This is an issue that plagues every station. It has infected
every agency at any given time.
It doesn’t always appear in a time that you would expect. I
always thought that it would arrive around low morale or periods of intense
conflict.
It seems to be part of the cultural divide. It appears that
holding people accountable has somewhere along the way gotten mixed up with
lack of oversight and a myriad of other things. It looks to me like there are lots of
people that know how lots of people should be doing there job but go on not
being able to skillfully execute theirs. This is, at times, comingled with the
lack of integrity. Sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Its is important for you to remember something, its up to
you to “Do your job”, Captain Mark VonAppen has put this to the boards time and time
again.
DO YOUR JOB!
Not what you think the Chiefs job is, not what you think
the Captains job is, not another officer or firefighters job. Do what you are
assigned. You must do YOUR job, you must do it proficiently and must do it
without haste and to the best of your ability. If you do that every single time
you are setting the expectation. Not just internally that you are going to give your best effort every time, but that you expect this from the others in your company. This generates the expectation that you are no
longer going to accept anything less than this level of accuracy.
If you want to set standards you are going to have to be
willing to set the standards and maintain them as well. As a leader or a
follower remain consistent. It is at the heart of the matter.
I challenge you to join the ranks of the people who live
what they teach, who walk the talk. Be a human doing not a human being.
Live what you read, promote directed and intelligent change,
and be willing to move mountains if that’s what it is going to take to make
things better. Not just for you. Do it for the others on the line, for the
crews to come and for the communities that we serve. They are expecting it.
Your peers are expecting it.
Be Ready. Be Willing. Be Present.
-NexGen
