective method of awarding employees and different ways to conduct performance evaluations.