HARRY R. CARTER, Ph.D., MIFireE

Over past several months, I have issued a number of challenges to the fire service throughout North America. On a number of occasions, I have also taken some serious shots at Fire Chiefs. Heck, that is part of my modus operandi. In this week’s message I want to turn the tables and point the accusing finger at those folks seated on the other side of the table. That would be all of you other folks out there in the world. And to me, that looks like the majority of the fire service.

Since I retired from the Newark Fire Department last year, I have spent quite a bit of time thinking about problems in the fire service. While I often blame the chief, I have come to the conclusions that maybe not all of the problems are coming from the top of the mountain.

I have come to the conclusion that in some cases it could be that the players in the organization don’t get it. The coach might be working hard, but just maybe the team is out to lunch. I have seen this in a couple of venues over the past year. As a service to all of you out there laboring in the vineyards of fire protection, I would like to provide you with some clues as to how you can be a real team player.

I have long noted that it is quite easy to point out problems and throw stones. Heck, I have injured my own wrists hurling brickbats in pursuit of fire service success. And there are many bumps on my head that stand in mute testimony to the failure of my wall-butting exercises. However, I have learned the hard way is that it is not so easy to stand in the breech and provide fresh ideas, when in many cases they might not be wanted, or appreciated by the people in the organization.

So what kind of follower are you?

• Do you follow all orders, willingly and cheerfully?
• Do you at the very least say "Yes Sir." and march off briskly to do your duty, albeit with a certain amount of resignation. This air of resignation comes naturally to you after years of discovering that it is usually better to do what you are told, than to test the alternatives?
• Do you whine, cry, and threaten to call Mommy?
• Do you work against the boss?
• Do you do nothing?

Are you all that you can be, or are you like the officers on the fictional naval vessel, the USS Caine? These poor followers were characters in one of our favorite 1950’s movies, The Caine Mutiny. Their lack of loyalty was at the root of many problems that the ship faced. Oh, they had a tough skipper, who was a bit screwy, but these guys were a sorry lot of individuals. These men bitched, moaned, and groaned, but would never take any positive action to help their skipper run the ship. They would privately malign the old man, but never give a moment’s support for him in public. A brusque "yes sir" was all they would ever give to him.

True, the skipper was a pure SOB, through and through, but he was the boss. The critical issue which I feel was posed by the characters within this movie arose from the lack of support which they gave to their skipper. When times got tough, rather than pitch in and help, these guys stood back and let the skipper make some serious mistakes.

Who can forget the climatic scene, when the ship seemed about ready to break up during a typhoon, the men took command away from the skipper. Or how about during the beach attack when he became "Old Yellow Stain" because of the die marker he threw over the side to mark the demarcation line, rather than use his ship as the defining point. Rather than help and defend him, they joined the crowd throwing the epithets.

Loyalty was not a strong suit among these men. Their own perceptions allowed them to overlook a small, but critically important, part of being in the military: you follow orders. Some orders are good, some are bad, but they are all orders just the same.

These guys were all behind the fellow who assumed command, based on a little-known paragraph in the book of Navy regulations. There were behind him, until they were called into a court of law and asked to become accessories to the deed. They then took to the proverbial "bowels of the ship" and left the poor guy to walk the plank alone. Some friends! If you recall, the only thing that saved the man who took command was the skill of the defense attorney in forcing the Captain to break down on the witness stand.

Are you that kind of follower? Like the officers on the USS Caine, do you hide behind bulkheads and fire torpedoes at the bosses’ car as it passes? Or do you try to be a team player and warn the boss when the torpedoes ping on the radar scope? Sometimes this can be a difficult position. No one likes to be called a kiss-up, or a teacher’s pet. Heaven knows that I understand how this feels.

During my years as a fire officer, I had to deal with firefighters of all types. They each had one thing in common. They possessed a variety of attitudes and personalities. My observations have been that they usually fell into one of the following general categories:

Which of these are you?

• Cheerful people who always did what you asked, even anticipating what you might desire in those cases where you were not able to give them direct supervision.
• People who knew that they had a job to do, and did it to the best of their ability.
• People who did the minimum necessary to stay out of trouble, and who did not want to stand out in a crowd.
• People who showed up and were a downward drag on the team’s effectiveness.
• Slackers who often went on sick leave to get out of doing things.
• People who would rarely give a desultory attempt at a job, and who could be counted upon to then stand out in a crowded room by making themselves a full-blown pain in the butt. People who literally screamed at the top of their lungs, "beat me up, for you see, I am a fool."

In my book that I co-authored with Erwin Rausch, Management in the Fire Service (3^rd Edition), we state that, "… an individual often brings attitudes, personal performance standards, and a willingness to work that might or might not match what a fire department needs to …" get the job done. If the worker comes in ready to work, and makes a good faith effort to be a team player, then life is good. However, problems can occur when the individual arrives with a bad attitude and lousy work habits. This is where the skill of those officers involved in this mix come into play.

No one ever said that being an officer was easy. But when you folks out there in Fire Service Land are good followers, our job as leaders becomes easier. That is what helped me through many of the rough times in my career: Good People. If this were a story for officers, I would now move to telling you how to motivate people, lead them, and kick, or kiss their butts as the situation warranted. However, such is not the case in this commentary. Over the past several years, I have devoted countless pages to advising officers on how to be better leaders. I now want to spend some time helping you all to be better followers.

The first clue is quite simple. Every body has a boss. Your boss has to answer to someone, just like you do. Know that, and understand the pressures involved.