By Norvin Collins
Welcome to a New Year with new possibilities. Like many people, you may make personal commitments as the year starts. But do you make professional commitments at the same time?
Career and many combination departments take this time of year to set goals for the upcoming year both departmentally and personally. Volunteer organizations should do the same, but where should you begin.
It can be overwhelming to figure out where to take a volunteer or smaller combination fire department. I propose that you start small and focus on just a couple or a handful of goals. But even that can be difficult to know where to start.
Before leading my own department, I worked in a larger combination system and had experience from the private sector. There were principles I could draw from each, but neither was an exact fit.
What works in a private organization focused on the bottom line and not the employee is very different from a public agency. The larger combination department can become focused on the career issues and inadvertently forget the volunteer membership.
However, creating better business practices similar to private companies is beneficial for all public agencies.
3 goals, 1 year
Fortunately, I came into my current department at the beginning of the year and could make both new year’s goals and new department direction at the same time. Change is scary for many people.
It is our responsibility as leaders, of the department or the company, to communicate effectively with our membership to support their goals while maintaining our core mission of protecting the community. The first year, I only chose three goals: one personal, professional goal and two departmental goals.
One of the challenges I faced was replacing a 12-year chief from the community who had maintained the status quo for years. I had to ask myself a few important questions.
- Was the department meeting community expectations?
- Were the current leaders meeting the firefighters’ needs?
- Was the elected board of directors given what they needed to set policy while having the confidence that leadership would administrate the department without their need to engage in operations decisions?
To be honest, I couldn’t confidently answer yes to all those basic questions. I don’t think I am alone in this regard. It is easy for an organization to lose its way because that change in focus can come on slowly and leadership may not be aware that it is actually occurring until much later, often many years.
The strategic plan
For those familiar with gap analysis, the questions I posed were very basic in analyzing the organization. Simple as those questions are, they are a good starting point.
Here’s how to set a goal for your department or station. I say station because there is no reason these recommendations cannot be used by a station officer or chief officer who is not the chief of the department.
For the department, look over the strategic plan. Don’t have one? Set your goal to develop one. There are many examples available to use as a template.
An important part of a strategic plan is to obtain buy-in from the community, elected officials and membership. This can be accomplished by developing it through a collaborative effort with your stakeholder groups. A basic start of the plan can be as simple as agreeing on the vision and mission of the department.
For example, the vision may be, “meeting the health and safety needs of the residents and visitors of the community,” and the mission may be, “the fire department is committed to providing premier services to residents and visitors through preparedness, prevention and emergency response.”
The station-level leaders can take this same approach by adapting the existing strategic plan vision and mission to be specific to their station or crew. Having a common vision is important at the overall department level but is equally important at the station level.
Your legacy
This commonality brings the membership together and gives a sense of purpose to your station members. All people respond better when they understand what is expected of them. Often, station members have a hard time truly applying the vision and mission of the organization; it is viewed as something “from the head shed” and not some real to them.
Make it real for them.
Each of us want something out of life. As humans, one of the things we want to leave behind is a legacy. I hear regularly that our service is weak in succession planning.
As a personal professional goal, I suggest putting effort into finding your replacement. Become mentor to a young member who has demonstrated the mettle to fill your shoes.
This can be scary for many leaders as they feel they are indispensable and the department or station will fail without them at the helm. It has been my philosophy that leadership is difficult because it is the leaders responsibility to help make each person working for them successful; that’s much easier said than done.
Looking in the mirror and realizing that the person you have been mentoring is better than you can be hard, but a reframe tells you that your mentorship has paid off. Finding ways to empower those working with and for you is critical to overall organizational success.
The long game
Mentorship or succession planning as a personal goal may not be easily or readily measured. If you make the paradigm shift to being a steward leader, you may not know when you have impacted a developing leader.
I took this mindset on a number of years ago and wanted to give back to young leaders. It took some time for me to feel comfortable in passing along what I had learned since I always feel there is more to learn.
In retrospect, I wish I had done this earlier. Here’s why.
I was moving from the department I started in to lead my new department. After sending a note to the department letting them know I was leaving, I received a phone call from one of the lieutenants.
He wanted to share an experience we had a few years prior when he was a new lieutenant and I was his battalion chief. He started by saying I probably wouldn’t remember the incident, but that it had a huge impact on his confidence as a lieutenant.
Hands-on training
He went on to describe a residential fire where his company was first in; it turned out to be his first true working structure fire as a lieutenant. When he came up to transfer command to me as the chief officer, I told him his strategy was sound and that he should keep command.
I supported him through the rest of the incident, but never assumed command. He did a great job throughout, and I told him so. He said that no other command officer had ever done that.
He was right, I didn’t remember the fire or the interaction, but I would remember this interaction for years to come.
I started this article challenging each of us to make goals for the year. I would further challenge each of us to make realistic goals and not try to change the service or our departments in a day.
How many people do you know who set a New Year’s resolution only to lose focus in less than a month? Don’t let that be you. Pick something simple to remain focused.
I mention a paradigm shift; make it internal first. Leadership is not only leading others, but understanding ourselves.
Don’t settle for the status quo. Be better than you are today. Be a consummate learner. Be a steward leader. Be a mentor.