The Effective Chief Is a Caring Coach

April 27, 2015
It is critical for the fire service to embrace the concepts of proper coaching to help inexperienced fire officers and firefighters understand their roles and responsibilities.

Each person who serves as a chief fire officer has a variety of important tasks to perform. A great deal of my time over the past several decades has been spent acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge to be an effective fire service leader, instructor, and operational firefighter. There are those of you who think of me as a retired big-city chief officer. This is only one part of my career within the fire service.

I have been an active volunteer firefighter for near 44 years. During this time it has been my privilege to serve as not only a fire company officer, but also as the department training officer for more 15 years. The training of department personnel was one of the key elements in each of these positions. Your people do not suddenly appear in your fire station fully trained and ready to perform.

Most folks arrive with a basic skill set which they received during their recruit training.   It is up to you to see that they receive continuing training. One important element of this training program is being placed under the skilled eye of veteran who can work with them to improve their skill levels.  These are the people who will work with them and coach them in the performance of their duties in the firefighting, rescue, EMS, and a wide range of other skills.

Just what is coaching? Coaching is a process of training or development in which a person called a "coach" supports a learner in achieving a specific personal or professional goal. The learner is sometimes called a "coachee". Occasionally, "coaching" may mean an informal relationship between two people, of whom one has more experience and expertise than the other and offers advice and guidance as the latter learns; but coaching differs from mentoring in that the coach focuses on developing specific competencies.

Some coaches use a style in which they ask questions and offer opportunities to challenge the learner to find his or her own answers. This helps the learner find answers and new ways of being based on their own values, preferences and perspectives. At other times coaches observe and guide the learner in the performance of specific skills.

As one example of what coaching is all about, I like to think back to my days as a football player in high school and college.  In those days my coaches taught me certain specific basic skills such as blocking and tackling.  My associates and I would then drill on these basics day after day during the early part of practice.

Our coaches would then bring us together and work to teach us the necessary offensive and defensive plays.  As we got better at performing the basic skills we would continue to work under the close observation of the coaches to improve our ability to execute the appropriate plays.  The coaches would sometimes make us run the same play over and over until they saw us work at a level they felt to be appropriate. 

Think about it.  Is this any different from what we do in the fire service.  In the early weeks of recruit school we teach the recruits a wide range of specific skills.  There are the various types so of hose lays and carries.  There are the drills to learn how use the various ladders which we carry on our apparatus.  We then move on to the use of the basic tools and talents necessary to perform truck company work.  We work on teaching the recruits how to use the hose, ladders, tools and equipment which are carried on our equipment. 

At some point the basic skills training is brought together during the multi-company drill phase of training when the recruits begin to operate in teams so that they can perform the many tasks necessary to create the teamwork necessary to conduct a firefighting operation.  Under the skilled eyes of their instructors (coaches) the recruits begin to develop the skills necessary to conduct a fire-ground operation.

This part of our fire service coaching and training is quite similar to the coaching of specific athletic skills which are then blended together to build our football (track, basketball, hockey, etc.) team.  Let me suggest that it is important for each of us to understand the elements of successful coaching. They are:

  • Technical help
  • Personal Support
  • Individual challenge

The interaction of these elements create the emotional bond which allows for a successful coaching interaction.  The technical help allows for the correction of possible performance errors by the personnel being coached and trained.  The coach provides the personal support for the person being coached. It is the nature of the relationship of the coach and the person being coached which leads to the level of success which can be achieved.  It is also the task of the coach to come to learn about their ‘coachees’ so that they can tailor appropriate challenges to the individual learners. 

It is important to remember that there are a number of benefits to coaching.  Some issues which you must consider and address include:

  • Overcoming performance problems
  • Developing firefighter skills
  • Developing fire officer skills
  • Increasing productivity by allowing each member of the team to be as effective as possible in the performance of their duties

By concentrating of coaching your people to perform better, you will make progress toward achieving each of these things. 

Let me suggest that coaching is a four-step process. They are:

  • Preparation (Keep your eyes, ears, and mind open to the people around you)
  • Discussion (The point at which minds meet to find a better way)
  • Active coaching  (Getting to work on training the troops)
  • Follow up (Check for progress and understanding)

During the preparation phase one of the key elements of your task is to observe what is going on around you in your department.  You cannot begin to coach until you understand the situations involves, the people involved, and their current skill levels.  You must come to an understanding of the way things actually are before you can plan on training people to perform in the way that you want things to be.  The only way to do this is to observe what is going on around you.  You need to identify the strengths and weakness of you people so that you can build upon the strengths and train to minimize the weaknesses.

The next aspect of coaching involves your discussion with those whom you are going to coach.  However you must prepare yourself to do this. You cannot just wing it.   You need to be able to outline your plans for the person or persons you are coaching.  During the discussion you need to work to reach an agreement with the people being coached so that you can get a buy-in on your program. 

Once you and your folks are on the same page as to what is going to happen during the coaching process you can begin the active phase of coaching sessions.  You need to be able to offer ideas, advice, and guidance in such a way that your people can hear and appreciate what you are doing.  Giving and receiving feedback is a critical element of creating an effective coaching situation.

Effective coaching involves a follow-up period which monitors the progress of the learners towards the jointly-shared goals which have been developed.  It helps people to stay on course.  Interaction between the coach and those being coached is very important.  These follow-up sessions also provide an opportunity for the coach to provide praise to their trainees. 

It is critical for you as the chief officer to live a life which exemplifies this love of coaching and training to the members of your department.  This is truly a do-as-I-do approach to leadership.  Those who push training on their people and fail to actually take part themselves which leads to poorly trained fire departments. 

You may feel somewhat uncomfortable during your early efforts at coaching. Let me assure you that things will get better with practice.  Let me suggest that it is critical for the fire service to embrace the concepts of proper coaching if we are to make it a safer place to be.

Remember – The effective leader is always a caring coach.

See Harry at Firehouse Expo in Baltimore - Dr. Harry Carter will be presenting "Mentoring Programs: A Key to Fire Department Success" during Firehouse Expo, July 14-18. Find out more at FirehouseExpo.com.

HARRY R. CARTER, Ph.D., CFO, MIFireE, a Firehouse.com Contributing Editor, is a municipal fire protection consultant based in Adelphia, NJ. Dr. Carter retired from the Newark, NJ, Fire Department and is a past chief and active life member of the Adelphia Fire Company. Follow Harry on his "A View From my Front Porch" blog. You can reach Harry by e-mail at [email protected]

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