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
What are the categories listed under the company officer from NFPA 1021.
Community and governmental relations Administration Inspection and investigation Emergency service delivery Health and safety
Company officers must be able to perform the following human resource management duties.
Provide effective supervision
Assign tasks
Evaluate personnel performance
Provide company level training activities
Administrative policies and procedures efficiently and equitably
Recommend actions when situations exceed their authority or ability
Act as project managers
Provide professional development opportunities for members
Initiate or assist with personnel transfers, benefits, changes to benefits,, awards and commendations, labor/management issues
What must a company officer administer at the unit level.
Administration ch 1 p 20
Organization policies, procedures and orders
What must company officers maintain at the administrative level.
Unit activity records, and prepare reports based on the these records
The company officer must do what to help prepare the organizations budget?
Monitor and document the consumption and cost of unit resources
As a level 1 officer, to conduct inspections, officers must:
Understand building construction
Understand and apply jurisdiction’s building and fire codes
Identify types of hazards and fire protection systems
Apply fire and life safety regulations to all types of occupancies
When assigned to a fire suppression incident, officers may be responsible for the initial investigation and they must:
Secure the incident scene
Preserve evidence
Interview witnesses and emergency personnel
Notify a fire investigator when the situations warrants
While supervising salvage or overhaul operations involving criminal activity, the company officer should:
Notify appropriate law enforcement agencies
Designate the scene as a crime scene
Secure the scene until fire investigation personnel arrive
A level 1 officer who supervises the first arriving unit to an incident is responsible for what:
Performing until size up
Establishing the ICS
Allocating resources to control the incident
What must the first arriving company officer develop and initiate
Incident action plan and incident safety plan
What is required from a level 1 officer in regards to health and safety.
Apply health and safety standards daily
Implement safety related policies and procedures
Monitor personnel to ensure safety guidelines are followed
Report all situations that involve job related injuries or fatalities
Act as a role model by personally adhering to accepted health and safety practices.
