It appears to me that not only in the fire service but in society in general there is an awful lot of decision making that is being put off by indecision. That is no decisions and subsequently no responsibility is being accepted.

We speak about planning and strategic planning and many other management techniques all of which are very valid. The problem that I am witnessing as evidenced by emails received, is that nobody is making any decisions!

We are going to meetings….we are developing plans, but nobody has an lower intentinal fortitude to act on the plans or forge ahead in any direction. Have a meeting, hire a consultant, develop a plan and maybe I will be retired and not havine to deal with it by the time it comes to fruition.

Decisions must be made!

Set a course of action before you plan, don’t plan on a course of action.

When you go on vacation, you decide where you want to go, then you plan how to get there.

I am seeing more and more leaders saying, lets develop a plan first then we will choose an option on what to do based upon the plan.

Make decisions, be flexible, not spineless.

Plans will change and must be modified as time goes by but do not be afraid to be flexible although that is extremely dangerous as it requires you to make even more decisions….yikes!

If you make decisions accept the responsibility for your actions.

Enough has been said about this in society in general but let me ask this simple question. Do you accept responsibility for your own actions and errors. Start with yourself the others might get the hint. Nobody is accepting responsibility for anything it is all about deflecting blame onto someone or something else.

Individual firefighters must be responsible for their own safety.

Individual firefighters must be held liable to follow orders.

Lieutenants and supervisors must be responsible and disciplined and accept responsibility that their subordinates are trained and will follow orders.

Chiefs must be responsible for ensuring adequate training and equipment are provided to their personnel.

City managers must provide the departments the resources necessary to fullfill the tasks they ask of their employees.

At each and every one of the levels I just stated, decisions must be made, and there is responsibility to be accepted, not deflected.

Make decisions, accept responsibility for your actions.

This joke floating around the internet drives the point home.

Firefighter’s hobbies are playing basketball.

Lieutenants hobbies are bowling.

Captain’s hobbies are playing softball.

Battalion Chiefs and deputies play baseball.

Chiefs go golfing.

Therefore, the higher in the organization you go the smaller your balls get!

(I will apologize now for those that feel insulted!)

Lighten up!

Pete Lamb
Copyright 2013

I often speak about, and I am often asked about what makes a good leader. One of the programs I offer speaks about this very issue, and I will share some highlights of that program here with you.

I truly believe that we become the sum total of all of the leaders and teachers who have influenced our lives in either a good or a bad way. We might have said “Gee, I want to be like that, or said I hope I never turn out like that!” I think that we all know that we take on the charachteristics of those who have influenced us, but it is how we assemble these traits and truly use them in our everyday decision making process.

In order to begin this thought process of thinking like a leader, I ask each one of you to write down five leaders that have affected you either positive or negatively.

The next step always raises a few eyebrows, but here it is….Write a note or an e-mail to the persons listed thanking them for what they have done. If the person has past on, then write a note to a son or daughter that remains and tell them what legacy their love one has left.

Pretty powerful stuff , Huh? I am certain that only a small percentage of you will actually do this but it is an important dramatic step in your life and it will give you very positive feelings to start your leadership journey.

Of the leaders that you listed, do you see some common traits in all of them. They all have common strengths, but their individual weakness all vary. I want you to now take a look at the above named leaders and identify their one weak point or trait. Sometimes when we view role models we don’t see their weaknesses.

Another facet of what a leader has to do involves conflict resolution.

Some basic tips that relate to conflict resolution are:

Separate the people from the problem.

Focus on interests not positions.

Generate a variety of options before deciding.

Seek and use objective standards for your decision making.

Leadership is a multi-faceted concept. Although leadership skills can be taught they are best learned through experience.

If you aspire to become a good leader, pick up traits from the good leaders you know and try to apply them in your everyday dealings with others. When dealing with conflicts use the steps above to get to the real problem facing you, not just the symptom.

Pete Lamb
Copyright 2013

This week I am revisiting something that can help you be a good leader, or. A good firefighter.

OK so before you think I have snapped and wonder what the hell I am talking about let me at least get the explanation out before you stop reading!

Many years ago in a book called Managing People (now out of print I believe) , there was a small segment about this and my reference for this week is that and my own twisted opinions.

The simple premise is that everyone’s personality has two facets to it. The things you know about yourself and the things that everyone knows about you. Think about that for a minute and re-read it so you see where we are going.

The book then breaks it down a little further and says that the things that you know about yourself and the things others know about you that are common are called the Arena. This is your open personality. These are the features of your personality that you and all others that contact you agree upon.

There are then those things that we know about ourselves that are unknown to others. This area is appropriately called the Facade. Think of this as a house where the blinds are drawn. People know something is going on within you but not exactly what.

The third area deserves some focus and that is what I wished to point out this week, The third area is a blind spot. This is a part of us that others know about us but we have little or no idea of it. You might think you are an excellent communicator, well liked and respected. Others find you pushy, you talk too much and can’t be trusted.

The blind spot is an area that you have to try to reflect on more and more so that you will interact better with others.

The last segment is the Unknown. This is an area that you don’t know about yourself and others do not know about you. This is a situation when you try a new task or work under severe pressure for the first time, people don’t know how you will react or handle anything nor do you for that matter.

The real principle is actually much more simple. The more genuine you are and the more people you allow into your Arena, the more you will be more accepted by others.

Take a look inside yourself this week and try to think how you are perceived by others.

Take a look at the textbook Managing People if you have it. Re-read it if it has been awhile. There is nothing more important than the people who you surround yourself with.

It will do some good!

Pete Lamb
Copyright 2013

This week a little fire prevention talk, and some talk about communications.

The other night I was out having a leisurely supper another ridiculous training idea occurred to me.

I had gone to a small family restaurant and although I rarely drink an awful lot I had just ordered a light beer for supper.

I am very serious about trying to get back into some human shape and I am trying to be conscious of calorie intake.

At some point during the meal I realized that I had just ordered a beverage, that is about 87% water in the first place and I asked them to make it “lite”. What the hell was I thinking!

I then sort of chuckled to my self and wondered about society in general, the quality of our new recruits and officers, the current school of fire chiefs that are surfacing and said …gee, what ingredients are we leaving out of these folks that are making them the “lite version”.

Society “Lite”

Oh, this was an easy one, we have left out most of the common courtesy, politeness, pride and integrity. But hey you still get your money’s worth because we have added so many more artificial ingredients such as phony, condescending, materialistic, impatient, and oh yes you have seen it is always served “cold”. We have an awful lot of cold.

Recruit and firefighter “lite”

Ah yes one of my favorite brews. The “what can this job do for me and how many sick days and benefits can I get” variety. The kind that has the contract in their back pocket for easy and quick reference so there is no waiting. What did we take out in this flavor, we took the service out of the word fire service. We removed any reference to duty, commitment and pride and tradition and honor. Hey but it is really full bodied and seems complete though because we took all the ingredients we removed and replaced them with a much more robust “ME” that takes the place of everything we removed. (Hey fires are down anyway, lets just send the lite guys to the small jobs on nice days with no wind and rain, when they are not out on a swap or personal to, That should work OK)

Officer ‘Lite”

We will give you the fastest, most inexpensive officer we can. We rush them through production by minimizing the number of years they have to do their job, we give them cookie cutter study materials and traditional testing instead of letting them brew and age into an assessment center process. We have removed the experience, caring compassionate mentoring attitude of those older more traditional types, and we have become task and objective oriented instead of taking care of those silly people that work for us that are really nothing but additives! These officers are also extremely cold when served up to us.

Chief “Lite”

This one could go on for hours, but I can’t quite get my finger on what is missing with these new breed of chiefs that I am seeing. I can tell some of what is missing and different but not all of it. I believe the taste I have indicates we have removed most of their memory, lots of their intestinal fortitude, their desire to continue to educate themselves and not rest on their laurels, and the vision and passion they once had when they used to say things like “When I get to be chief I will……..”. The new taste leaves some of those that contact them bitter and with a strong after taste. A lot of the new taste is caused by some of the attitudes and additives that have replaced the items removed…..There is way too much ego, pompous attitude, self righteousness, and way too little humility and compassion and human skills. I think maybe they advertise too much and way too flashy.

This is my view on whether or not less is better or not. Sometimes it is helpful to be less. Less ego, less pompous, less ME, less attitude, and add a little more of caring and helping and others, and continuing to learn, exploring, and study.

Something is brewing in the fire service today, help make sure it is a good product!

Pete Lamb
Copyright 2013

One of the most important things that should happen in the delivery of a training program is the preparation phase of the instruction.

Today we see a great emphasis on PowerPoint and flashy classroom techniques that many instructors feel is the base or the backbone of your presentation. The simple fact of the matter is that you are the backbone of your presentation and the audio visual aids are there to support and bolster your presentation.

We now have seen a development of instructors who believe that they are “subject matter experts” in all fields because they can read a lesson plan. Delivering a program from a lesson plan (pre-prepared and commercially developed or prepared by you) does not give the same class as someone who has field experience.

Part of instructor preparation is knowing your own personal limitations. While I personally consider myself a good instructor with some variety of experiences, I cannot teach every subject. How can any person in a small or large department be an expert on every subject. If you do not feel comfortable with a certain subject area, and it is not a skill you can practice readily then the answer is simple…find a competent instructor.

If this subject is not a critical skill and it is a skill that you can practice repeatedly (knot tying, first aid techniques, SCBA donning / doffing) then you should practice it until you are intimately familiar with the techniques. An acquaintance of mine who is a seasoned fire instructor and fire officer often said ” You can’t return from a place you have never been.” How true! How are you going to pass along a skill that you do not have.

If the training session is a practical session, stop, plan, and consider even the wildest options. Consider personnel getting hurt as a part of the drill, consider that a person could fall ill during the drill for some unrelated cause. Consider engine failure, nozzle failure, equipment failure and all the rest. Check double check and recheck and if time permits depending upon the size of the drill have a pre-drill rehearsal.

If the training session is a live fire exercise then follow the NFPA standards for live fire exercises and add some safety factors of your own. NFPA standards are a MINIMUM!

Also, part of your preparation includes knowing the audience. Know what there original capabilities are, know what the culture of your department is and what things are acceptable behavior.

I am writing about this because I am seeing a disturbing trend. I am seeing college level instructors with excellent teaching credentials, but little or no fire service experience, teaching new firefighters and new fire officers. One can only wonder what effect this may have on our future.

The best teacher in the world can’t teach brain surgery if they are not a surgeon!

You can never be too prepared to teach a class or give a demonstration.

Your students demand your best – Be Prepared.

Pete Lamb
Copyright 2013

We are still looking for folks who love “The Job” and want to share ideas and talk informally and share information. We would love to have you join in.

Send an email and I will send you the link right at the time of the event.