Chapter 1 Flashcards
New company officers must:
- Understand their position’s importance
- Recognize the challenges, expectations, opportunities, and commitment required
- Know their new responsibilities
- Know their new duties
- Act in an ethical manner
What do company officers oversee within their agency?
Personnel, training, equipment and apparatus
The company officer performs many functions including, but not limited to:
1: providing leadership
2: acting as a role mode
3: giving advice
4: evaluating firefighter performance
5: providing representation for members to the administration
6: seeking to resolve interpersonal conflicts
7: providing counseling, coaching, or discipline when necessary
8: directing the work and ensuring operation readiness
9: proving company level training
The company officer’s most important task is?
Ensuring personnel safety
Concerns and complaints should only be voiced to?
Up the chain of command, never to subordinates
Learn, apply, and model
Leadership
Officers must begin to cultivate the leadership skills needed to ensure that a unit operates safely, effectively and efficiently.
Learn, apply, model
Ethics
Ethical conduct takes in greater importance because the officer is a role model for the units subordinate members and peers, as wel as the public.
Learn, apply, model
Supervision
A company officer’s level of supervision may be the most difficult. The move from being supervised to supervising, while still under the supervision of higher officers, can seem overwhelming.
Learn, apply, model
Responsibility
Do new officers must assume responsibility for their own actions, as well as for the actions of their subordinates
Learn, apply, model
Authority
Officers must learn how much authority is legitimately assigned to the position and how to apply it in a fair and equitable manner.
5 challenges a new officer must learn, apply, and mode
Leadership, ethics, supervision, responsibility, authority.
What must a new officer use to develop an appropriate leadership method for each individual unit member
Skill, observation, and communication.
In regards to traditions, what must a company officer do if met with “we never did it that way before”
Explain why it is important to make the change and how the change will benefit the crew, agency and or the community.
Keys to successfully enacting change
Verbalize expectations, establish priorities, and listen to subordinates
What must the officer understand in relation to group dynamics
Experience level, educational and generational differences within the crew
NFPA 1021
Standard for fire officer professional qualifications
In relation to personal factors/changes, the new officer must?
11 things
- Commit to responsibilities, duties and requirements
- Show loyalty toward organization
- loyalty toward personnel
- act as liaison
- be a manager
- Support all types of education and training
- guard conversations
- accept criticism and accept praise, honor modestly
- lead by example
- praise in public, discipline in private
- project a professional image
The following individuals may have certain expectations of a new company officer.
Family members, former peers and firefighters, administrators, public.
What are expectations of family members
Family members may not realize that added responsibility may result in more work time or increased stress.
What are former peers and firefighters expectations of new officers-
May have unreasonable expectations how they will be treated.
What are expectations of a new officer from administrators.
Know how to lead, supervise, and perform all duties of a company officer from the start.
What is the public’s expectations for a new officer?
Expects the company officer have all of the answers and ability to mitigate their incident.
A new officer should try to do the following for a successful transition.
Make informed decisions
Communicate clearly
Apply appropriate management/supervisory techniques
Set expectations and ensure they are met
Project a command presence
Develop an appropriate leadership style
Show respect for others
Be loyal to the company, unit, organization and community
Live and lead by a personal and professional code of ethics
Set high yet attainable standards
Value diversity in people and situations
Praise accomplishments
Listen to others
Commit to education and training
Remain humble
Follow organizational policies
Recognize opportunities for improvement and identify solutions
In relation to NFPA 1021, what groups or people are company officers assigned to service them.
Responsibilities NFPA 1021 page 18
Subordinates Chain of command Organization Public Profession Family Themselves