Fire Chief Kelvin J' Cochran

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PLANNING FOR SUCCESSION

• Presented by
• Fire Chief Kelvin J. Cochran

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Planning Succession

• Succession Planning
• Professional Development
• Mentoring

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Planning Succession

• Succession Planning
• The continual business of monitoring and
  developing internal talent to assure that
  employees have the knowledge, skills and
  abilities necessary to succeed in future
  leadership roles

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Planning Succession

• Professional Development
• Establishing core competencies for every rank,
  while systematically providing training and
  education internally and externally to meet those
  requirements

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Planning Succession

• Mentoring
• The systematic approach to providing focused
  support and attention, both professional and
  personal guidance to subordinates, formally woven
  into the performance appraisal program of an
  organization

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Planning Succession

• The Need for Planning Succession
• Forecast Rapid Attrition
• Forecast Rapid Growth
• State of Organizational Stagnancy

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Analyze Stagnancy

• Organizational Stagnancy
• A period where activities that were once exciting
  have become common and routine
• Lack luster and enthusiasm
• Unwilling to challenge dissenters
• Financial incentives do not resolve
  dissatisfaction

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Planning Succession

• Organizational Stagnancy
• Tolerate things we used to detest
• Relationships more important than mission
• Average is disguised as excellent
• Succumb to good, rather than aspire for great
• Making excuses rather than make a change
• Clinging to past traditions with reduced value

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Enhance Morale

• Many of our members are basing their job
  satisfaction and job motivation on the forecast
  of promotional and professional development
  opportunities, and the attractiveness of
  leadership portrayed by chief officers

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Enhance Morale

• No matter how much they admire, love and
  appreciate us, there comes a point in time where
  our subordinates, even those who respect us
  dearly, want us to GO!!!
• Forecasting based on whos signed up, whos past
  retirement, whos close to retiring and when
  theyre going to go or sign up.

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Enhance Morale

• Forecasting whos next to move up in the
  leadership advancement pipeline has become
  extremely difficult but extremely necessary for
  us to do as a department.

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Planning Succession

• Inability to forecast
• Members are staying longer before signing up
• Members are choosing to stay past their
  retirement/DROP date
• Members are leaving abruptly without much notice
• Members returning to the field operations

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Planning Succession

• As the leader, and leaders of our fire department
  we have an obligation to step outside of our
  comfort zones to infuse hope and optimism into
  our members through planning for succession.

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Planning Succession

• In organizations where succession planning
  really works, it is not a stand-alone activity.
  It is a core process of the business, woven into
  the very fabric of its culture.

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Succession Planning Professional Development

• Sense of urgency for fire service leaders
• Lack of professional development
• Every man for himself
• The fair-haired boy, favorite son
• Narcissist mentality
• Unaware of organizational vulnerability

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Failure to Succession Plan

• Steady attrition of talented members
• Retain people with outdated skills
• Create promotion apathy
• Create a passive-aggressive culture

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Wanted Talented Leaders

• Disaster Management
• Budget challenges
• Implement progressive change
• Managing community conflicts
• Labor/management challenges
• In situations like these Fire Departments need
  to have the right people in the right places to
  succeed and thrive!

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Failure to Succession Plan

• Apt for wrong organizational decisions
• Promote untested, unqualified officers
• Recruit outside of the organization
• Difficult to adjust
• Unfamiliar with the culture

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Common Attributes of SP

• Not stand alone ad hoc activities
• Embedded development activities
• Chief officers deeply involved
• Chief officers/company officers evaluated on
  their contributions to the organization-wide
  effort

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Planning Succession

• By engaging officers and administrative chief
  officers in this way departments can align its
  professional development processes with its
  strategic priorities.

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Succession Planning Advantages

• Builds a clear and attractive identity
• Enhances personnel perception of leadership
  development processes
• Authenticates succession planning
• Attracts future leaders early in career

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Question???

• Is the talent pipeline of the fire service
  producing enough quality leaders?
• Our department
• Other fire departments
• Emergency Management Organizations
• Private Sector Organizations

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Leadership DevelopmentInitiatives and
Opportunities

• Fire Training Academy
• National Fire Academy
• Executive Development Institute
• Executive Fire Officer Program
• John F. Kennedy School of Government
• Chief Fire Officer Designation
• Certified Emergency Manager Designation
• IAFC Professional Development Handbook
• Higher Education

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Blueprint for SP and PD

• Versed in all aspects of organization
• Accountability for chief fire officers
• Unwavering commitment to the system
• Share resources-the talent pool
• Job rotation strategy
• Provide opportunities and visibility

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Integrated Approach

• Succession planning drives professional
  development
• Succession planning starts at the top
• Train and develop potential successors
• Each rank should be the training officer for the
  rank below

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Challenges for the Chief Executive

• Planning your own exit
• Evokes fears and hidden emotions
• Deal with long held defense mechanisms
• Desire to avoid the issue
• The trend is to always look for the next
  mountain to climb, not to step down from the
  mountain and look for a replacement.

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• There is no success without a successor.

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Benefits of Integration

• Alerts rising stars to opportunities
• Ability to assess your bench strength
• Sense of future incumbent leadership
• Minimal business disruption
• Increase stakeholder confidence
• Reduce cost of external recruitment

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Desired Culture

• Talent alignment and optimization - striking the
  balance between the supply of talent (rising
  stars) and the demand for talent (critical
  positions)
• Annual review of talent pool-group setting
• Evaluation of current roles
• Preparation for future roles
• Develop paths with multiple career possibilities

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Fire Chief Responsibilities

• Recognize developmental needs
• Help cultivate new skills
• Provide opportunities for professional
  development
• Nudge into new functional areas
• Mentor emerging leaders
• Pass on important knowledge
• Provide helpful evaluations and feedback

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Succession Planning Essentials

• Aligned
• Attractive
• Authentic

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Aligned Leadership Development

• Enables the organization to meet its mission
  objectives more effectively
• Enables the organization to produce better
  innovations more quickly
• Rewards individuals who produce innovative results

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Misalignment

• Occurs when
• Rolling out initiatives without proper planning
  and time horizons
• Professional development, succession planning not
  linked with mentoring
• Miss-matched protégé-mentor (disfunctional
  development)
• Performance management measures and rewards
  inconsistent with organizational values and
  culture

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Attractiveness

• Personnel are attracted to promotions-advancement
  in part due to the talent identity (image) of
  executive leadership in fire departments and in
  fire service organizations.

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Attractive Leadership Development

• Does the leadership development system reinforce
  the image you want people to have of our
  organization?
• Relationship between leadership development and
  candidates attracted
• External stakeholders perception of
  organizational leadership culture
• Personnels perception and understanding of the
  organizational values and strategic direction

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Attractive Leadership Development

• Reinforces a positive leadership image
• Emphasizes functional capabilities
• Reinforces proper fit of organizational values
  and belief system

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Authentic Leadership Development

• Authentic - Customized, legitimate system
  developed internally by stakeholders
• Talent development effects business decisions
• Not a perception of favoritism
• Not padding and developing resumes
• Persons recruited, selected and promoted are
  truly qualified, capable, competent

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Professional Development Outcomes

• Actively improve employee skills
• Increase commitment to work
• Accelerates information sharing
• Better trained personnel
• Increase willingness to accept additional
  responsibility

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Executive Coaching

• The Mentor
• And
• The Protégé

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Mentoring

• Essential to leadership development
• Many mentors will enter and exit your life
• Mentors can make the difference between
• Satisfaction and contentment
• Stagnation and growth
• Loss and gain
• Pain and fulfillment
• Deterioration and restoration

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10 Facts You Should Know About An Uncommon Mentor

• An Uncommon Mentor is the Master Key to the
  Success of a Protégé
• An Uncommon Mentor Transfers Wisdom Through
  Relationship
• An Uncommon Mentor Guarantees Your Promotion
• An Uncommon Mentor Can Determine Your Income

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10 Facts You Should Know About and Uncommon Mentor

• An Uncommon Mentor Can Cause Influential People
  to Listen to You
• An Uncommon Mentor Will Require Your Pursuit
• An Uncommon Mentor is More Interested in Your
  Success Than Your Affection

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10 Facts You Should Know About and Uncommon Mentor

• 8. An Uncommon Mentor is Not Necessarily Your
  Best Friend
• Your best friend is comfortable with your past
  your mentor is comfortable with your future
• Your best friend loves you the way you are your
  mentor loves you too much to leave you the way
  you are
• Your best friend ignores your weakness your
  mentor removes your weakness
• Your best friend is your cheerleader your mentor
  is your coach

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10 Facts You Should Know About and Uncommon Mentor

• 9. An Uncommon Mentor Sees Things You Cannot See
• Sees weaknesses before you experience the pain of
  them
• Experienced the pain of a problem you are about
  to create

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10 Facts You Should Know About an Uncommon Mentor

• 10. An Uncommon Mentor Can Create an Uncommon
  Protégé
• Everything you know will come through mentorship
  (directly or indirectly)

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The Protégé

• A protégé is an enthusiastic learner
• The wisdom of the mentor is perpetuated through
  the protégé
• It is vital to recognize and honor those
  connected to you for the multiplying and
  perpetuation of your success and life.

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Passive Protégés

• Reach when it is convenient or when their
  personal efforts do not produce their desired
  result.
• They subconsciously expect their mentor to
  produce success for them.

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Parasite Protégés

• Pursue for credibility, not correction.
• They will use the name and influence of a mentor
  to manipulate others into a relationship
• They want what the mentor has earned, not what he
  has learned
• They want reputation without preparation

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Prodigal Protégés

• Enter and exist the relationship freely
• When serious correction occurs they move toward
  another mentor who has not yet discovered their
  flaws
• They distance themselves when their mentor
  encounters personal difficulties, loss of
  credibility, false accusation or persecution

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Productive Protégés

• Have a servants heart
• Never make major decisions without counsel and
  feedback of the mentor
• They honor and respect their mentor both
  professionally and personally

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6 Facts About The Uncommon Protégé

• The uncommon protégé invests time spent with the
  uncommon mentor
• The uncommon protégé follows the counsel of the
  uncommon mentor
• The uncommon protégé reveals the secrets and
  dreams of his heart with the mentor
• The uncommon protégé freely discusses his
  mistakes with the mentor

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6 Facts About the Uncommon Protégé

• The uncommon protégé defines clearly his
  expectations to the mentor
• The uncommon protégé ultimately reaches or
  exceeds the mentor he serves

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• Questions???