Tag Archives: communication

Your ability to develop professional networks has increased exponentially with advent of social media, and particularly LinkedIn, the most used professional networking platform on the planet. Check this article out to see how you can start making it work for you.

I once heard this at a leadership and management seminar I attended and it’s stuck with me all these years: Middle management is like the white frosting in an Oreo cookie. It’s the “glue” that holds everything together and it’s the “buffer” that keeps the two hard cookie layers apart.

I’m not speaking of some fictitious character, but rather your “brand”: who you are, what you do, what do you stand for, etc. See, in the digital world you only get one chance to make a good first impression AND you only get to use that 7-10 percent of communication, the non-verbal part.

Think there’s not a need for organizational risk management in Fire and EMS organizations? Take a look at some of the recent “ripped from the headlines” stories about firefighters and officers that have not done much to enhance the reputation and standing of our profession.

Your department’s website still needs to be the bedrock for your Internet presence, but with Web 2.0 there is so much more. Let’s take a look at some of the tools in the toolbox, shall we?

I brought their concept home and immediately began using it with the company officers in my battalion. I was a new battalion chief at the time and found that it helped me establish credibility and trust with my new team. (I had a battalion at that time of six stations and eight company officers.)

While there are certainly many aspects of this shift that Fire & EMS leaders need to address, I believe one of the most critical is the communication of organizational knowledge from one generation of members to another.