Are we too comfortable as officers?
This week I was once again engaged in conversation with some of my colleagues and the discussion of officers, and
leaders came up.
It occurred to me after my most recent unpleasant duties as an officer, that there are times when an officer has to perform uncomfortable tasks and give and follow up on unpleasant orders. Now this was no revelation for me, as I have had to make many unpleasant decisions in the past and I knew the sick uncomfortable feeling it created within me, but it occurred to me in conversation with other officers that they had not experienced any of these uncomfortable feelings.
This was particularly true of new officers. I am now trying to put this together to determine if this is not some of our underlying problems in the fire service today. People do not like to be uncomfortable. Therefore we will avoid making some unpleasant (albeit necessary) decision. This is not good for the organization, the individual who needs corrective action, or the fire service in general.
It occurred to me that another cause of this might be the lack of mentoring by senior officers who should coach and even comfort junior officers when the make these uncomfortable decisions. They need to understand that the uncomfortable feeling is warranted by the fact that they made a brave and courageous decision to do he right thing.
Doing the right thing is easier talked about then done.
Officers today will not document anything, and they will often attempt to keep issues from the boss. They keep them from the boss under the pretense that "they have handled it" when in reality no action was taken other than to say "Boy the boss is mad at you, don't do that again". The implication here is that the Captain and Lt. are not really upset about the action, but the "boss" (Chief or district, deputy or battalion chief) is the one really angry.
No documentation is developed, no boundary is established and often times the behavior will repeat.
I am not sure how we actually mentor younger officers other than to involve them into the process while maintaining confidentiality. We need to have experienced officers actually demonstrate to officers how to handle a problem. Most of the difficult personnel decisions are often done one on one behind a closed door for the privacy of the individual. No one ever learns what actually happened except the two parties involved and the rumors that occur after. Disciplinary actions cannot nor should not be made public.
Maybe there is a need to bring a lieutenant or Captain in the office and let them learn how to conduct a proper disciplinary hearing outside the boundaries of a clinical group setting.
Just a thought.
If you feel too comfortable as an officer, reassess your position and find out if you as one of America's Bravest, is afraid to make a difficult personnel decision.