Justin Sherwood -Kolumn: Progress towards Excellence in Fire Brigade

On February 20, the fire brigade of Bemidji organized its fourth annual badge -pinning ceremony. This event honored the work of our fire brigade members and welcomed guests from all over the state of Minnesota.

During the ceremony, Bob Jacobson, the Ministry of Public Security in Minnesota, shared an inspiring quote: “Persecect perfection and achieve excellent performance”.

He emphasized the commitment of the first aiders for their communities and the state of Minnesota. His statement indicates that perfection is unreachable, promotes the persecution of continuous improvement and ultimately leads to real excellence.

This is an important memory for managers, teams and everyone who has committed themselves to the ongoing personal and professional growth. As chief of fire brigade, the takeover of this philosophy emphasizes a high standard, improves consistently and does not choose “good enough”.

Passing perfection to achieve excellence is a challenging process, and sometimes I often have the feeling that we move in the wrong direction. However, I have to recognize that we always find our way forward.

Our scars remind us of the trip. When implementing changes, we have to have realistic expectations and tell our progress to those we serve.

This includes the highlighting of continuous training and development, promoting strong feedback culture, modeling effective leadership behavior, regular recognition and reward of the outstanding performance and active cooperation with our mutual auxiliary partners.

Perhaps without knowing it, we have already started to integrate this philosophy into the fire brigade of Bemidji and the fire brigade of Minnesota. I realize that mistakes have been made, but if we have these mistakes as options for learning and re -evaluating our approach, we can also progress in the face of the challenges towards Excellence.

In order to further explain our journey of perfection and the performance of excellence, I would like to outline the steps that this organization takes in North -Minnesota.

Training and development relate to organized, continuous efforts to improve the skills, knowledge, skills and performance of employees. Training focuses on improving the skills required for the job, while development contains a broader, long -term growth, including professional progress, leadership potential and personal progress.

Practical training and development programs focus on the fact that employees continuously improved, remain committed and are prepared for future challenges and support both the individual and the organization.

The fire brigade of Bemidji prioritizes a wide range of training and development and brings firefighters from entry positions through advanced leadership roles.

Our members actively achieve realistic, scenario-based exercises, pursue professional certifications and take part in programs for the development of managers, supplemented by cooperation between and coordinated and targeted risk reduction in community risk reduction.

We recognize the importance of personal growth; The department also promotes wellness initiatives, support for mental health and training as a resilience to improve physical and emotional well-being. In addition, the department respects the individual spiritual and trusted trips and agrees that they are of essential importance for the health of the members.

Although I am proud of these efforts, the fire brigade of Bemidji must continue to be obliged to continuously develop and adapt to ensure that our training programs are improved in response to the changing environment and the emerging challenges.

Feedback culture is an organizational environment in which regularly, open and constructive feedback are encouraged, valued and normalized. In this type of culture, the team members feel comfortable to give and maintain feedback frequently, honestly and respectfully.

It promotes continuous improvement, learning and accountability and improves the overall performance by feedback to a routine part of daily interactions and not to occasional ratings.

Encourage open and constructive feedback that is aimed at growth rather than criticism. This was a constant challenge. The fire brigade of Bemidji promotes open communication, constructive dialogue and continuous improvement.

However, this requires susceptibility and the ability to put our ego aside, including mine. In the future, I will recognize the importance of reviews according to after-action, which enable us to openly evaluate what went well and identify areas for growth after incidents.

While we hope to maintain an responsive atmosphere through our guideline with an open door and the personal development program “Way to Success”, we understand that there is always room for improvements.

We hope to understand our teams better through reviews, regular training feedback and employee surveys. I endeavor to continuously improve our feedback culture and to recognize that a continuous improvement for the growth and effectiveness of our company is of essential importance.

Leadership modeling is the practice, behaviors, values, attitudes and measures to demonstrate that the managers should reflect from their team or organization. For example, it includes the leadership with good, the consistency between words and actions and the presentation of the principles expected by other.

Effective leadership model inspires trust, promotes positive behaviors, strengthens the organizational culture and determines clear standards for excellence and accountability. As managers, we have to demonstrate our commitment to improvement and inspire our members to follow the example.

The modeling of managers within the fire brigade of Bemidji includes the demonstration of the values, attitudes and measures that we expect from our team.

We have to show our commitment to personal growth through active participation in activities for physical fitness, open experiences in connection with stress resilience and the progressive professional development through advanced training and structured career initiatives such as the “Way to the Success” program.

Our commitment to the risk reduction of the community is demonstrated by Outreach initiatives such as youth fire prevention programs. Transparency and accountability can be improved by open reviews that deal with surgical challenges, trust and collective improvement.

As managers, we must be able to show personal egos and the members and the community that we remain open to constructive feedback and enable honest communication and continuous growth.

The collaborative leadership is demonstrated by cooperation between the authorities, recognition of team services and strengthening mutual partnerships.

The department leaders will continue to actively work for the fire brigade at the state and federal level by dealing with political decision -makers and supportive initiatives that improve the security, financing and training of the fire brigade and thereby lead clear expectations of proactive political inclusion and representation .

Recognition includes the formal recognition or honor of people for their achievements, their commitment or their contributions. It is a strong means of showing appreciation, validating effort, increasing morality and strengthening behaviors or values ​​such as excellence, commitment or teamwork.

Recognition can occur through ceremonies or awards or privately through personal appreciation. The fire brigade of Bemidji recognizes its employees through an annual badge and award ceremony.

This event honors recruits by officially greeting it with an oath of office and emphasizing its commitment and professionalism. The ceremony recognizes the contributions of the current staff by presenting awards for exceptional performance and commitment all year round.

The department also appreciates mutual aid partners and recognizes the importance of cooperation, teamwork and collective answers to emergencies.

By inclusion of families, parishioners and partner agencies in the ceremony, the department strengthens the trust of the community, increases the value of mutual support and promotes continuous excellence and growth.

Finally, I would like to express my community for your continued support of this organization. Your encouragement and trust help us to fulfill our mission, to protect life, property and environment with honor, integrity and compassion.

Together we create a safer and stronger community for everyone.

Justin Sherwood is the fire brigade chief in the fire brigade of Bemidji. It can be achieved

(218) 751-8001

or

firechief@ci.bemidji.mn.us.