Step up your teamwork

301 Pages·2015·27.468 MB·English

by  Thomas, Charles, Viscuso, Frank

STE P U P
YO UR
TEAMWORK
F R A N K V I S C U S O
STE P U P
YO UR
TEAMWORK
F R A N K V I S C U S O
Disclaimer: The recommendations, advice, descriptions, and the
methods in this book are presented solely for educational purposes.
The author and publisher assume no liability whatsoever for any loss
or damage that results from the use of any of the material in this book.
Use of the material in this book is solely at the risk of the user.
Copyright ©2015 by
PennWell Corporation
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Production Editor: Tony Quinn
Cover Designer: Charles Thomas
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Viscuso, Frank.
Step up your teamwork / Frank Viscuso.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-59370-354-7
1. Fire departments--United States. 2. Fire departments--United
States--Management. 3. Fire departments. 4. Fire
departments--Management.
5. Teams in the workplace. I. Title.
TH9503.V57 2015
363.37068’4--dc23
2014040266
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transcribed in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 19 18 17 16 15
“Quit! Give up. You can’t do it. You’re too slow,
too fat, too ugly, too stupid, too lazy, and too late.
You’re unrealistic!”
Do you know that little voice, the one inside your
head that tells you that you can’t achieve your goal?
This book is dedicated to those brave people who are
committed to defeating that voice. When you conquer
fear, self-doubt, and self-induced negativity, you will
master your life. When you surround yourself with
others who have done the same, you will have a team
that is capable of achieving anything.

Contents
Foreword by Anthony Kastros ........................... xi
Acknowledgments.................................... xiii
Introduction ..........................................1
1 Teamwork in the Fire Service.............................7
Mission First .......................................12
Review, Evaluate, and Revise ..........................21
You Can’t Achieve Significance without Sacrifice ...........22
Define Your Team: The Rule of Five......................24
Life Enhancers vs. Lawn Mowers........................26
Communication, Coordination, and Control................28
What Stage Is Your Team In? ...........................34
Teamwork Strategies .................................38
Creating Momentum .................................41
Team-Building Exercises ..............................46
2 Preparing for Success ..................................63
Decisions Are Like Tattoos.............................64
Activity vs. Productivity..............................66
After Action Review .................................70
Root Cause Analysis..................................72
How We Learn......................................74
Preparation Leads to Confidence ........................87
Sweat More, Bleed Less ...............................88
Daily Method of Operation ............................90
Eat the Ugly Frog First................................92
Never Settle........................................93
The Best Ideas Have to Win............................95
What’s Your Brand?..................................97
Marketing Your Company .............................99
Ten Qualities of an Outstanding Team Player..............101
Mentorship Programs and Succession Planning ...........106
An Uneducated Firefighter Is a Dangerous Firefighter.......110
vii
212° Teamwork
3 Leading Teams.......................................113
What’s Your Title? ..................................113
Leadership 101 ....................................116
Are You Ready for a Leadership Role?...................117
Ten Signs a Person May Not Be Ready to Lead ............118
The First Follower ..................................123
Change Is Necessary ................................125
Change Can Be Good ................................127
How to Lead an Organization Through Change............129
Transparency......................................132
Transparency in the Digital Age .......................139
Specific Intent .....................................139
Understanding People ...............................140
The Lost Art of Listening ............................149
Bonding..........................................150
Give More Responsibility ............................153
Establishing Team Expectations........................154
Priorities .........................................158
The Headline Test ..................................159
The Power of Words ................................160
Communication ....................................163
The Power of Stories ................................165
Public Speaking....................................169
The Attention Span of a Goldfish ......................170
High Tech vs. High Touch............................171
4 Preventing Team Collapse .............................173
“Routine Fires” Don’t Exist ...........................174
Why Teams Fail....................................179
Dysfunctional Teams ................................186
Team BLEVE ......................................188
Conflict Resolution .................................189
Handling Difficult People.............................196
Accountability.....................................207
Climate...........................................219
Dialogue, Discussion, and Debate ......................220
Dumb Things Firefighters Say . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .221
Multiple Alarms—Call for Help Early...................222
viii
Contents
5 Building Your Legacy .................................225
Turn Adversity into Advantage........................226
Failure Isn’t Fatal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .229
Courage under Fire .................................233
Combustible Courage................................235
What’s Your One Degree of Difference? ..................237
It’s Not Over until We Win ...........................240
Commitment ......................................242
Service to Many Leads to Greatness.....................244
Your Needs Come Last . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .248
A Negative Attitude Is Poisonous ......................250
Right Is Right .....................................252
DTRT............................................254
Pushing vs. Pulling .................................255
A Culture of Hatred.................................257
The “I” in Team....................................260
Be a Culture Creator.................................262
The Step-Up Challenge ..............................266
Index ..............................................273
ix

Foreword
A loss of leadership is sweeping the American fire service. Mass
attrition of experienced members, a national recession, task obsession,
and lack of adequate succession planning are just some of the contrib-
uting factors to this perfect storm.
Occasionally, tragedies occur like sudden torrential downpours. All
too often we are notified of a disaster in which multiple firefighters
have died, and along the way, some have become indelibly etched into
our souls. There are cities whose names alone send shivers up the spine,
including Houston, Charleston, Toledo, New York, San Francisco,
Prescott, and countless more.
Many mistakenly believe that tactical operations and leadership are
two distinctly separate, stand-alone components of this job. Nothing
could be further from the truth. Effective fireground operations are
built upon strong leadership, long before the bell rings. Excellent
leaders who build excellent teams perform with excellence on the
fireground. It’s that simple.
Fire service leadership is exponentially more challenging than ever
before. Unprecedented public scrutiny, technological permutations
of all kinds, and lightning-fast speed of information all add to the
challenges faced by fire service leaders. To compound the problems,
we have failed to prepare our leaders for the predictable challenges that
they will face, let alone the unpredictable. New officers are making the
same old mistakes, while being challenged with problems that are new
to us all.
Enter Chief Frank Viscuso, who truly is a renaissance man. He has
the mind of a poet, the heart of a lion, and the passion of Leonidas. He
has a God-given and uncommon blend of humility, street credibility,
experience, education, and above all, passion.
Frank has dedicated his life to the art of fire service leadership, no
matter the form. In his best-selling book Step Up and Lead, he gave the
new millennial generation and old salts alike a treasure trove of tools to
handle practical, real-world problems that plague our beloved service.
God’s gifts to Frank have become blessings to the fire service.