The role of a fire chief provides numerous opportunities to demonstrate coaching and counseling skills. Anytime we teach someone a new skill, be it a child learning to walk or an officer learning how to conduct meetings, we are coaching. Anytime a friend, coworker or family member seeks our assistance or advice, we are counseling. Both are skills that can be learned through persistence and patience. If you have the sincere desire to develop and support others plus the self-discipline to practice the specific strategies, you can become proficient in these areas.

The rewards from improving your counseling and coaching skills are many. These skills create optimal working conditions that include: proper orientation and training for firefighters, establishing clear responsibilities and standards, providing appropriate guidance and support during times of transition, and ensuring increased motivation and productivity through effective feedback. In your personal life these skills will help you understand your friends and family members more deeply. In addition, you can use these skills to resolve personal conflicts.

Counseling, a supportive process by an officer to help a firefighter define and work through personal performance problems, and coaching, a directive process by an officer designed to give directions to train and orient a firefighter to the realities of the department and the expected personal performance, share many of the same skills. At times they may seem to overlap. When they do, remember that there are differences between the two processes.

Let's face it. Most of us need to see a personal benefit before we change our behavior. The same holds true for deciding to become the best possible coach or counselor you can be. So why do it?

Counseling makes your job easier by warning you of problems ahead of time, and it increases efficiency because you understand the motives and needs of each firefighter. It improves your decision-making when everyone's ideas are heard and firefighters' strengths and abilities are complemented, it improves your career opportunities when you're known as a leader who can motivate firefighters and build constructive relationships with superiors and subordinates, and it improves your self-confidence. It reduces turnover when firefighters, especially volunteers, can vent their feelings and deal with problems openly and constructively.

There also are many reasons to improve your coaching skills. It makes your job easier when firefighters build their skill levels, enables you to delegate more so you have more time to truly manage and builds your reputation as a people-developer. Coaching increases teamwork when firefighters know what the goals are and how to achieve them, while positive recognition and feedback increase firefighters' motivation and initiative. It increases the likelihood of tasks being completed in a quality way, helps avoid surprises and defensiveness in performance appraisals, and increases creativity.

A successful coach or counselor listens more than talks. When you can identify situations that need your expertise in a timely manner, you are on your way to becoming an effective leader. Knowing when to counsel or when to coach is an important skill. It is the first step in the coaching or counseling process.

Counseling might be appropriate during reorganizations, reassignment, career opportunity failure, firefighter supervisor dissatisfaction, peer conflict, firefighter stress or burnout, personal problems, and persistent performance problems. Coaching might be more appropriate for firefighter orientation, job-skill training, standards explanation, simple performance corrections, goal changes, training session follow-up, performance reinforcement, formal or informal performance reviews, needs preparation to meet future career goals, self-confidence development, or power-struggle mediation.

If a firefighter comes to you with a specific problem, your job as a leader has just been made easier. But what about those firefighters who never walk through your door even though you say your door is always open? You may have to rely on your skills to recognize signs of performance or attitude problems.

Some signs of declining performance include decreased attendance, poor quality work, missed due dates, doing small tasks first, avoiding tougher jobs, disorganization, leaning on others for direction, and delegating upward.

Signs of poor attitude include little or no initiative, withdrawal, disinterest, increased complaining, lack of cooperation, blaming of failure on others, defensiveness, avoiding others on team, lack of enthusiasm for job, and irritability or depression.

Usually there are three reasons people don't get the job done, regardless of their excuses:

1. They don't know how, due to lack of instruction, orientation or training, or from improper or lack of feedback.

2. Something or someone keeps them from it, including a physical or mental restriction, time constraint or improper materials.

3. They don't want to, because their previous good work went unrecognized. They may be burnt out, unhappy with their supervisors or have a poor attitude.

Many times in our lives we receive feedback, directly or indirectly, that's positive or negative. If we're fortunate, the feedback helps us learn something about ourselves. But sometimes feedback creates negative feelings and does little to improve our performance.

Think about an unforgettable negative feedback experience, where the feedback created contrary feelings in you. What it is about the way the feedback was given that created such an adverse effect? Was the feedback solicited or imposed? What affect did this feedback have on your feelings and subsequent performance?

Now try to remember a time when you received positive feedback that increased your self-esteem and motivation. What it is about the feedback that created such a positive effect? What effect did this feedback have on your feelings and subsequent performance?

It's crucial for all leaders to examine how they communicate desired or undesired behavior. The delivery method will affect the firefighter's reaction to the message.

1. When giving one of your firefighters feedback, make it specific to a behavior.

   Good: George, you have been 15 minutes late for the last three shifts. Please explain why.

   Bad: George you are obviously lazy and have a poor attitude toward your job or you would be on time every day.

2. Consider timing, either before the event in the form of advice, or immediately after it as positive feedback.

   Good: Susan, I'd like to review your presentation with you before your speech next week so you can have a really good program.

   Bad: Susan, because you've done such a poor job in the past, I need to preview the speech you plan on giving next week.

   Good: Susan, you did an outstanding job in organizing your presentation for the meeting. The speech was well-researched and logical.

   Bad: Susan, good speech last week. Keep up the good work.

3. Consider the needs of the person receiving the feedback, as well as your own.

   Good: Charlie, I know how important it is to you to get the newsletter just right, and I recognize that you're under a little bit of pressure right now. I will help you edit it this time, but I want you to take that editing class so you can handle it solo in the future.

   Bad: Charlie, you always need help with the newsletter. It's not my responsibility. Don't you think it's about time you learned how to edit the newsletter?

4. Focus on behavior the receiver can do something about.

   Good: Sam, we would appreciate you keeping the company informed about the status of the project.

   Bad: Sam, why are you so introverted that you don't like to talk to other people?

5. Solicit feedback rather than impose it.

   Good: Brett, did you say you would like to learn how to handle your most difficult personnel issue more effectively? Here are some things that have worked for me….

   Bad: Brett, the way you handled the personnel confrontation with David really stinks.

6. Avoid labels and judgments by describing rather than evaluating behavior.

   Good: Andy, I have given you five chances to attend training programs in the last year and you haven't enrolled yet. Is there a problem?

   Bad: Andy, you are very lazy about improving your skills and don't seem to care about your future here.

7. Define the effect on the company.

   Good: Don, when you don't get your reports to me on time, I can't get my report to the board on time. This slows up the decision-making process regarding the resource deployment.

   Bad: Don, can't you ever get your reports to me on time?

8. Verify that communication has occurred.

   Good: Phillip, do you know the importance of recording your daily activities? Can you explain it to me so that I know you understand?

   Bad: Phillip, I'm sure you got it, right?

9. Give the feedback using calm, unemotional language, tone and body language.

   Good: Joe, I'm sure your progress will be much faster now that you're clear on how to use this new piece of equipment.

   Bad: Joe, isn't it about time you improved your ability to operate this equipment?

Examine your behavior when dealing with confrontational issues. When feedback is mixed, the impact is diluted. The firefighter ends up confused and not knowing what to do. The difference between criticism and advice is a difference in timing; most criticism can be given as advice. Write down the behaviors you reward in your company, those you ignore and those you punish. Be honest with your internal evaluation because it will indicate the direction in which your department is heading.

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John M. Buckman III has served German Township (Ind.) Volunteer Fire Department for 33 years, 25 of those as chief. He's a course developer and resident instructor in the leadership and administration course at the National Fire Academy. Buckman is co-author of Recruiting, Training, and Maintaining Volunteer Firefighters, Third Edition. Buckman is a past president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.