Every fire department is only one poor employee decision away from a social media crisis; the higher up in the organization that individual is will have a direct influence on how serious the crisis will be.
Read More »Leadership
The “Management Trap”: How Fire Service Leaders Can Avoid Getting Snagged
By: Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer I believe that three of the most important terms in personnel management are responsibility, authority and accountability. I’ve written about theses inter-related terms–they’re not synonyms–previously, and today I’m going to talk about what I believe is the most overlooked of the three: Accountability. (If you missed that previous blog, I encourage you to read ...
Read More »New E-Books on Fire Service Leadership, Diversity, Educating the Public and More!
Battalion Chief (Ret.) Robert Avsec and his guest bloggers write about fire service leadership topics that should resonate with fire service leaders and those who aspire to leadership positions in the future.
Read More »Organizational Climate: Another “Weather” Report
Much is being written and discussed about the fire service and its culture of risk-taking and the influence of that culture on firefighter deaths and injuries. But there is also the culture of the firehouse, and that’s the culture that’s influencing the inappropriate behaviors, on and off the job, that are resulting in careers being ruined, lawsuits being filed, and in the worst cases, firefighters taking their own lives.
Read More »This is What a Fire Service Champion Looks Like
I applaud that BC, whomever he or she may be, because they are a fire service champion. And champions are what our younger firefighters need if we're going to maximize our use of their thoughts, ideas, and talents to keep moving the fire service forward in the 21st century.
Read More »Sexual Harassment of Female Firefighters: New Year, Same Old Headlines
Come again? Without admitting guilt? I don’t know about the average citizen, but when I see a local government paying $1.75 million to a plaintiff in a sexual harassment case, I see “guilty”, how about you?
Read More »Scouting for Fire Officer Talent
So, if you’re “scouting” the potential officer talent in your fire and EMS organization to see where your future officers might be coming from, what should be your scouting criteria?
Read More »The Influence of Fire Department Training
Fire service training is much more than just the imparting of knowledge, the acquisition of new skills, and the ability to apply that new knowledge and skills. Fire service training, from entry-level through incumbent staff training, is also the vehicle by which a department's culture and values are initially imprinted upon individuals or reinforced.
Read More »Preparing Firefighters for the Real World
Today's firefighters face a multitude of situations daily that require knowledge, skills, and abilities far beyond those required to fight fires, provide medical care and rescue entrapped victims. Many of those situations require skills more akin to a social worker than that of a firefighter.
Read More »What does a future fire officer look like?
What traits do you believe make a firefighter a good candidate to promote to Company Officer? I asked several fire service colleagues the question: What traits to you look for in firefighters as potential company officers? Two of those colleagues, Fire Chief Bud Backer and Division Chief Susan Tamme, provided some really good insights back to me via e-mail. I could only use a few of their comments in the finished article, but the rest were so good I just couldn’t leave them on the “cutting room floor.”
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