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Comment by Jeff Allen on February 26, 2008 at 8:05am

The most important rules to follow as a supervisor are to remain consistent, fair and treat everyone as equals. When a subordinate displays a behavior that is unacceptable and you wish that individual to remain part of your team, treat the behavior. Don't make it personal. On the other hand, don't keep that person if they are not going to change the behavior and are a weak link in your chain. Too many Chiefs won't replace people once they become 'part of the family'. Some of these people need to be replaced; the rest of us are ashamed to call some of them 'brothers' yet as a result of weak management the rest of the department has to live with the situation. Chiefs expect all personnel to fly like eagles yet they allow the turkeys to walk among them. Don't get me wrong; my Chief treats me great and I am not venting. I just see lots of this as I teach classes throughout my state in small and large departments.

Comment by Mike Walker on February 26, 2008 at 5:24am

You have a good point Jeff. I am finding out that many do not know how to properly discipline. Unfortunately too many think that discipline involves a highly emotional discharge of emotion and must include arguing with a subordinate. Right now I'm dealing with a crew like this. Everything seems to have to be part of a "larger conspiracy" when it is really them that is causing their own misery. Proper discipline doesn't have to be emotionally charged, in fact, it's far better to handle negative discipline without all the hype.

As a Chief, I work within the SOP's and other department procedures. In other words, I manage by these rules. If my officers also manage by the same rules, the drama is reduced to a large degree. If an employee steps over the line, they have to be corrected or else the cynergestic drama cycle begins, which in the end misses the point. I will go as far as saying if the officers, Chiefs included, do not follow through with correcting maverick behavior, then everything else that has been said is just a bluff. Once the bluff has been called and not dealt with appropriately, the lunatics run the mad house.

Comment by Jeff Allen on February 25, 2008 at 7:47am

The largest problem by far is in the area of discipline. I know personally of too many cases where people should have lost their jobs because of unethical and in some cases illegal acts, but their Chief either didn't want to face the facts or perhaps was part of the problem. What they don't realize is at some point these issues will catch up to them and make the whole organization look bad. Plus most of the guys on the floor know what's going on, how badly the Chief is handling it, the lack of punishment for what certain people are doing, and they get the message; it's okay to be a screw up; the Chief won't fire you.

Comment by Mick Mayers on February 24, 2008 at 9:09pm

Nice post, Mike. We do have a problem in the fire service with officers who aren't officers, but just "higher-paid firefighters" (except in the vollies, but you get what I mean). These are the guys/gals whose vision of leadership is to be the most popular guy/girl in the department, "everyone likes me", and everyone's best friend rather than actually LEADING. If there isn't anything challenging going on and you can get away with being everyone's buddy, that's great, but wait until the s*** hits the fan and you'll see who is leading who, that's for sure.

By challenging your people and turning up the heat on them to improve, you also show them what kind of leader you are going to be when things AREN'T so good. And when the heat gets turned up on the fireground, I see those companies- they're usually running a disjointed, poorly disciplined operation and doing something stupid like shooting water into a vent hole or something.

I think being an officer would be nice if you could be everyone's friend, but do your subordinates a big favor and be the "designated adult supervision" at the station first. They may not thank you now, but when they make chief somewhere and they say, "he was tough on me, but I learned more from him than anyone I worked with", well, that's much more meaningful.

Comment by Mike Walker on February 24, 2008 at 5:48pm

I have read Gulianis. It is a great book. I should have mentioned it. I will pick up Iacocca's. Thanks.

I am also going to look for Stapletons book. Who publishes that?

Comment by Jeff Allen on February 24, 2008 at 4:08pm

I read many of these but prefer books like Where Have All the Leaders Gone by Iacocca, and Leadership by Guliani. These books have great references to what is wrong in public safety that just isn't getting fixed. We have Chiefs running multi million dollar 'businesses' but they want to be one of the boys....can't do it.

Comment by Jeff Betz on February 24, 2008 at 3:26pm

I am a big student of the leadership thing as well. I don't know if I am good at it or not (which of course is the goal), but I find it interesting. I CAN tell you that I am a better leader because of what I have learned over the years.
One of my favorite quotes about leadership :
Leadership is like beauty; it's hard to define, but you know it when you see it. - Warren Bennis
A book I am reading now for the 2nd time is "Firefighting Reflections" by Leo Stapleton. While it is not a leadership book, there are several fire service related examples of good leadership.
I could go on all day, so I guess I better stop now.

Comment by Jeff Allen on February 24, 2008 at 12:28pm

I teach leadership all over our state and find that most Company Officers lead the way they've been shown to lead, by their Chiefs. Or they develop their own 'style' and are left alone to deliver it, however good or bad it may be. Most Chiefs will blindly tell you that their department isn't broke, so don't attempt to fix it with new management ideas. Then everybody suffers......