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Success as a Company Officer: It starts long before you get the badge
By Cindy Devone-Pacheco

Often in life, we can’t plan our future; we just have to work hard and hope for the best. But according to Ray Gayk, Deputy Chief of the Ontario (Calif.) Fire Department, those who hope to promote to the company officer level someday should probably sit down and start making some plans.

Beware the Tattoo
In his class, “New Company Officer’s Guide to Success,” which was held this morning at FDIC, Gayk stressed the importance of planning for your future as an officer now, rather than waiting until after you become an officer, by carefully choosing your words and actions. By becoming a watchdog of sorts for your behavior, you’ll most likely avoid obtaining any fire-service “tattoos.”

“Your career as a captain starts long before you actually get the badge,” Gayk explains. “And just because you got that badge doesn’t mean [your history with the department is forgotten.] The things you did early in your career will follow you up to the captain rank.”

Called tattoos because they become indelible “marks” left by previous mistakes or actions, firefighters hoping to someday become an officer must decide early on what their tattoos are going to be. “You can’t get rid of them, so you really want to start thinking about it a lot sooner than most guys usually do,” Gayk says, “especially because some of what you do can get magnified when you’re a captain. And if you have a shady past, it takes a lot longer to win people’s respect.” And the respect of your crew is imperative when trying to lead them into a burning building.

Set the Standard ASAP
Even if you have no tattoos, Gayk says you must be extremely careful in how you begin your career as a captain. “A lot of people come in and try to feel it out, try to get their feet wet,” he explains, “but what ends up happening [as a result of that] is that personnel are allowed to do what they want; they lead the captain around, and it’s difficult to rein people in when you need to set a standard, but you didn’t set one immediately. A lot of younger captains therefore have to play ‘catch-up.’”

To set your standards, you must know your expectations for your crew, which is much easier said than done when it’s your first day on the job. “The crew needs to know your expectations, but even you don’t know what they are because you’ve never been a captain before,” Gayk says. “But that’s one of the biggest mistakes you can make, not immediately telling your crew what’s acceptable and what’s not.”

Principle vs. Rules
So how do you determine your expectations? According to Gayk, you must first determine your expectations for yourself. What kind of leader are you going to be?

There are two basic types of leadership style: principle-based leadership and rules-based leadership. Principle-based leadership stems from knowing the difference between right and wrong, but also knowing that in order to do the right thing, sometimes rules must be broken. In contrast, rules-based leadership adheres strictly to the rule book or department SOPs, and doesn’t waver from what’s written down on paper. “New guys want to follow all the rules since they’re new, but they don’t have the experience yet to have their own style,” Gayk says. “To be an effective officer, you actually need to be both a rules-based and a principle-based leader.”

The rules don’t always fit with the problem at hand, so occasionally, you have to rely solely on your knowledge, experience and common sense instead, which can be intimidating because it requires you to defend your decisions to those who may not agree with them. “And how do you break a rule without getting into a lot of trouble?” Gayk asks. “Well, you can’t always rely on a book to tell you what to do. Doing that can actually make the company look bad.” How so? It allows leaders to make “autopilot decisions,” or decisions that don’t require any real thought or judgment call. Leaders can then justify their decisions by saying things like: “If it were up to me, we’d do it differently, but we have to follow the rules, so we can’t.”

The Cool Captain?
Gayk also discussed the pitfall of wanting to be the “cool captain,” or the officer who may shirk responsibility in an effort to be considered one of the guys rather than an officer.

“You don’t want to be the cool captain,” Gayk says, “because you’ll pay the price, not your crew. It actually works out better if you act like a captain.”

Gayk’s down-to-earth discussion about leadership implies that he’s at once a “cool” guy, but also a leader who takes his role seriously. He follows the rules, but isn’t afraid to break them when necessary and defend his decision to do so. He came to be a deputy chief by learning some lessons the hard way (he admits he’s got one or two “tattoos”), but he came away from those experiences with a better understanding of himself and his job. By sharing his knowledge and personal experiences with the class, he made it obvious that he wanted to help new officers avoid some of the mistakes he made and hopes to start them off on the right foot.

Cindy Devone-Pacheco is senior editor for FireRescue magazine.