My husband has introduced our family into the world of the fire service through his passion to help others as a volunteer fire fighter. Over time, I have come to understand the personal sacrifice and team dynamics within the fire service. There is a significant bond and sense of team work among a group of people that leave family functions to save someone else in their time of need. These men and women are able to maintain an organized, trained team that is able to service the public at any time of day or night at a moment’s notice. Some individuals may wonder how such a team or group can provide such a service; however, I will suggest that this is strongly due to team leadership.
Team leadership enables the team to share in the burden of leadership through team leadership capacity (Northouse, 2013). This form of leadership enables the team to act quickly and adapt to changes that may occur (Northouse, 2013). The designated leader of the team or group holds the responsibility of creating a group that can be effective. The leader must ultimately make the choices about when to intervene with the team and how to solve the issue (Northouse, 2013). The leader must make decisions regarding the following: monitoring or taking action, intervention to solve task or relational issues, and internal or external intervention (Northouse, 2013). A leader of a group must be able to act with the appropriate response in order for a team to perform and develop effectively (Northouse, 2013).
Many of the team leadership can be viewed within the fire house. Every fire station is a little bit different; however, every station generally has a chief that is the main person in charge. Then, there are assistant chiefs, captains, and lieutenants who would be next in command. These are the main individuals who will run a fire call on the scene. When one of these individuals are not available, another senior member of the fire house will run the scene. This is a shared feeling and atmosphere of team leadership; most members of a volunteer fire house are able to take command of a fire scene if the personnel that typically holds this position is unavailable. In addition, the individual running the fire scene is on the outside of the situation monitoring to determine the possible need for intervention. However, the individual running the fire scene must also depend on those inside for information about what may be needed to fight the fire. It is truly a team effort that is used to continue the services that volunteer fire fighters provide.
Without the use of team leadership, the situation for a fire fighter can become deadly. On one specific occasion, my husband was at a trailer fire. As always, he went into the building with his partner. The individual running the scene felt that the situation was safe enough to enter in order to fight the fire. However, my husband in his partner soon fell through the floor of the trailer; this can be a very dangerous situation. My husband and his partner soon communicated their findings to the individual running the scene, and they were quickly called back outside to fight the fire from the ground. Without continuous monitoring and a shared sense of leadership among fire fighters, the situation can turn deadly. With the proper use of team leadership, many lives can be saved. One song A Fire Fighter Song discusses the sacrifice and risk that volunteer fire fighters take on for the sake of others, and it explains the cost of one mistake or lack of team leadership during a fire (Cummings, 2011).
Thank you to all our fire fighters and emergency personnel for putt your life on line to save another.
References
Cummings, P. (2011). A Fire Fighter Song. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMnACcunKBs
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.