Recently, I spoke at the Peoria Regional Battalion Chief Academy in Arizona, which is designed to examine the many roles and responsibilities required of a chief officer. The academy was run in conjunction with the Maricopa County Community College District and participation is worth three credit hours toward an associate’s degree.
Approximately 56 captains who aspire to be battalion chiefs and several current battalion chiefs participated in the program, which was held on Thursdays and Fridays over five consecutive weeks. The sessions were divided into operations and leadership, each taught by officers and chiefs. A number of the instructors were local experts in communication and media.
In the course’s introduction, Peoria Chief Robert McKibben said, “The position of chief officer is a complex role that requires leadership, management, supervision and participant activities. These different roles are not always clearly defined, and overlaps do occur.”
The program defines the role of battalion chief as having the greatest influence — positive or negative — on the company officer, “particularly the newly promoted supervisor.” The battalion chief academy was designed to educate, but also to empower the attendees with management skills and leadership abilities.
The course description says “managers generally tend to focus on the bottomline and doing things right. Leaders tend to focus on the top line and doing the right things.” Battalion chiefs are both.
In my presentation, I asked participants what they thought were some habits or traits of a “highly effective” battalion chief. The students quickly offered confidence and accountability followed by 12 more traits. The attendees also agreed to help turn their career experiences and academy lessons into an article about effective battalion chiefs.
I’ve been told repeatedly that the “BCs run the department” and knowing how much fire chiefs have on their agendas these days, battalion chiefs will only be more critical to an emergency organization.
In his presentation, “Developing your own Leadership Style,” Peoria’s Deputy Chief Larry Rooney offered a quote from Colin Powell: “Values are the bedrock of our foundation.”
Are battalion chiefs the bedrock of the fire service foundation? It appears so!
November 9th, 2007 @ 12:48 pm
Battalion Chiefs are an important element to the leadership dynamic within thier respective departments; but i feel the real “bedrock of the fire service” clearly rests with the Company Officers! They are the equivilant of NCO’s in the military. Their leadership in the fire station and on the emergency ground will make or break a good Fire Department. I participated in a large live-burn drill with a large Southern California Fire Department, I noticed that the Captains ran the entire operation, with minimal oversight from their BC; I commented about this to him, and he replied to me that his Captains run the operation, and he was their to provide oversight, and resource needs to him. I thought at the time how great it was, that he empowered his Captains to do this, and trusted their leadership and knowledge to successfully complete the mission.
November 9th, 2007 @ 2:23 pm
I once was a Batt Chief during my career and know just what Chief McKibben is talking about. I’m now the Fire Science Director for Palm Beach Community College and would like to look at the curriculum that the Maricopa County CC uses in their program. This kind of training is usually not available outside the NFA. I’m very interested.
November 9th, 2007 @ 6:08 pm
I strongly believe that Batt. Chiefs are the bedrock of the fire service and that most are remembered or are known for how they were able to mentor the younger and up coming generations. These people look to their Batt. Chiefs for solutions at the larger fire scenes because of the confidence they express and the maturity they have developed over the years. Most crews realize that they have to look out for the interest of management as well as the crews. But when it comes right down to it in a structure fire of some size well these are the types of people you want running the incident. The one’s who have been at the bottom and worked their way up the ladder.
November 10th, 2007 @ 3:18 am
Leadership and Operational Skills are a requirement of all fire service officers note specifically to battalion chiefs. No two battalion chief duties are the same within the same jurisdicition and no two battalion chief duties are the same from one jurisdiction to another jurisdiction.
Why not a fire officer leadership academy
November 14th, 2007 @ 9:32 am
We plan to have an article about Peoria’s Regional Battalion Chief Academy in an upcoming issue of Fire Chief. We would welcome information on similar department programs available to battalion chiefs and captains.
jwilmoth