By Bob Ridgeway
The big day has finally arrived. You’re getting promoted to the rank you’ve been working toward since you joined the fire service: company officer. You exhibited the desire and determination to get ahead in your organization, and you worked and trained hard to get here.
With this promotion, you’re not only assuming responsibility for a group of firefighters, you’re also becoming a member of your organization’s management team. This means that you have to look out for the best interests of two distinct parts of the organization — your firefighters and the broader organization. Regardless of whether the new position is termed lieutenant, captain or station commander, from this day forward, you are the official leader of those firefighters.
Along the way, you likely learned that there’s a lot more to the job than simply donning a white helmet and moving to the officer’s seat. The company officer is the heart and soul of the fire service, much like the sergeant in an infantry platoon. Show me a station with a good company officer and I’ll show you a station that consistently performs well on an emergency scene. A station with a good company officer typically has very few personnel issues, plus a low turnover rate because the members are fulfilled in their work environment. Bottom line: Good company officers provide the foundation necessary for a strong fire department.
The basic job of the company officer is to build a cohesive team of personnel capable of mitigating a variety of incident types that could threaten the lives and property of our citizens. Along the way, the company officer must ensure that all team members treat each other and members of the public with kindness, courtesy and respect. To accomplish this, the officer needs to assume responsibility for three areas of accountability: employee conduct and behavior, team building and personnel development.
1. Member conduct and behavior
A good company officer models professional behavior and sets the standard for acceptable conduct for company members. He or she can take a joke but draws the line at inappropriate conduct of any kind. We have all read about (and quite possibly witnessed) stupid behavior that’s gotten out of hand in a fire station — sexual or racial jokes, hazing or other behavior that’s personally demeaning to another member. This type of conduct is almost always a violation of organization or municipal policy and is just plain wrong.
The late Chief Alan Brunacini had a saying that all company officers would do well to remember: “There will be four firefighters on every fire truck, and at least one of them will be an adult.” The company officer is responsible for controlling their personnel at all times and should always remember that being the “adult in the room” is a requirement of the job.
The best way to stop inappropriate behavior is to prevent it from occurring in the first place. The company officer does this by making it clear to station personnel on day one that such behavior will not be tolerated. Stress that any comments or actions that attack or demean another person’s race, gender or personal dignity will be subject to disciplinary action.
The officer should also reinforce that public servants are always responsible for their own actions, whether they’re on- or off-duty. This includes their actions on social media, particularly post that show the members in department uniform or T-shirts. Any behavior that crosses the line between free speech and inappropriate conduct reflects unfavorably upon the organization and could result in disciplinary action up to and including termination.
2. Team building and training
The major difference between a team and a collection or group of individuals is that a team has a common goal and purpose and works together to achieve that goal. The company officer’s job is to get their members to work together to perform efficiently, effectively and safely as one cohesive team. Teamwork is essential for efficient performance, and every member of the company should become proficient in all operations that the company may be called upon to perform. The bottom line here comes back to practice, practice, practice.
The company officer should drill and train company personnel every workday. Evolutions that require both individual proficiency and teamwork should be practiced until each can be performed flawlessly, safely and in a timely manner. Individual team members who require additional skill training on specific evolutions should receive personal attention as needed from either the officer or another team member until the desired level of proficiency is achieved.
Another invaluable training opportunity comes from the ability to learn from our mistakes as well as from the mistakes made by others. Each working incident that the company responds to should be thoroughly reviewed afterward. This is referred to as a post-incident analysis. The PIA should be held as soon as possible after the incident so everything is still fresh in everyone’s mind. The purpose of the PIA is to review the actions of the team and its individual members to see if the operation went well and if all team members did their jobs correctly. The PIA should never turn into a “search for the guilty” or become punitive in nature. Rather, it should focus on member and team growth and improvement.
3. Personnel development
One of the main jobs of the company officer is to identify members who have the potential and desire to move up in the organization. The officer should help them attain the knowledge and skills needed for future promotion. Members who exhibit both the desire and determination to get ahead in their chosen profession are generally the highest performers in the company. In addition, high performers in other companies who want to get ahead in the department often apply to transfer into those companies known to have the best company officers in order to learn all they can and help themselves prepare for future advancement.
In graduate school, I did a study on what younger members of the department were looking for in terms of career growth when they entered the profession. The study included a survey of 50 members, all of whom had fewer than five years on the job. Fully 96% of all employees surveyed indicated that the opportunity for advancement in the profession was extremely important to them. Further, more than 80% of them indicated that their career aspiration was to serve at the rank of company officer.
The results of this survey should send a strong message to fire department administrators: Members want a clear and concise promotional policy that spells out the job knowledge and experience required for each step of the department’s promotional ladder. This is an important tool that can be used in the recruiting and retention of employees. Additionally, as the top performers rise through the ranks, the organization is creating a pool of qualified future leaders.
Final thoughts
The company officer is responsible for ensuring that assigned personnel are trained to function as one cohesive team. Additionally, the officer needs to ensure that all team members treat each other, as well as members of the public, with kindness, courtesy and respect at all times. When the company officer makes looking out for their personnel the No. 1 priority, they are also looking out for their organization.
| WATCH: 16 rules for new company officers
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert L. Ridgeway is a retired fire chief and emergency management trainer with over 50 years of active service in the field. His service included over 20 years of service as a fire chief for four departments, as well as nine years at EMI/FEMA as a training program manager. He holds an associate degree in fire science technology, a bachelor’s degree in fire service management, and a master’s degree in organizational leadership. Ridgeway is a graduate of the State and Local Government Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a graduate of the EFO Program. He served actively for many years on several national committees and organizations.
