1. The Multiple Roles of a Company Officer
Presentation provided by the Volusia County Fire Chief’s Training Committee

2. OBJECTIVES The participants will:
Identify typical multiple roles and responsibilities of a CO.
Prepare a personal role-set analysis.
Identify four levels of accountability.

3. OBJECTIVES (cont'd)
Identify possible sources of role conflict for the CO.
Develop and apply a balancing strategy for resolving role conflicts.
Recognize the importance of the CO serving as a role model for his/her subordinates.

4. ROLE
A set of expected behaviors that characterize your part in a particular situation.

5. ROLE EXPECTATION How you are expected to act within a specific role
How do you view the role or roles that you play?

6. Your role-set analysisME
Let the group fill in the blanks
What roles do you play each day?

7. HYPOTHETICAL ROLE SET OF A FIRE OFFICER Subordinate of Shift Cmdr.
Mechanic or Carpenter
Consultant
Son or Daughter
Parent ME
Fire Officer
Church Member
Spouse
Subordinate of Shift Cmdr.
Golfer
Home Owner
Student
Civic Board Member
Instructor

8. QUALITIES OF A GOOD ROLE MODEL
Enthusiasm
Initiative
Self-discipline
Courage
Integrity
Loyalty
Good judgment
Empathy
Discretion
Desire for self- improvement
Qualities of a role model
Discuss leaders that are viewed as enthusiastic and leaders that are not. Ask the group how they view themselves in this category and how other view them.
What are some of the problems with a leader with issues of integrity?

9. LIAISON
Liaison
Who are you a liaison with or to? Subordinates and supervisors

10. "REMEMBER, YOUR SUBORDINATES ARE WATCHING YOU!" (YOU ARE A ROLE MODEL)
Lieutenants have as much or more impact on the department personnel as the Fire Chief.

11. MONITOR Monitor What do you monitor? Emergency operations
Daily routine
Personal conduct of personnel
Personality swings of personnel – may be something going on externally that may affect their performance
Training

12. DISSEMINATOR Disseminator
You are usually the first voice that your firefighters hear when information comes from the office.
The tone of your delivery
The acceptance of the information
The importance placed on the information
Depends on how you disseminate information.

13. SPOKESPERSON Spokesperson
You are the spokes person for our department, the City, and the fire service in general.

14. DISTURBANCE HANDLER
Disturbance handler
How do you handle disturbances

15. CHARACTERISTICS OF PEOPLE WHO HANDLE ROLE CONFLICT WELL
Take initiative
Are confident
Display social poise
Desire to associate
Desire achievement and power
Reach their own conclusions

16. CHARACTERISTICS OF PEOPLE WHO HANDLE ROLE CONFLICT WELL (cont'd)
Attain rewards from success
Give priority to planning
Lack excessive feelings of pressure
Agree with department policies

17. ATTITUDE
A definition: One's state of mind or how you feel about your leadership role. "Your attitude is showing."

18. BEHAVIOR SELF-DISCIPLINE CONTROL EMOTIONS
EXERCISE MODERATION & DISCRETION
REMEMBER YOU REPRESENT THE DEPARTMENT

19. NEGOTIATOR Negotiator
As a company officer, you must have a clear understanding of communication with personnel. There are three classifications or levels of negotiation:
As a company officer, you need to determine the level of importance of the topic being discussed. If the topic of discussion is time sensitive, there may be little or no room for negotiation.
Negotiation usually requires a group buy-in
Training and experience will play a large role with discerning which topics warrant negotiation with the group and which require an decisive decision from the company officer. The company officer’s supervisor (Battalion or Chief) should and is a resource for the company officer to use as a sounding board during this process.

20. DEMEANOR
ATTITUDE
+ BEHAVIOR
+ COMMUNICATION SKILLS
= DEMEANOR

21. LEADERSHIP ROLE FUNCTIONS
Things the organization expects you to do (additional information will be discussed)
Critical behaviors
When discrepancy arise how will you present them to your supervisor and/or subordinates?
Expectations
More detail in other categories will be discussed by the commanders
Critical Behaviors
What is critical is that each accept the responsibility of roles that we have and recognize the impact on the organization when we don’t.

22. RESOURCE ALLOCATOR Resource allocator
Be aware of you personnel and take notice when there is a personality change. We have had firefighters in the past that have experienced major issues personally that affected their performance. Keep in mind the safety of everyone. If that person isn’t focused on the job at hand, someone may get hurt.

23. SUMMARY CO must manage multiple roles Role conflicts are inevitable
Balancing strategies must be developed
Accountability is critical
The CO is a role model