Episode 4

Episode 4

Building Future Leaders and EMS-Human Trafficking.

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The views and opinions expressed on Beyond Command are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of any fire department, EMS agency, government organization, employer, or other organization with which they may be affiliated. The information presented on this podcast is for educational informational purposes only and should not be considered a substitute for your department's policies, procedures, protocols, training, medical direction, or applicable laws and regulations. Fire and EMS professionals should always follow their agency's established procedures, approved training, medical protocols, and the direction of their appropriate authority. Starting off today, I want to say thanks to everybody out there that's listening. We had a hundred downloads like in our first 72 hours, which is cool. We actually on the podcast host site, we we uh ranked number 82 in the government podcasts for the first week and doing good there. So thanks to everybody that's listening. Please tell your friends uh we're out there, we're here for fire EMS dispatchers, and you know, hitting those subjects, and it's tailor-made for you. And anybody out there listening, if you got questions, comments that you know you can reach out to me via email at the show at beyondcommand.com. Real easy. The show at beyondcommand.com. I'll take you know suggestions for topics, etc. Before I get started today, I need to put a shout out to Ray, Ray Ann in Hickory Hills. She had some good feedback for me on this. So I just want to say hey and say thank you for listening. What we're gonna start off today, topic one is gonna be some audience participation. So I had an email question. Says, how with different generations on the same shift in the fire service and how to manage it all. So, you know, it's a real interesting topic. There's always multi-generational issues there. When I came on the job as a as a 21-year-old kid, the guys that I was working with, most of them came out of Vietnam. And uh, you know, they would they would say, Oh, I they they had an ad out that said, can you drive a truck? And they said, I could drive a truck, and they said, Well, we'll make you fireman. And that's how they got there. And I know when I started a couple of the guys that were around my age, we drove the older guys nuts. And because we wanted to watch sports 24-7, and you know, they didn't. They wanted to watch movies, John Wayne's and uh stuff like that. So we had a lot of fun with it. But again, you know, the next generation comes in, and there's a lot of differences here. So, you know, the guys that are 20-something in the fire service right now are gonna have some of the same issues, you know, that we saw back then. How do you manage it? Well, here's what I'll tell you: you don't manage it, you lead through it. All right, management is things, leadership is people. Management is filling out a sick form. Leadership is asking if they're feeling okay and if they need anything. Management's filling out the injury report. Leadership is sending someone to the hospital to make sure they're okay and get in touch with the wife, et cetera, make sure they got a ride to go where they're where they got to be. Managing is budgeting on the chief level. A lot of budgets I did. Okay. Leadership is sitting with your people and saying, look, what do you guys need next year? Because the chief's job is to make sure that the troops got everything they need to do to do their job safely and effectively. Remember, everybody goes home, right? That's key to that. So you got to lead through it. And I understand that the older guys are there and they're like, hey, I got like five years left. I just want to get out of here. You know, and it and it's changed for them. But I got news for you guys that our chiefs, battalion chiefs, and even the lieutenants, some of them, they're not going anywhere. So let's embrace them because I'll tell you what, the kids are smart, they're a lot better at certain things than we were. Okay. In the day, you know, their their tech technology skills are off the charts compared to what my generation had when I came on. We had one computer in the firehouse. So, you know, these guys they can help you. What you gotta understand the older generation versus the new generation. Okay, the kids we got, they're very smart. They raised, they were raised playing video games. So, what do you do with a video game? They got a new video game and then they played it and they played it and they played it until they beat the game. They want the instant gratification of you know, progressing here. And they also have a different learning style. You know, my generation, when we had the senior guys, they showed us our things, you know, and and we watched them and we worked with them hand in hand and until we got it right, you know, and then you kept practicing until you couldn't get it wrong. These guys nowadays, they have a different learning style. They just want to be able to sit down and figure it out. You show them once and then turn them loose, and you can sit back and judge them. And they want to just figure things out in their own mind, just like playing their video games. They want to be able to say, I figured this out, I think I got it. Now I got to build my proficiency. Okay, looking at the learning styles of the new people and then the motivation factors. I'll be honest with you, what I saw right before I was retiring, these kids were not motivated by money. And if you look up in your Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you know, it's step by step, and and that applied to the old generation, not to the new generation. Okay, they come in and they're feeling pretty good about themselves to begin with. And uh, you know, so I'd see these guys come in and like their second or third paycheck, they're they're driving to a Cadillac Escalade. And I was like, what are you guys doing here, man? You're spending all this money on a on a pickup truck that you're not using because they don't they don't work side jobs anymore. You know, back when I came on, we didn't make a lot of money, so almost all of us had a side job. And now they you know the the fire service has changed, I know in Illinois because mostly because of the unions and pushing for better benefits, etc. So, so they you know they make a lot more money than than we did when I started today. You know, there's firemen are making a hundred grand, you know, after like two to three years. That's pretty darn good. So going back to Maslow, okay, you had the bottom of his physiological needs, their food, their water, sleep, shelter. You know, they they had that already. They came on a job because you know what? A lot of them are still living with mom and dad. Safety and security. So they came in, they got hired on a job. They know that as long as they don't screw up bad, they're gonna make through probation. All right, they're gonna get health care insurance, they get a pension, their future's taken care of. You know, then they work their way up. They do they have girlfriends, boyfriends, etc. What's their family like? And then belonging to the group, you know, you come into a firehouse and you now have a new family. And these guys like it, and you know, it makes them feel good about everything that's going on. So that works with their self-esteem. You know, after they're on for a couple months, you know, and they're feeling good about the job, life is good. And then you get to the self-actualization part of this, unlocking their potential and their creativity, because you know, they all they want to know, okay, well, when can I take a promotional exam? You know, you start on pretty quick. And yeah, I think part of it that we're missing out as the older group, the battalion chiefs and the lieutenants, you got to take these guys and you got to show them the right way of doing things and then kind of feel them out, let them do their thing. You know, don't take offense to it. I used to get a lot of questions from lieutenants going, you know, these guys all they do is question why we do something. I tell them what to do, and they're going, Why do I do this? Why do I have to do this? Why do I do it this way? And some of these guys took it as their authority being questioned. And it wasn't. They just wanted you to explain why do we do it this way? And I'll show an example. You know, everybody can look at this. You got an air air mask, right? Sorry, firefighters, if you're a single role medic, you see everybody's got an air mask. Most of the air masks that we have, we carry them in a black canvas, some sort of black canvas bag. A lot of times they're embroidered fancy, but sometimes they're very simple. A black canvas bag. And that's why they're there. Well, the who knows why they're there. All I know is I came on and the air mask always stays in this bag. Okay, true. What I could tell you just from my experience and education, there's a reason why it's in that. And if you were to go into the OSHAREGs on SCBA, they'll tell you your mask needs to be protected from dust, dirt, ultraviolet rays, moisture, the things that can degrade the rubber that that the masks are made of. So there is a reason why. Now, how many, you know, if the kid says, hey Cap, can I just not put it in a bag and just clip this onto my onto my turnout coat? Well, yeah, I guess you can. But you know, the technical reason that all these things are are stowed the way they are, there's a standard for it. Now, if you're the officer and you don't know what the standard is, I would I would challenge you to get the answers for these kids and explain them fully. And may you know what maybe the guys that were our mentors didn't explain things fully. You know, there is a reason for everything. Believe it or not, chiefs just don't make these things up silly because we got nothing else to do but plot and scheme. There's a reason. And chiefs are in the background doing research all the time. You got new state laws and you got new federal laws, you got OSHA, you got this, you got that, you got NFPA. There's a book for everything in the fire service gang. And and I think most of you probably have seen that. There's an answer to those questions. So instead of taking it personal like they're questioning your authority, try to find the answer for them. And the answer isn't because I said so, or it's not because the chief said so. There's a legitimate answer out there. So I challenge you guys to go find that. As a chief, you know, I knew about how long I was working, and about five years before, I'm starting to screen. Okay, who's guys that I think would make a good fire chief? All right. That's my job. And then you're mentoring them, and even if they don't know it, you know, you're mentoring these guys, they're not aware. You're kind of testing how would they handle the job as a fire chief? But the same thing goes for a battalion chief. The battalion chief should be teaching his captains and lieutenants, you know, what kind of what is his day like? You know, he's got to go to all three firehouses. Why do you do that? Well, you go check on everybody, make sure everybody's okay. Now, that is the actual job, but again, now you're showing leadership. You're going to your houses, you're visiting with the guys, you're showing them that you care, you're seeing what the problems are because honestly, your job is to fix problems as a battalion chief, fix the problems. Okay. So by working with the company officers to find out what's going on, you solve these problems together so that they can understand how you are solving the problems. There's always a problem at the firehouse, guarantee you. Sometimes they don't tell the chief, they don't want to tell the chief, they don't want to tell the battalion chief, the lieutenants, hopefully the lieutenants go, hey, look, this is what happened. We fixed it. But everybody on the fire department should be looking to develop the next leader. Lieutenants need to be developing their firemen because one day those guys are going to be in the front seat and they got to make this decisions. Okay. Honestly, I always thought kind of like the fire part was the easy one. You know, we trained on fire and trained on fire and trained on fire, and you do simulations and you go to classes and you get certified in this and that. And then all you need is a little bit more experience because then you're able to say, wow, you know, all these things I learned, that's how it actually goes. And your your knowledge and your experience go together. All right, that's the easy part. The hard part, honestly, and I said it last week too. The hard part is leadership. Some people just aren't built for it. You know, you got to be able to sit down with a person, you got to talk to them. If they're asking questions, they're not challenging you. You got to say, look, I want to mentor you. What do you need help on? What would you like to learn more of? And, you know, kind of you might have to drag it out of these kids sometimes. Some of the things that I did when I was coming up, you know, as when I was an officer, company officer, okay. I'm gonna say when I was a fireman too, because I always looked at what can I do to make myself better. Number one is an officer, and you find these kids that want to get better, they want to, they want to grow in the organization, give them a give them a training topic. You know, you could tell them, you know, you're at shift, you go, hey, uh, Billy, come on in here. Next shift day, I want you to teach this drill. Okay. Give them the lesson plan, give them the book. And you say, you go prepare yourself to teach this this drill to the guys. All right. Now that can be tough, and we'll see how the guy does with it. Because to me, as instructor, the number one thing I could always do was to over-prepare. I wanted to over-prepare for this so nobody could throw a curveball at me. I wanted to know everything I could about it so that when we're doing it, they ask me a question, I wanted to have an answer. But that's a great way to start with a young fireman and building him up and building him, you know, as a leader is to let them start teaching the drills. All right. If you got a couple of them, let it tag team it, or maybe they can, you know, one does it on this day and you just keep rolling with it and go, look, you're doing it next day, you're doing it next day, and take turns. The lieutenant doesn't always have to teach a drill. Now, sometimes you do, because sometimes it might just be dependent on your knowledge level and your experience level. But a lot of these things, like, you know, we're gonna go over knots today, guys. You point to your farm and you go, You're gonna you're gonna teach knots. All right, let's see. What do you remember from the academy? What can you do? Ladder drill. Okay, you go through the ladder drill, that's academy stuff. These guys should be very familiar with that and be able to teach that. You know, another thing you do with the younger crew crews, the younger generation that we got is ask for their input. You know, tell them, hey, you're a member of the crew, you're smart, you obviously got this far to get the job. I want to know what you think. Get some input and let them know that, hey, you know, I think your ideas count. You got good ideas, let's talk through these things. And I mean, they're learning and you're teaching and you're mentoring, and they don't even get to that point to go, hey, my cap really thinks a lot of me. My cap's teaching me, he's taking the time, you know. At that point, you're just co-workers. And that's, you know, the best part about mentoring these guys when they don't even really realize that that's what you're doing. If they make mistakes, you just got to coach them a little bit because it's new to them. I'll tell you, when I was going through instructor class, it's like, you know, the first time you're in front of this group, you're your pulse is racing, you know, you're nervous and you start stuttering, and it takes a lot of time. I mean, I've you know done company drills all the way through talking, doing, doing a lecture to say 150 people in a room. My key was always to be ultra prepared, you know, have intimate knowledge of everything you're talking about. So if you're able to coach this next generation, they understand that you care for them, you care about how they're moving forward in their career. All right, coach them through the mistakes. That's your leadership that you're passing along. Because guess what? One day when you get to retire, that next generation's gonna move up. They're gonna be the lieutenants and captains, okay? And they're gonna look back. I could tell you what, I look back at my first two lieutenants I had, and I appreciate everything that they did for me. God, God bless them. Just great guys, and I think about them a lot. They took time, and not just my company officers, too. You know, I I when I came up, I was on a truck company, and the fireman said, Hey, come here, we're gonna show you. We got to show you how the saws work. You know, I had a fireman that was he was a ranger in Vietnam. He was teaching us how to repel if we had to get off a roof. You know, they're your co-workers, they're there to help you, and you're there to work together. So, officers, coach them. If you're a senior fireman, okay, I'm not you don't have to be the end, the lieutenant or captain. If you're the senior fireman on the crew and you get a rookie, that's your job to make sure this kid knows everything on that engine or everything on that truck. He knows how to put his gear on. If he's doing something wrong, you got to just say, hey, hold on, do it this way. Try this. Now you don't have to go, hey, idiot, you're doing it wrong. You know, sometimes we do just in fun. But, you know, the leadership part coming out of you should be to understand that the kid's nervous. If he if he's not fully aware of what he's doing, take the time to coach him through these mistakes. All right. This is an investment in our next generation. Investment of our time, our knowledge. You got to invest in formal education for them through sending them to special schools like technical rescue or some hazmat and building them up so that by the time they are of age to take that test for a lieutenant that they've mastered firefighting. You know, if they haven't mastered the firefighting, do they really have any business being a lieutenant? So let's build these guys up, not tear them down. I know that sometimes it can be rough. I did the same thing. You know, we busted the old guys' chops all the time, but you know, it was we loved each other and we had fun with it. And they busted our chops too, you know. They called us snot-nosed kids, you know, that's that's how it was. But I know I had some truly great mentors that I worked with, and the time and effort they spent with me still means the world to me. 35 years later, you know, you got to invest in this next generation because guess what, guys? We're not always gonna be here. We all want to retire. So we got to get them ready to jump onto the job, do it the right way. You know, incremental learning here. Let's let them get to where maybe they act up as a lieutenant sometimes when the lieutenant's off sooner or later, you know, they're in that position. But try to get them to master firefighting before they're they're gonna take a lieutenant's test. You know, you want to be prepared for that. You know, so really, lieutenants, captains, battalion chiefs, guys, I'm gonna I want to challenge you to find a guy that's on your crew that you really think shows some leadership ability. Again, we said last week, everybody doesn't have it. It's a special guy, you know, because you have to build that. And they might have the potential, but they still have to get the knowledge and the experience to really lead in this job. So pick that guy out, find out what he knows, what does he want to do? He might not be interested in being a leader because I had guys like that too. And Lord knows we need career blue shirts. Now, I had I had one guy that I came on a job with, and we retired like about six months from each other. He was a fireman his whole life. I know he would have made a great lieutenant because he had the knowledge, the experience. He liked doing the job, he loved it, but he just didn't want to have the responsibility. You know, we talked about responsibility in the past too. So, you know, find a guy that you think can be a leader and coach them and work with them. Make it your mission to work with these guys every day that you're there. Show them what it is that you do, show it as how you were taught. They might have a different way of doing something that's actually better. I know I learned things from new guys and go, where'd you learn that? It's out of the academy. Well, they had a different academy instructor, you know. That's kind of the way it goes. But don't turn your back on them just because they're the new generation and they have some different ways. I know the one of the complaints I hear is they don't sit at the table and talk like we used to. You know, I mean, we used to sit at the table till midnight, 1 a.m. just talking about stuff and laughing together. And that builds camaraderie. And some of these guys are used to saying, oh, I'm going to go lay in my bed. And they open their computer and they watch TV or maybe they're listening to my podcast. Who knows? But, you know, they'll they tend to go on their own because that's what this group has done for the last several years. They got their iPhone that gives the world at their fingertips. They can do anything with it. Well, try to find a way to say, look, guys, let's all sit out at the table today. We're gonna let's talk about firefighting tonight. You know, because maybe that'll excite them a little bit. You know, when you do retire, when you do retire, gang, think about the legacy that you want to live. I'm sorry, the legacy you want to leave behind you. It's not just that, oh, hey, made it to battalion chief. Must be awesome. You know, you want people to know when you retire that you gave it your all, that you worked with these guys, that you trained up for them, you cared about them. And these guys will remember you when you're retired. Right? And they're gonna think about you for the rest of their lives that you spent some time on them. So that's my advice to the guys that are asking how do we deal with the new generation? Like I said, my generation was different from the last. Okay, this generation's different too. Everybody's different. You just gotta take them for what they are. They're your coworkers and they're looking up to you. If you're a chief, you're a battalion chief, you're a lieutenant captain, these guys are looking up to you. All right, and they're looking for something from you, and it's called leadership. So make yourself better and start to teach these guys what you know, teach them how to do it, all right, and bring that leadership out in yourself and start to build the next leader for the job. So, yeah, thank you for that email question. It was a good one. My next part of today, what I'd like to talk about a little is EMS. I haven't hit on EMS yet, really. And it started, you know, I was looking at EMS World Expo. It's coming up real shortly in Orlando, if any of you guys are going to that. If you go to your EMS Expo, or if you go to FDIC or FRI, you know, there's great opportunities at all these. I loved going to FDIC. There's great things that go on there. So everybody should try and at least go down there once, you know, and just see what you see. So getting into EMS, what I wanted to talk about was human trafficking. And that's a big thing. And I read an article and it just brought back some memories, and I wanted to talk about it. So several years back, my crew reported to me that they went on an ambulance call at one of the extended stay type of hotels that we had in town. And they had a minor, a young lady, obviously was underage, and a gentleman that was hovering over her. And, you know, they asked, Are you a parent? And he goes, Oh, no, I'm just uh a friend and caretaker, you know. And it was they said it was kind of odd. And, you know, they their guts were telling something. Well, when the police officer arrived, because we always had the police meet us on our on our calls if you know they weren't all tied up on their own calls. This guy split. You know, now he's now he's he was really, really concerned about this young lady, and all of a sudden he's kind of gone. And, you know, you could do the math on that, and and it's really unfortunate because young people are looking to us to take care of them, to lead them, and then they fall in with some bad person like that. And, you know, it just destroys their lives. So, you know, as a reminder, EMS and fire, because we run together most of the time, we play a critical role in finding the human trafficking that's out there because it's everywhere, gang. It's everywhere. I'm in the metropolitan Chicago area. I have hotels. I sorry, I had hotels when I was working. I had hotels that were, you know, two blocks from Midway International Airport. And I know our police used to bust people over there all the time, coming to meet minors in hotels. They used to have uh stings with the county there. Guys would fly to Chicago thinking they're going to meet some young lady that's really interested them. And you know, I got news for you, they're really not. But, you know, there's some bad people out there. So EMS and fire, we're a lot of times the first point of contact with people that are being trafficked. And you guys know what I mean by that, right? Forced into prostitution under what, you know, when they're not willing to, maybe kidnapped. There's a lot of things that are out there when we talk about human trafficking. So, you know, as an EMS or firefighter, first responder, however, we get on the scene, you know, you it's something you should have in the back of your head and trust your gut. So, you know, you could start out just by interviewing, you know, we've got a minor. All right, okay, you know, what are you here for? What are your injuries, signs, symptoms? Are they are they consistent with what they're saying? So, you know, if the girl says, Well, I got a stomach ache and she's got bruises on her face, you know, or burn marks on her arm or needle tracks or something like that, you know, right away you you got to perk up a little bit and go, hey, what did we find here? You know, what's going on? And a lot of times they're being if they're being trafficked, they don't want to talk about it because who's watching them? They know who's watching them. So they're afraid. And if you ask this person that might be hovering around, say, oh, you know, what's your relationship? Caretaker or they the family member, parent or guardian, you know, try and get some information. And if things just don't feel right because maybe that person is getting agitated asking your questions, or agitated that you're having any kind of contact with this person, that should make you guys aware, yeah, maybe something ain't right here. So, what can we do here? First, you bring that patient out to your ambulance. And I always told my medics, the ambulance is like your office. This is where you should be most comfortable. And the other thing is it gives you a little bit of privacy. You get that patient in there. Now you could start talking to them. And when they know that so-and-so isn't there watching over them, they might say different things. They might tell you more information that can lead you onto this. You know, we are mandatory reporters. If you see something like this, we are mandated by laws to bring it to the attention of somebody at the hospital or at law enforcement, et cetera. So, you know, you bring them into your ambulance and you talk about them. It's in private. This person's no longer there. You'll get more information on them. Also, you know, you can look at the the police officer and say, hey, can you know, there's some guy that said he was her uncle. Can you go get an ID off him? And now we could start to see, is he really her uncle? You know, if a police officer asked somebody involved in human trafficking for an ID, he ain't giving it. He's out of there, okay? And the cops are going to be on to him. So, you know, that's kind of the easy way there to figure this thing out. And with the human trafficking, it's not just one thing. You know, there's a lot of things you can look for. Like I said, you know, are the are the are the signs that you see or the symptoms that they're talking about inconsistent with what you were called there for? Build that rapport with them so that they can you they get to trust you and talk. And the more you talk, the more you talk, the more information you're gonna get out. And you might be able to start doing the math. Say, hey, you know, I I think I might have a possible trafficking issue here. So, of course, you're gonna treat your patient and get them comfortable, do what you got to do, you know, follow your SMOs. But when you get to the hospital, you know, you can be as the reporter, go, look, I think there's an issue here with with trafficking. Here's what I've seen. Here's what went on with this so-called family member who disappeared, and be able to give security a description of this guy just in case he comes to the ER looking for your patient, so that they can ask the questions and get local PD. You know, if if the hospital's in another jurisdiction, you're gonna have to have other police officers involved in there. Uh so you know, trust your gut, what's telling you, because you guys have trained, you guys have talked about this in classes. Is it something that we talk about a lot? No, not a lot. Probably something we should talk more of. You know, just to find out, you got that patient. You know, when you get to the ER, oh, who's the doctors may say, who's with you today? She might not know if the guy showed up or not. She might say, Well, my uncle was coming, and the uncle never shows up. Well, okay, how do we get in touch with him? Does she have a phone with her? Does she have a burner phone? The the people at the hospital can call the social services down, they can work with people that are trained in it, you know, and help them out. But, you know, like I was saying, EMS and fire, sometimes we're the first people to make contact with somebody that's in trouble. You know, I I dealt with a lot of kids, you know, and your heart goes out to these kids because they don't know where to turn, because they're supposed to be able to trust the adults that are in their in their life, and sometimes they can't. So if they can't trust those adults, who can they trust? And that's where it's hard for you to try and build that rapport and get them to trust you when you only got 15-20 minutes with them, you know. But you know, if you do it the right way and you know, you understand how bad life is for them and that you can make a difference in their life, you know, it goes a long way. So, you know, if you got any other questions on human trafficking, there's a lot of information out there on the web, of course. Stay in the loop with your con ed people, okay, on to see if they got anything that you missed, or maybe they got one coming up on human trafficking, you know, that that you can learn more about. You know, this is just a quick 10-minute talk. But like I said, you know, it just brought back a memory of you know an incident we had several years ago. So I'm already past the half hour mark on this one. I try to keep it short, but hopefully pertinent. You know, we covered some good things today. We covered building the lead next leader. That's important for you guys. Don't look at the next generation as being a pain in your behind. All right. They're there to work hard, they're smart, they can bring a lot to the table if you let them. So try to bring out the best in them. And in doing so, you're gonna bring in the best to bring out the best of yourself. Okay, and you're gonna leave a mark on a lot of people that won't forget it. I don't forget my mentors that I had 35 years ago. I think about them a lot, and I thank God that they took the time to try and teach me some things because it led to a good career. So that's a wrap for this week. And you know, again, if you have any questions or comments or suggestions or something you'd like to hear us cover, email me the show at beyondleadership.com. The show at beyondleaders. Sorry, I'm getting my whole thing wrong. The show at beyondcommand.com. The show at beyondcommand.com. You can email me there. I'll get your emails, and uh, we'll plan an episode to try and get you guys some answers on that. So till next week, everybody be safe. Everybody comes home. Remember that, right? So pay attention. Okay, God bless you all, be safe.