Chapter 3

Leading the Team: Key Concepts

• Influencing others requires a fire officer to be a friend, coworker, and active listener.
• Fire officers meet supervisory responsibilities by making effective decisions, properly assigning tasks, and understanding the grievance process.
• Communication is a repetitive, circular process.
• Effective communication occurs when the receiver understands the message.
• Communication is only effective the intended message has been received and understood.

Communication Cycle

• Volume is not part of the communication cycle.
• The message conveys understanding.
• Leadership is used to influence tasks.
• Fire officers must maintain up-to-date departmental information, including SOGs, policies, and CBAs, to ensure accuracy.
• The sender's role is to send the message.
• The sender ensures the receiver understands the message.
• Body language, outside noise, nonverbal cues, and mannerisms affect message interpretation.
• A medium conveys information from sender to receiver.

Effective Leadership and Communication

• Praise should be public; counseling, coaching, and discipline should be private.
• Physical or sociological conditions interfere with messages.
• Prejudice and bias are examples of sociological noise.
• The receiver communicates understanding by providing feedback.
• Active listening requires verbal engagement, good eye contact, and alert body posture.
• Direct approach involves precise questions, timely information, and clear orders.
• Hold the microphone 2 inches (5cm) from mouth when using a radio.
• The communication order model is "Hey you, it's me".
• "Needs" is not part of the CAN report.
• Flaherty started the Mayday Project in 2015.

Project Mayday Findings

• Project Mayday examined 2400 recordings over 12 months.
• 65% of Mayday calls had major communication breakdowns.
• 36% of Mayday calls are initially missed.
• Mayday phrases appeared in 88% of reviewed recordings.

Fire Officer Responsibilities

• Fire officer must keep the chief informed about attitudes, morale, progress toward goals, and inspections.
• Fire officers should encourage subordinates to report bad news immediately.
• The informal communication system in an organization is known as the grapevine.
• Gasaway recommends addressing minor issues before they escalate.
• Drucker encouraged managers to question the value of each activity annually.

Problem Solving and Decision Making

• Brainstorming is a shared problem-solving method for spontaneous idea contribution.
• 10-15 minutes is adequate for brainstorming in groups of 4-6.
• Defining the problem is the most difficult stage of decision making.
• A fire company is a basic tactical unit for emergency operations.
• A fire officer's personal involvement in fire suppression should never override supervisory duties.
• Fire officers need to evaluate their effectiveness.

Supervision and Expectations

• Effective supervision covers 5-9 people or resources.
• Discipline encompasses behavioral requirements, such as following orders.
• A Fire Officer reviews the area of responsibility, monitors progress, coordinates with other companies, and watches for hazards.
• Logistics officer is not included in Command Staff assignments.
• Autocratic leadership is required when immediate action is needed.
• Training achieves proficiency through instruction and hands-on practice.
• Coaching directs, instructs, and trains individuals for specific skills.
• NFPA 1041 sets the standard for fire and emergency services instructor professional qualifications.

Training and Skill Development

• Prepare, present, apply, and evaluate are steps in the four-step method of skills training.
• Quick Training was developed during World War I.
• The four-step method is also known as job instruction training.
• Personality conflict is not an indicator that training is needed.
• Mediocre is not one of Burch's four levels of firefighter skill competence.
• Mentoring is a developmental relationship between experienced and less experienced individuals.
• Desire to help, current knowledge, and effective coaching make an effective mentor.
• Active learning research says to spend no more than 10 minutes on formal lecture or video presentation.
• Students lose focus after 10-15 minutes of passive learning.
• Psychomotor skill levels include initial, plateau, latency, and mastery.
• Paramedic certification is not a federally regulated mandate for emergency training.
• CFR 1910.1030 is the OSHA regulation number for bloodborne pathogens.
• CFR 1910.134 refers to OSHA's SCBA fit testing regulation.

Addressing Conflict and Mental Health

• A complaint is an expression of grief, regret, pain, censure, or resentment.
• A fire officer is the first-level representative of the administration when dealing with subordinates.
• One of the most difficult situations involves anger or interpersonal conflict in the company.
• Investigations seek to obtain additional data beyond the original complaint.
• Psychological contract refers to unwritten expectations between employee and employer.
• Solving the complainant's problem is not part of Taigman's conflict resolution model.
• Draining the emotion bubble involves active listening.
• Active listening cues and paraphrasing help the complainant feel heard.
• Firefighter suicide/line of duty deaths have exceeded the rate of drinking/depression since 2017.
• A 2015 study found that 37% of firefighters contemplated suicide.
• Of those who contemplated, 15% attempted suicide.
• Firefighters are more likely to contemplate suicide than the general population.
• 58% of firefighters reported binge drinking, versus 23% of males in the general population.
• Resiliency is adapting to adversity
• Moral injury happens when firefighters have a gap between what they do and confronting conditions.