… and repeat as necessary until the emergency is over
Since my previous article, I have been to a number of significant incidents, including fires, rescues and some pretty major drills. After each incident or drill, I stop for a minute and give myself a personal critique before reviewing it. At each of these events, similar themes constantly emerge and I thought I would take some time here to explore some of them.
Leadership
It’s funny but leadership does not come in a can and you can’t will yourself to be a leader. I am starting to believe that it cannot even be taught. Funny, too, is how often we confuse a position of authority with leadership.
Telling people what to do is not leading them, just like micro-management is not supervision. Leadership is really about service and subordinating your needs to the needs of the company and the organization. Leadership is not about showing off how much you know, but rather teaching those around you everything you know in a way that does not belittle them.
If you have to tell the troops that you are in charge then you probably are not. If they do what you say just to avoid conflict then you are not really accomplishing much. Perhaps the most important thing I have learned over the past few years of personal evolution is that no one really expects you to have all the answers, so when you do people are rightfully a little skeptical.
Over the years I have met some great leaders and certainly don’t consider myself one of them. However, a man can aspire to pretty much anything he wants and I want to be that guy one day. I want to be that guy who people follow because they truly trust him and know that he cares about them as people. I want them to know that I want them to think, I want them to question, I want them to learn, and wherever I am I want them to pass me. If I keep trying, I will be a good leader soon enough.
Coordination, cooperation, communication
If a fire department cannot coordinate, communicate and cooperate, it will always have less than optimal performance. If the second line is trying to push past the first, that is not cooperation. If the third due engine is stretching to the exposure but command does not know which one, that is not communication, and if the fourth line comes in opposite the first three that is not coordination.
We spend way too much time racing about. Rushing into things, not thinking, not coordinating, communicating and cooperating.
Technical/task level proficiency
Time spent looking around the pump panel for the lever you need is time you cannot spend predicting changes in needed fire flow. Time spent looking for the step chocks is time lost in getting the patient out of the car. When you have not mastered the basic evolutions, you will slow down the whole process. We always talk about going back to basics and it makes me wonder why we ever leave. The big problems will be solved with small solutions.
Future orientation/skepticism
Planning is looking ahead; skepticism is looking ahead and imagining failure -- and we don’t do enough of either. We must always be thinking ahead and we must always be looking for possible failure points. As we stretch the first line through the door, we should be imagining that it won’t work and should be planning for how we will behave when it doesn’t. We must always assume that around the next corner is a hole in the floor or a knee wall concealing significant fire. Most of the fires that we go to are simple ventures but we can never assume that they will be.
Conclusion
The things that I outlined here are all pretty simple things, things that you probably already knew. However, I have seen failures in leadership, coordination, communication, coordination, task proficiency and future orientation all in the past month. I have also heard of a few LODDs and some crashes. It is obvious that these are lessons that should be included in the next back-to basics program.
