A new firefighter is assigned to work with an officer who is respected but also has a reputation as being rigid and controlling. The firefighter is enthusiastic and excited about their new position but soon experiences some setbacks. When the firefighter tries to take initiative in work assignments, they are sternly reprimanded by their officer to do only what they are told. They are criticized if they ask a question and severely chastised for any type of mistake made. It seems that no matter what they do, it is wrong. It doesn’t take long for the firefighter to learn to keep their head down and not do anything other than what has been explicitly assigned.
After two years, the firefighter is transferred to another station. Coworkers soon notice that the firefighter never takes initiative in doing work around the station and never steps up on an emergency call unless directly ordered. Even then, the efforts are minimal. The firefighter soon gets a reputation as a problem employee. Others simply refer to them as “dead wood.”
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Learned helplessness
Psychologists have a name for what has happened to this firefighter: learned helplessness. Learned helplessness can create a self-reinforcing negative feedback cycle where a pessimistic or hopeless mindset leads to inaction, which in turn leads to more negative outcomes, confirming the original belief of powerlessness. In other words, a person stops trying to change a stressful or painful situation because repeated past experiences taught them that their actions do not matter. It’s a dangerous condition not only for an individual, but also for the organization they are part of.
No fire officer should want to create learned helplessness in their crew. But it may happen unintentionally. In the example detailed above, the officer might feel they are doing the new firefighter a favor by imposing high standards and demanding strict compliance. Some officers may even articulate this attitude by making statements like, “I shouldn’t have to tell you when you’re doing something right. That’s what you’re supposed to do. My job is to correct you when you’re wrong.”
There is some logic to this approach, but when taken to an extreme, the effect is often to have a firefighter give up trying to do anything other than what is specifically and directly ordered. And when things are most critical, a firefighter in this mental state is more of a liability than an asset.
Building agency
The opposite of learned helpless is agency. Building agency means that an officer is fostering confidence in the firefighters they lead, encouraging them to step up to challenges and take responsibility. Whereas someone afflicted with learned helplessness believes that nothing they do will make a difference in their circumstances, building agency promotes the core belief that an individual’s actions will affect the outcome of a situation.
How can officers help to build agency among the crews they lead? There are many opportunities during a normal day at work:
- Recognize achievements.
- Ask for and acknowledge input.
- Empower decision-making, even on a small scale.
- Gradually delegate more authority in the completion of tasks.
- Get to know individuals and build on their strengths.
- Allow people to fail safely.
This last point is important. No one is going to succeed the first time at everything they try. If you want people to step up and take chances, you have to accept that sometimes it won’t work the way you hope. The key is to create the right opportunities, such as training, where people can fail in a safe environment and learn from their mistakes, rather than hiding from them or using them as a reason to never try again.
Agency is not a personality trait. It is record of evidence — a collection of small wins that tell a person that their actions can change outcomes. It supports a belief that what they do really matters.
Fostering agency doesn’t mean that an officer must be positive all the time when dealing with a firefighter. There are times when correction is necessary and consequences must occur. What it does require is the commitment to giving every individual the chance to learn and bring the best of themselves to the job.
Agency is not something that happens overnight. It results from a cumulative history of experiences, both positive and negative, but all of which lead to the conclusion that an individual can always do something to affect the outcome of what is happening in their lives.
The best outcome
Some officers create an atmosphere of learned helplessness based on their own insecurities. They take responsibility for everything that happens and therefore feel that they must try to control everything. This is an exhausting strategy that is ultimately destined to fail.
One of the wonderful and complex things about being a firefighter is that you never know what challenge might present itself in the next moment, and what might be demanded of any given individual. The best officers build trust, confidence, and skills with their crews so that every person in every situation knows that they — and all others — will do everything they can toward the best possible outcome.
