Editor's note: Find Firehouse.com's complete coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic here.
How much our world has changed in just the last three months is astounding! With the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic now in full swing, the once impenetrable armor of our fire service is showing some chinks. This is the ultimate VUCA environment. Mark Divine (2020) describes a VUCA environment as one that’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, which seems to describe our minute-by-minute reality perfectly. The fire service, rooted deep in tradition and culture, can have trouble changing at times, and now, in the midst of unprecedented change on a global level it is asked to put individual differences, political agendas, organizational concerns, economic hardships, and family challenges aside for the greater good, in the face of an unknown enemy. As leaders across the fire service and the public safety industry we need to walk the fine line between maintaining pre-pandemic service levels, while providing leadership, direction, and resources to ensure safe work practices and policy in a new environment. In California, much like the rest of the United States, leaders are making critical decisions at seemingly light speed and how they implement those decisions can be the difference between success and failure.
Constant change
Over the course of a month, the men and women I work for have adjusted to a changing external and internal environment almost daily. Their once clear golden circle outlining “why we serve, what we do, and how we do it has been attacked with uncertainty. The new norm challenges the status quo and stares down our mitigation measures like prey in the night. Our district leadership team, lockstep with our outside partners and stakeholders, have seemingly spent hours each day planning for what’s next, what ifs, and who-knows-what scenarios. Everyday our district executive staff meet to discuss those questions for the next 48 hours and update our district incident action plan (IAP), attend weekly public health meetings to stay abreast of new or critical public health information or practices, meet with our external stakeholders throughout the district at the emergency operations center (EOC), and implement policy as needed to protect our employees and still provide service to the community we love. We over-communicate with the workforce on current updates and policy changes face-to-face, through mandatory teleconferences, videos, learning management system (LMS) training platforms, and other web-based media. We allow our members to provide input, ask questions, and let them know they are appreciated constantly.
Kern (2011) said it best: “It’s one thing to study war. It’s another to live a warrior’s life.” This was profound to me as I reflected on this statement. While that’s just the tip of the iceberg during these unprecedented times, having done all that, the most important thing is to realize is that as the fire chief, deputy or assistant you aren’t on the front lines anymore, maintaining the pulse of your members and understanding the complex environment you are asking them to navigate, which is critical to the one team on mission mentality. Leadership roles can sometimes shield you from the real work in times of great change, and you can lose your appreciation of the difference between doing the work and telling others how to do it.
With the rapid-fire change happening daily effecting our firefighters mental and emotional state, their daily routine, their families, and their well-being, we must be strategic in our thinking and aligned with our values at all times. As conditions change, we must be prepared to put our preparation and planning into action. As Jay Galbraith (2020) said, “Organization structures do not fail, but management fails at implementing them successfully.” This is where leaders confidently bridge the gap between theory and practice. As events unfold daily, I have found some critical leadership capabilities and leadership traits that may help guide you and your members above the pandemic fog to bridge the gap between leadership and practice.
The leadership capabilities are as follows:
Be situationally aware
This may seem simple, but how easy is it to get wrapped up in your last planning meeting or policy directive and be wholly unaware of what the impact of what you are about to do will have? There is no secret to doing this, leaders need to be able to slow down and critically think about what the pen and paper will do once its applied both internally and externally. This awareness radar must be sweeping for information and clues on what the best decision is, so that you can align your strategic efforts to the overall direction of the organization.
To do this successfully, always take into account the organization's needs and direction; the current and emerging needs of your internal and external customers; and understand the forces at play outside of your team that can have a significant impact on your people and process (Mead and Stowell, 2016). Look at specific factors in and out that could affect you, don’t generalize.
Boundary spanning
Boundary spanning involves courageous conversations, humility, tact, and checking your ego at the door. Boundary spanning requires leaders to identify that they may not have all the answers or all the resources to move closer to their desired end state. At the 30,000-foot level, boundary spanning may require listening or reaching out to private industry, faith-based organizations, state Office of Emergency Services resources, or other agencies.
This level of collaboration may be about pure relationships; new, old, and controversial. Leaders must have the humility and courage to engage relationship that were once damaged and work to repair them for the greater good. Reaching out to community sources that have never had a seat at the table like agriculture and farming, private business, local industrial industry and many more. In one example, in my district we identified multiple major farming stakeholders and industrial/commercial chemical producers that may have reserves of masks and other protective equipment if needed. A mutual-aid partner in our area was able to have a recreational vehicle donated for a temporary isolation area for employees who were exposed and didn’t want to go home to high-risk family members. Some departments opened up seasonal or old stations to shift equipment or house potential responders.
Many school districts can do more than you think, in our case one of the school districts in our area provided shared use of their emergency notification system, partnered with other stakeholders to establish a back-up EOC, and was integrated into our incident command structure under the support branch; food unit. While the schools are out, they have committed to make meals for our crews should our response level or staffing need it. Additionally, they package food bags for crews during long operational periods or use on the apparatus when needed.
Depending on where you’re located in the country, EMS and fire can have a weird relationship. Ensuring we are all on the same team is critical to protecting all responders including your firefighters. Aligning operational and patient care plans with private EMS enterprises is a must. In the organization, leaders must be inclusive, innovative, and strategic dealing with such a rapidly changing environment. While it may not be considered boundary spanning, reaching out to groups in your own organization and having crucial conversations on planning an implementation bear some of the best fruit.
Lastly, using the vast global reach of technology and membership organizations you can almost find a library of white papers and best practices to evaluate and implement locally. I have joined multiple Zoom, Slack, GoToMeeting, Eventbrite, and other groups that have fire service leaders, medical practitioners, engineers, and other public safety professionals across the world providing input on what the data says and what they are doing to serve both their communities and their members.
Build trust and use its momentum
Trust is key to any successful venture or team. However, in these environments the trust dynamics change from everyday operations. Typically, trust is very acute in application. While it may take many months or years to earn others trust, it doesn’t take much for it to be degraded or lost. However, in high-stress environment that changes seemingly hour to hour, the pace at which trust is built, lost, and regained is amplified by the sheer speed of the game and the need for trust to be present. In this case, building trust takes communication, transparency, authenticity, humility, and strategy for leaders to thrive in that VUCA environment, for your team to follow you through that brick wall every day to a hopeful tomorrow. When updating your members, all types of communication vehicles must be used. The clarity of communication, frequency at which you communicate, and consistency in the message make your members understand your message and ease fears of the unknown.
In my case our district leadership uses multiple vehicles to share immediate communication threads and policy changes that members need to know. LMS scheduling and training delivery platforms are used to send messages, training, policy, audio and video recordings and more. Communication avenues through your IAP or the EOC enhance the common operating picture and puts the mission into focus. Communication with shifts or stations using teleconferences or other meeting platforms allows a common message and lets the troops ask personal and operational questions.
Being transparent means, they know what you know, and when you know it. Fear is fed through uncertainty and ambiguity. Ease those fears by telling members the gravity of the situation, the resources you have, and the expectations of how and why they are doing it. For example, my district implemented employees screening some time ago that included question screening as well as temperature and symptom checks before they came on shift and throughout. If the employee was presenting a fever and/or another symptom, per policy they were sent home. Even before the stimulus bill, we took measures to ensure everyone would be fully paid. We were upfront with the process and answered any questions our members had, fully explaining the thought process and guidance we were given to make this and similar decisions.
Authenticity breeds trust. In this challenging time, care about how your members feel, how their families feel and are doing. Be up front on your feelings and empathize with their positions on the front lines. Divine (2020) said it perfectly, “You have to open your heart up for your team for a deeper understanding and connection.” Lastly, have the humility to ask for feedback, and answer hard questions, if you don’t know say it, but commit to getting them the answer. Understand that not having the best ideas or knowing all the answers doesn’t make you a bad leader, it makes you self-aware and cognizant on how to get those answers for the betterment of your team. Don’t fight to be right, fight to win.
Thinking strategically
This doesn’t just mean developing a comprehensive Incident Action Plan with a complete set of incident objectives, priorities and follow-on forms. As officers, most everyone knows how to strategically plan for emergency situations, that is what we do daily. I’m focused here on what we may forget in the details. After your plan is developed and you go to implement it, think about these little things that may stall or impede your plan without your understanding. Decision rights, information flow, and workplace design. These three things can cause you headache after headache after you masterfully thought out plan. Decision rights means to ensure that everyone knows which decisions and actions they are responsible for. Information flow means that people must know how information flows across organizational boundaries, I mean we never have a message stall at one forgotten choke point or have the message change across boundaries, right? Lastly, design the work environment to facilitate your plan. Is there software being used? Does everyone know how to use it? Do they have the right level of access? Does that software work at all stations or locations? Is it dependent on internet? Maybe it’s a people proximity, the right people are working miles apart or don’t have the right equipment or supplies to support their work. The list really can go on and on with workplace design. Just do a deep dive outside of your plan and ask yourself will my staff, equipment, supplies, facilities, software, and hardware support it?
Leading by example and with inspiration
Last, but surely not least, leaders must lead. Leaders set the organizational tone. Have a good attitude regardless of the day your having. Your team depends and feeds of your enthusiasm and confidence or lack thereof. Invest in your people and let them know you care. Let them know that you understand the challenges that lie ahead, and reinforce that we are prepared, we are a team, and you are here for them. Leaders may eat last, but they are always first. Lead by example, be authentic, do your research, collaborate, be innovative, be humble, and be there! While we all have core values that we each hold dear and share with our organizations, there are some values I have found that show up more often than others during these times: inspiration, strategic confidence, political acumen, knowledge, transparency, humility, authenticity, innovation, courage, and endurance.
While these may be different for everyone in various situations, as I reflect back and move forward, I will continue to rely on these traits and capabilities in these uncertain times to maintain our members health as safety is my number one priority. I will continue to be an adaptive servant leader who puts my people and our mission before myself. Hopefully, some of my reflection can help you in yours. As the great Colin Powell said, “Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.”
Be the calm and the compass. Be safe.
References
- Seldman and Futterknecht (2020) Leading in the Global Matrix. Dallas, TX: Ben Bella Books, Inc.
- Mark Divine (2020) Staring Down the Wolf. 7 Leadership Commitments that Forge Elite Teams. New York, NY: St. Martins Publishing group.
- Mead and Stowell (2016). The Art of Strategic Leadership. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
- Kern (2011). Going Pro: The Deliberate Practice of Professionalism. Colorado Springs, CO: Pygmy books, LLC.
Jacob McAfee
Jacob McAfee is the deputy fire chief for the North Central Fire Protection District in Fresno, CA, and is past director of the Fresno City College Fire Academy. He is a former civilian Department of Defense Fire Chief and has 20 years of fire service experience. McAfee’s fire service includes a chief officer position in every fire service division. He is a registered instructor for the California State Fire Marshal’s Office and the California Specialized Training Institute. McAfee completed the National Fire Academy Executive Fire Officer Program and holds Chief Fire Officer and Chief Training Officer credentials from the Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE). He serves the CPSE as a curricula SME. McAfee is an instructor for Nurturing Fire Service Leaders Through Mentoring, a CFAI peer team accreditation assessor, and a volunteer advocate and instructor for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. McAfee holds a master’s degree in occupational safety and health and in emergency management.
