Most articles I’ve read about stress management recommend mindful breathing, which is a focused awareness of breathing. This not only is healthy for stress management, but also offers the person a moment to take a step back from a situation, stressful or not.
I began wondering about “mindfulness” as it relates to work, particularly for fire chiefs in 2013. So, I asked a few industry leaders what they thought fire chiefs should focus on at the start of the year.
Some overall themes seem obvious: The economy has been difficult for some time, safety always is a concern, and social media is becoming a headache for departments everywhere. But some issues require a more conscious effort toward mindfulness.
Anaheim (Calif.) Chief Randy Bruegman suggests being mindful of the word “competitiveness.” Too many chiefs sit on the sidelines when it comes to accreditation and professional development. The fire service today differs greatly from the one of 20 years ago, and will look far different 20 years from now. “As leaders, we have to be positioning the organization for 10 to 15 years in the future, yet so many leaders are simply not looking past the next budget year,” Bruegman said.
Chief John Sinclair of Kittitas Valley Fire Rescue in Ellensburg, Wash., thinks fire chiefs need to be mindful of the examples they set, whether its adhering to a department’s non-drinking policy or behaving positively and professionally toward citizens. “I took a class from Chief [Alan] Brunacini one-time and he said, ‘When you follow ugly children home, you find ugly parents,’” Sinclair recalled. “His meaning was simple: If you want firefighters to use good judgment, you have to show them good judgment. If you want firefighters to treat citizens well, you need to treat firefighters well. People don’t care about how much you know until they know about how much you care.”
Calgary (Alberta) Fire Chief W. Bruce Burrell, believes in mindfulness of purpose and people. “We always need to be mindful of the purpose for which we exist and those who we serve,” he said. Fire chiefs serve a wide range of audiences: department members, administrators, community groups, politicians and, most importantly, the public. “I also believe we need to be mindful that our purpose is public safety, but we can only provide relevant service if we take care of our own and our members’ safety and well being first,” Burrell added.
Denis Onieal, superintendent of the National Fire Academy, offered a simple view of being mindful with a story from his days as a lieutenant working for then-FDNY Chief Ed McAniff.
Onieal asked McAniff how he managed fires as a captain, a battalion chief or a deputy chief. McAniff said he asked himself a very simple question at fires: “What is my problem now?” McAniff said he kept asking himself that question until the fire was out, and based his tactical decisions on his answers. Onieal used the same question throughout his fire-service career.
Onieal doesn’t fight fires any more, but he said the question still works — with an addendum. He now asks himself, “What is my problem now, and what problems do I anticipate?” Onieal would prefer to “look for problems rather than waiting for them to find me — which they always seem to do,” he said.
Onieal’s self-examination inspired two other questions relating to mindfulness: “How do I better serve?” and “How am I preparing this organization and this profession for the next five or 10 years?” The answers to these questions aren’t words but deeds and required actions.
What will you be mindful of in 2013?