By Ray Gayk
Published Sunday, January 1, 2012
| From the January 2012 Issue of FireRescue
As I mentioned in my December 2011 column, “Time to Take Inventory?” my department is going through a strategic planning process. Most departments are realizing the need to reassess their business model to figure out where they are and what they need to change based on several influential factors, including the economic downturn (doing more with less), lack of succession planning and generational differences, among others.
When our department began this process, we sent out a fairly standard questionnaire to get some input from all of our personnel. Part of this exercise was designed to take a realistic look at what our personnel thought of how we were doing as a department. But inadvertently, the process also provided me with some feedback about how I’m doing.
A Difficult Message
After the questionnaires were collected, we enlisted the assistance of Howard Cross, an Executive Fire Officer program instructor at the National Fire Academy and a strategic planning consultant. We brought together a diverse group of department personnel in terms of rank, personalities, backgrounds and influence.
Based on Cross’s recommendation, the group established the rules for the meeting: no badges (no titles); all participants should engage in open, truthful and respectful dialogue; etc.
This openness didn’t happen right away, because we weren’t quite sure where the process was going to lead us. After a while, however, we began to trust each other, and some really good discussion took place.
One discussion in particular led one of our members to point out a weakness I have. No one likes to hear that they have a character flaw, and I’m no different, but instead of taking it personally, I shut up and listened. I figured if this team member was going to put himself out there, the least I could do was listen to his message without getting defensive.
Sending and receiving a difficult-to-swallow message is always challenging because the sender isn’t sure how the receiver will take it and the receiver must be open enough to receive the message. Unfortunately, this exchange of information doesn’t come naturally to most of us because it’s difficult to hear less-than-flattering things about ourselves.
But as we grow in our careers and move into leadership roles, we need to learn to truly listen, even when the message is difficult. It takes a great deal of dedication, desire and discipline. I’m not an expert in this field—in fact, I’m not even that good at it—but I certainly realize the need for improvement.
Becoming Self-Aware
Listening is a big part of becoming more self-aware. One of the models used for better self-awareness is called the Johari window, which is based on four windows, or quadrants: Open, Blind, Hidden and Unknown. These quadrants represent information known by ourselves and information known by others:
- Open Quadrant: Known by others and known by us. As the name implies, this information is open to everyone; it’s like an advertisement for us.
- Blind Quadrant: Not known by us but is known by others. A simple blind spot example: You snore very loudly. Everyone on your shift can hear you, except you, since you’re asleep!
- Hidden Quadrant: Known by us but not known by others. This is the information we are holding back from people.
- Unknown Quadrant: Unknown by others and unknown by ourselves. This area is simply information about ourselves that we don’t know about, and neither does anyone else.
The goal of the Johari window is to make the Blind, Hidden and Unknown areas smaller. This is accomplished in two ways: 1) self-disclosure (or exposure) and 2) solicitation of information (feedback). As we tell people more about ourselves, we decrease the hidden areas through exposure and decrease the unknown areas through shared discovery. As we ask people for feedback, our blind spots and unknown areas decrease.
So what does all this psychological mumbo-jumbo mean to us as company and chief officers? Well, it means a lot if you want to realize where you are and where you want to be. We don’t need to share every little detail about ourselves or thought we have. But as fire officers, we should be willing to listen to our team members with an open mind and be willing to share appropriate information.
Self-awareness is not a strong point for most human beings, but it’s a necessary part of being a leader. Our department’s strategic planning process was designed to reveal information about our department as a whole, but it provided me the opportunity to learn some information about myself as an individual as well.
The bottom line: My eyes were opened to one of my blind spots—and now it’s my responsibility to improve.
Gayk’s Favorite Training Resources
- Daily Dispatch (www.dailydispatch.com)—this daily e-mail newsletter gives me a quick glimpse of fire headlines from my area and the nation.
- FirefighterNation.com—news, feature articles, training, videos, and archives of Company Officer Development columns! What’s not to like?
- Local- and state-level Training Officer and Operation Chiefs groups—this is a great way to establish relationships and contacts.
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Ray Gayk
is deputy chief of operations with the Ontario (Calif.) Fire Department (OFD). Gayk is an 18-year veteran of the fire service who has been actively involved with the OFD’s development of engineer and captain mentor programs. He has also taught numerous classes on company officer development. Read Full Bio
