How do you handle conflicts and challenges within your department, and how do you promote a culture of accountability and professionalism?

Question

Robert Verhelst · Answer

So I think when you look at conflict and challenges within like stations or within a department and promote that accountability and professionalism, I think it starts from the top it starts from your senior. Firefighters it starts from your senior Chiefs, things like that. I think if they show the professionalism and accountability that they're looking for as well as you know, the accountability and professionalism also tie into how well, you know, your job. And that's a key aspect of being able to not just keep the information that you have to yourself but to be able to deliver that information to others. That's being accountable to not only your department but to the fire service in general because all situations in the fire, service are Dynamic and we reach in have individual experiences in different ways. And this is a way to continue to have be accountable to the next generation of firefighters.

Donald Soranno · Answer

How do you handle conflicts and challenges within your department? And how do you promote a culture of accountability and professionalism? Well, first and foremost, it starts from a leadership role. The leader needs to step in and see what is causing those conflicts and challenges. One, you're gonna have that within every department, every agency, you're gonna have that. But is it something that's just minor stuff or is it something where you actually need to step in and figure out what's the root cause. Being a good leader is able to see these issues and see these conflicts and be able to address them early enough so they don't become a big issue and spreads within the department. I think it's important to show as that leader as you're dealing with these conflicts, your peers and your subordinates are gonna see how you react and how you're handling these. If somebody's out of line and you're addressing it, you're addressing that accountability as well as that ties into the professionalism. So all of these to me are all intermingled and all of them can be addressed by strong leadership, being able to realize if there's something going on, they need to insert themselves and figure out what's the issues so it doesn't become a big pariah within the agency, within the department or within the squad because none of those are immune to any of these. But it's all about leading by example, talking to your employees, trying to figure out what the issue is. You may not always be able to solve every one but showing that you care and that you have concern will lead to having an overall better feeling lit within the office space.

SuperDave Leath · Answer

So the question is, how do you handle conflicts and challenges within your department? And how do you promote a culture of accountability and professionalism? So, the one time that I got angry at a cop, I was a detective on a robbery scene at a 7-Eleven. The cop walks in and he gets himself a cup of coffee from the refrigerator. And it was an active crime scene. That was the one time that I lost my cool on a cop. But honestly, I believe that the cameras, the body-worn cameras, are producing more professionalism and better cops. I'm for it.

Dave Robertson · Answer

Handling conflicts and challenges within the department and promoting a culture of accountability and professionalism. That is a huge question. So handling conflicts, first of all, you handle them early. You handle them calmly, at least in my position. Listen more than I talk. Try to understand where people are coming from, why the conflict arose in the first place. If it's a conflict between me and somebody else, I don't necessarily handle it differently. If I'm feeling there's conflict, I'm quiet, I'm calm, I listen in. I try to reach out early if I'm sensing conflict. Challenges within the department, people write entire books on that one. So I'm actually not going to touch that part of the question. Promoting a culture of accountability and professionalism. There's many, many ways you can promote a culture of accountability and professionalism. But I think the two biggest ways is you lead by example. You do not need a white shirt, gold badge, any level of bugles on your collar to lead by example. You can start leading by example day one when you hit the apparatus bay floor. Be professional at all times and in all circumstances. That's one of the best ways to promote that culture. But I think a slightly better way is hiring properly, right out of the gate. Picking people properly right out of the gate. It's one of, I think, the fire service's great failings, which can be illustrated with all the misconduct issues and people failing in academies and whatnot. We can do much better at hiring, but I think when you hire people right away that indicate they're highly accountable and very professional, you're not going to have those problems later on.

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"How do you handle conflicts and challenges within your department, and how do you promote a culture of accountability and professionalism?"