Officer Development

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Permalink Reply by Josh Giustra on July 22, 2009 at 1:32pm

I come from a volunter dept that runs with 7 front line officers. We have not put our program into action. We are going to have special training for officers and members that want to be officers once a month. Training will include topics from moral to leadership from some of out own officers and officers from other depts. This is just the rough plan, but if you have any more questions feel free to ask.

Josh

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Permalink Reply by John K. Murphy on July 23, 2009 at 10:56am

Todd

King County Washington has a great officer development program that has been successful over the past 10 years developing new officers. Their contact information is to the Secretary, Elenjo Schaff (eschaff@esf-r.org) 425-313-3393 (W) Fax: 425-313-3237. Their web site is http://www.kcftoa.org/

Check it out.

John

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Permalink Reply by Bill Bryan on July 23, 2009 at 11:22am

I have found that the best officers are usually the best at emergency scenes. That honesty and respect for
those below you tells a lot about the character of the officer; and, again, the ones who are honest and
show respect for those in lower pay grades is of prime importance. Unfortunately, that is usually
not how officers are rated.

An empty, well styled suit with a good resume trumps respect from peers and underlings.

And that holds true whether its FDNY, Chicago, Boston, DeKalb, Atlanta, etc...

As one of our best training officers, Lt. J. R. Magness, said many years ago: "The Best officers are taking this course,

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Permalink Reply by Bob Carpenter on October 2, 2009 at 9:14am

Todd,

I have been fortunate enough to be involved with the delvelopement of Miami-Dade's Officer Development Program (ODP). It has gone through a number of changes over the years. See my article in FE July 2009 ("Officer Development: Filling the New Officer's Toolbox") for a summary of our program. I am also teaching a 4 hour workshop at FDIC 2010 on the content and importance of the hands-on approach to officer development. Maybe I'll see you there.

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Permalink Reply by Bryan Lafleur on October 4, 2009 at 10:23am

This is a pet peeve of mine also. Not only are most departments lacking officer development, at least in my department, I'm not too fond of what is done. My department is on kind of a cert kick, concentrating on the fire officer classes, which are centered mostly around IFSTA books. Now I know there is some good info in those books specific to the fire service, but a lot of the leadership and management info seems to come from the private sector, large business management, and a lot of that comes from psychologists.

The best mindset I have found regarding leadership in our environment comes from the military. Those who have never been in the military think of this as the strong authoritative attitude, and that is there, but anyone who has ever taken small unit military leadership courses know that it covers the whole spectrum, and is perfectly applicable to us

I don't understand why these military philosophies, which are based on mental courage, integrity, and dedication, are not incorporated into the IFSTA books. There are plenty of fire service teachers who follow these concepts, Dennis Compton for one, and many fire service leaders (officers and otherwise) follow them both consciously and naturally. People respond to someone who has earned respect and knows their job, and have proven integrity, not to psychologist's theories. This is taught intensely in the Marine Corps, visit www.leadingmarines.com when you have a little time to read and see if that doesn't apply to the fire service.

I welcome other opinions on this.

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