Tips to inspire new people for success

Far too many times do we lose focus on what our responsibility is as leaders or senior fireman. In today’s fire service we seem to be losing touch with what to teach our new people, how to teach our new people, or simply blame it on the fact that we don’t have enough time. There are many arguments that it’s a generational thing, and that “they don’t make ‘em like they used to.” As much as all that seems justified and there can be a great argument to support that, allow me to shed new light on the subject. We aren’t inspiring people anymore; let that marinate for a second, I’ll repeat it WE ARENT INSPIRING PEOPLE ANYMORE. Think about it, when you got hired or joined the volunteer department, didn’t one or more people take you under their wing, wasn’t there a young Lt or Capt that showed you the apparatus, opened compartment doors and showed you where everything was and what it was used for? If you didn’t and you survived this long than god bless ya, because you are lucky my friend.

Let’s take a look at today’s fire service. We hire new firefighters or a new one joins the volly house and they just sit around. They’ve been on the job a month or so now and have no familiarization with where’s what on the rigs, or even the address of the damn fire house. Who’s to blame; this new generation? The fact that this person is lazy? Or that they just shouldn’t be here?  None of those excuses are a viable option, if you’re a senior guy or an officer it is your responsibility to set the standards with these individuals. It is human nature to want to get inspired, you can’t just expect someone to walk in and say, hey what’s that or what does this do? Yeah, it’d be nice that’s for damn sure, but nine out of ten times that doesn’t happen. Maybe you were the one out of ten that did that, but realize not everyone is like you. Everyone ticks differently, we can’t think subjectively as leaders or mentors because we lose focus on what we are actually supposed to be teaching people. We are supposed to be preparing them for a career that is psychologically more fulfilling than anything they’ve ever even dreamed of. We are preparing people to be part of a tradition, a system founded on values; values like pride, honor, courage, passion and all those other sexy words we like to put on t-shirts. But we are not holding true to those values ourselves if we simply just give up on people, if we don’t invest the time we need to with these new people. Of course they screwed up on a call, or ran around the engine twice and came back with a screw driver and a hammer when you told them to “go grab the tools” You never showed them where things were or why we call a haligan bar and an axe “the irons” or “the tools.” Now I know some of you are reading this saying “that’s not me” or “whatever, what does this guy know, they should come to me, not me go to them.” Part of you is right, I wish I could get more new people to come to me and want me to show them things or ask me questions but the truth is that isn’t how everyone operates. Unfortunately if we don’t catch this early and show them what’s expected they will become lazy complacent fools who do nothing but take up time and space. Like I said “if WE don’t catch it early” it’s our job to set expectations and come up with an itinerary of training for these individuals. Set a time line of what they need to work on and when it is to be completed.

Below is a suggested timeline for you and your new people, take it or leave it, modify it to how it works for you, but at least consider it.

Week 1:

(Career) Have them meet with Human Resources, Director and/or the Fire Chief. Have that person have all the paperwork, SOP’s and anything else they need to be officially employed there. Next assign them a mentor, have their mentor make sure they get a full tour of the fire house, assign them a bunk room, locker, gear etc. Go over the daily tasks, from morning roll call, rig checks, station cleaning, fire inspections, lunch, training, pt (gym) etc.

(Volunteer) Have that person meet with the Chief and/or President, have them give that individual a copy of the SOP’s and the meeting schedule and training schedule. Next assign a mentor for them, issue them gear, a pager and explain how the pager works and what they are to do when it goes off, etc.

As goofy as some of those basic things sound, if you don’t explain those things to someone you can’t be mad later when they are eating lunch at 11 instead of 1130 or why they missed this month’s meeting when you know they were off.

Week 2:

(Career) Set up a meeting with that individual’s front line leader/supervisor (Lt. or Capt.). That meeting should consist of welcoming them to the team and then going over their expectations. During your expectations you should explain to them that you need them to follow through with what you are tasking them with, psychologically that gives one a sense of purpose and they feel valued and statically they will follow through with what you want done, because they don’t want to let you down. Give them a timeline of when you want them to complete things such as driver’s training, knowing the response area and when you want them to know the SOP’s. Creating the timeline puts pressure on them to get it completed but also helps you as their leader keep track of their progress.

(Volunteer) Show them the apparatus, go over the gear with them, the tools on the rigs, what they’re used for. Set up a meeting and discuss the probationary period, set expectations, give them a time line of when to attend and complete fire school. Encourage them to attend classes at the fire academy. Go over the training schedule and explain the requirements that your department has on how many training events they need to attend.

Weeks 3-5:

(Career) It’s training time! Let’s get them out and see what they’re really made of, have them dress a hydrant, hook up to a stand pipe/FDC, pull hose and repack it, throw ladders, conduct a search in a smoke filled or dark environment, hold c-spine, dress a trauma victim, mitigate a hazmat, etc.

(Volunteer) Do all the same as mentioned above for career, if they’re a new fireman and have never done it before, teach them the basics. Teach them how to dress a hydrant, how to hook up to a standpipe/FDC, how to pull the cross lay and how to pack it, how to search and what to feel & listen for while searching, how to change a bottle on their SCBA etc.

Weeks 5-12:

(Career) Continue to hammer out all the training as listed above, as well as start familiarizing them with communications. We have 100 guys in the fire service who are some of the best nozzleman in the bizz but can’t relay a simple message on the radio to save their life. Focus heavily of proper radio transmissions and when to or when not to talk. Work on pump operations, driver training, pump calculations, water supply and all the things that will make them one of the best people you have on your department, which makes your department safe and more effective.

(Volunteer) Also focus on their radio communications, as well as help them along the way if they’re in fire school. Train with them at your fire house on the things they are learning in class, it won’t only make for a better firefighter out of them but gives you a chance to brush up on your skills which keeps you proficient.

After all of this has been completed be sure to keep training with them and once a new person joins or gets hired you will be confident in assigning them as a mentor because you know they have completed the same process. Trust me if you stick to those things mentioned above, you won’t find them sitting around anymore, they will start coming to you saying "hey can we go work on this, or can you show me that.” That is when you know what you’re doing is working, which makes for yet another fulfilling moment in this great career.

Lastly, work on inspiring them. If you don’t know how than look back at all you’ve done with them these past three months. Use the work they put in as an intro to your inspirational speech. When you sit with them after three or more months start to assign them real projects, explain how pleased you are with what they have brought to the table and how you depend on them to keep their skills up. Make them feel warranted for their efforts, no one is saying to thank them for showing up, but if they worked hard these past three months proving themselves and learning the basics it’s okay to give them an ’at a boy, small things like that will go a long way. Day by day they will become better at their job, and headed in the direction of becoming a leader too. Isn’t that the most rewarding thing anyway, knowing that we helped pave the way for the future leaders of our departments? But it all starts with those first three months, set the tone, give expectations, pick them up when they’re down and inspire them the entire journey. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader; a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.”

We have a book in my fire house called the On-Boarding Packet, this packet consists of a number of check lists and information so that the new employee and his/her supervisor can keep track of making sure they are properly integrated into the system. We have had great success with it since its introduction to our way of processing new employees. I encourage any of you to do the same, if you need any guidance on how we laid ours out, feel free to contact me. You can find me on Facebook under  facebook.com/passioninleading or on twitter under twitter.com/capt_mcglynn .

In all that you do, God bless, stay safe and take care.

Dave McGlynn

Passion in Leading, LLC