It's All About Your Delivery

Communicating.  I think most would agree the fire service often comes up short when it comes to communicating.  In many instances, after action reports cite communicating as an area where improvement is needed.  As I’ve stated in previous posts, I’m a huge proponent of self-evaluation.  Doing a little self-evaluation about six years ago, I realized I needed to make some significant improvements to my communication skills.  While many folks have issues or deficiencies communicating on emergency incidents, my deficiencies were largely centered on communicating while not on emergency incidents.  For all intents and purposes, I personified the definition of “smart ass”.  My messages, while often correct and well intentioned, were overshadowed by my delivery.

All members of the fire service serve as communicators in the firehouse and on the street.  With that said, not all members of the fire service are effective communicators.  Effective communicators send messages that are successfully received.  In addition to sending messages, effective communicators are able to receive messages.  Ineffective communicators often send messages that are ignored or misinterpreted and they often have a hard time receiving messages.  We need effective communicators to keep the fire service focused and moving in a forward direction.   Proper delivery of messages will allow positive changes to be made and improve performance.

As I stated in the introductory paragraph, about six years ago I did some self-evaluation after realizing I was causing myself unnecessary headaches and problematic experiences.  If you follow this blog, then you know I’m obviously very much “in to the job”.  For a long time, I couldn’t grasp the concept that not everybody shares my enthusiasm or motivation towards the fire service.  Additionally, I definitely had trouble grasping the concept that some folks need somebody to reach out to them and bring out their enthusiasm and motivation.  Instead, I was very blunt and matter-of-fact about my feelings towards these folks and their actions.  This proved to be anything but positive for me and didn’t do anything to improve the fire service.  All it did was make me look like a jackass and it completely turned people off to anything that came out of my mouth.  I was “that guy”, the guy folks viewed as a good fireman but a complete jackass of a human being.  All of this stemmed from the methods in which I chose to deliver my messages.  It didn’t matter if what I said was right, all of that went out the window when I chose to deliver the message wrong.

Having served in various leadership capacities, I’ve had the opportunity to manage many different people.  Different people have different personalities and consequently, have different things that motivate them.  Part of being a leader is learning your people.  Learning your people goes beyond just knowing who they are, it means finding a way to reach them and maximize their performance.  I hate to sound like a cheerleader here because, unfortunately, the reality is there are some folks you will never reach.  However, to achieve the results you desire from your people, you have to be able to reach them.  If the message you are sending never reaches them because you chose the wrong delivery method, your efforts will prove to be futile.  Instead take the time to figure out what makes your people “tick”(like a clock, not a derogatory volunteer term) and employ a method that will effectively deliver your messages.  I guarantee you will see positive results and performance from most of your people.

Some instances and situations, like during an emergency incident, require immediate and direct delivery of messages.  We can worry about feelings later, there are pressing issues that require mitigation during emergency incidents.  I’m not advocating being rude or mean, but I am advocating not delaying effective service delivery because we are “beating around the bush” or worried about saying something that may misinterpreted as being rude.  In non-emergent situations such as: during training, around the firehouse, or after an emergency incident; take a moment to ensure the messages you are sending aren’t lost in the delivery method.  Unfortunately, it took me a long time to overcome the stigma I created by choosing bad delivery methods.  Hopefully somebody reading this is able to learn from my mistakes and prevent, or correct, poor delivery methods.  There are a lot of smart, aggressive, and forward-thinking fire service members with good ideas and they will able to effectively communicate their ideas and messages with proper delivery.