Volunteer View: Leadership Mindsets that a Volunteer Officer Needs

Being a fire officer, no matter the type of department, is a great privilege and huge responsibility. The volunteer fire officer can be met with a multitude of challenges that arise inside of the firehouse as well as outside of it. Showing your members that you are in the correct mindset in both attitude and pride can make all of the difference in efficiently leading your company.

Putting a person in the position of an officer, whether it is by election or selection, is done because of trust, experience/knowledge and popularity. Constant work is required by volunteer department officers to at least maintain, if not increase, the levels of those three vital factors.

Trust

If the men and women alongside whom you serve don’t trust you, the machine won’t work. That trust is built over time with many limbs branching out to gather it in.

Trust is built by being that person to whom both fellow officers and firefighters look in times of need. Be that cool, calm individual who they rely on for mitigating emergencies to which your department responds.

Trust is built by checking in regarding to members’ full-time job and their family situation. Being a volunteer can be stressful on home life and can cause issues with the job that pays the bills. Doing your best as an officer to help your members makes those situations less tense, which is important to them. Be that listening ear when it comes to personal issues.

Of course, trust is built by being honest.

Experience/knowledge

If you don’t have experience and the knowledge that comes with it, your team won’t function as you want it to function.

Continued training in regard to your officer position as well as for staying sharp on the basic skills that you expect the members of your crew to possess will shine through when your team most needs you.

Continuing education for officers can be challenging in regard to finding the specifics that you want or that pertain to your area. Don’t hesitate to consider opportunities that can be found down different avenues, such as audiobooks and online learning as well as attending leadership-based workshops and roundtables.

Staying sharp on your basic skills can be done by working with newer members as they develop the foundations of theirs.

Popularity

Often, we forget the popularity aspect of being an officer in a volunteer organization, but no matter whether anyone wants to talk about it, if members don’t like you, things won’t go as planned. You must be liked if you’re going to convince fellow department members to spend their free time with you to protect your community together.

In the realm of being liked is being fair. It’s something on which you always will be judged. Dividing the load of tasks of whatever sort often requires delegating down, but don’t overlook the value of involving members and their input.

Also, pitching in and taking on a share of the workload never is below the volunteer department officer, whether it be mopping floors inside of the station or rolling dirty hose on scene of a fire.

Your fellow members always are watching you: More eyes are on you than you have on them. Consider this important element in regard to everything, including the grandmother who called 9-1-1 at 3 a.m. for a nuisance alarm. Everyone who responded will look to you for your kindness in assisting members of the community when they are in need.

Engaging with your members on a personal level also is a key attribute that a volunteer department officer must possess to lead effectively. That might mean a quarterly bowling outing or a pizza night (if funds are available) to keep the camaraderie flowing or a call to check in on a member who you haven’t seen in a while.

As well, be available for members. If one is struggling with a task or if you see that a member might not get something and/or might not speak up about it during a training exercise, take the time to engage with that person. Make yourself available during a break or after the class is over. Teach something that improves the individual’s personal skill set—and, ultimately, enhances the competence of the department’s teamwork.

Training

Members of your volunteer department want to feel structure and organization when they participate in training, but how many of us have heard the same ol’, “What do you want to do tonight?” All that says is, “I have made no plans regarding training and have failed you.” If training drills are thrown together, your ideas likely will be scattered, and key points that bring everything together will be missed.

The time and effort that an officer puts into an upcoming training period speak to the officer’s dedication to the department and to the members who attend the training. Take the extra step(s) to make drills as realistic/real-world as possible. Members will perform on the fireground only as well as you prepare them to perform.

If you are met with challenges of not having a dedicated training facility, use your imagination. For example, get in touch with local government to find who is in charge of tearing down structures and ask them whether you’re able to do evolutions that don’t involve live fire in any properties. Most of the time, they will be glad to help local volunteers. If they give you the OK to burn, that’s even better.

Also, while the question, “What do you want to do tonight?” is inappropriate, because it’s based on a lack of preparation, “What do you want to do in future trainings?” is appropriate. In the same vein that involving members regarding the delegation of tasks has worth, so does involving members regarding the skills, etc., that will be practiced.