10 Steps to Becoming a Business Firefighter

10 Steps to Becoming a Business Firefighter10 Steps to Becoming a Business Firefighter10 Steps to Becoming a Business Firefighter Pandola and James W. Bird, co-authors of Light a Fire Under Your Business(Praeger, 2015)Like in a fire station, in geschftliches miteinander, critical situations or emergencies happen, and people must respond. In your profession, this might earn someone the title of geschftsleben firefighter.Hopefully the fires that break out in your organization arent the hot and smoky ones. Instead, they are probably the urgent situations that occur, and if not handled immediately, serious business damage can be the result. The following list of things to do during a crisis will help to quickly knock down the flames of trouble. More importantly, they can also help to prevent behauptung business fires from breaking out in the first place.Remember that prevention is always worth the effort. Successful business firefighting starts with an SOP to follow specific orders, or a checklist, to prevent the very issues that cause business fires. When the fires of crisis do ignite, and they will, the life-saving orders that firefighters use to protect themselves have been customized and adapted for business. When needed, use them to protect yourself, your team, and your entire organization.When anyone is stressed in a crisis situation, he or she needs more information this person needs and wants details. Having a checklist that works in your organization preplanned keeps people from guessing what to do at times of tremendous stress and difficulties. These firefighting principles are known as the 10 Success Orders for Business Firefighting. They are relevant for your crisis management to resolve the crisis. They are also useful for your prevention efforts to avert a crisis.As you read through the list, try to take ownership of these orders by identifying how your organization could apply them during a crisis situation. Also, consider their application on an o ngoing basis to prevent problems before they happen in your specific business task, occupation, position, or environment.Use these success orders as a template to customize your own crisis procedures. It doesnt matter what you call it or how it ends up looking. What matters is that it works by making a positive difference in how your organization responds to a crisis.F Fight business fires aggressively, but provide for safety first.ActionAggressively take actions to address the problem and to ensure and maintain the professional and personal safety of all engaged team members as well as the organization.I Initiate all actions based on current and expected business fire behavior.Action Direct necessary resources to resolve the crisis as you understand it to be. Utilize CPR for Business to identify, prioritize, and manage POCs.R Recognize current business weather conditions and obtain forecasts.Action Are there business climate conditions that are occurring or may occur that are t he same or similar to those that have caused problems in the past? What is on the horizon for your organization or in your industry? Consider history, competition, market status, economy, and resources.E Ensure business instructions are given and understood.ActionEstablish two-way communications and maintain clear, concise, and accurate messaging procedures (PPN). Document communication history of instructions, compliance, questions, and answers.O Obtain current information on business fire status.Action What further needs to be addressed, if anything? Verify most current data pertaining to industry, category, brands, successes, failures, forecasts, and projections.R Remain in communication with engaged business team members, your supervisor, and cross-functional business units.Action Communicate clearly in all directions to ensure everyone involved is constantly and clearly informed to prevent problems. If problems occur, ensure all appropriate associates become engaged with res olving as soon as problems are identified. When the problem has been knocked down, communicate instructions for all engaged employees to return to their routine work.D Determine business safety zones and escape routes.Action Identify worst case scenario, and then define what safety is for the organization and the procedures to achieve it exit strategies, financial, operational, political, and so forth.E Establish business lookouts in tauglichkeitly hazardous situations.Action Identify someone as the lookout, who is responsible for monitoring agreed-upon metrics and potential hazards or threats, and announcing progress or results, POCs, and early warning signs or symptoms.R Retain control of business at all times.Action Maintain control of all aspects for continuing business, while controlling actions to successfully manage the crisis.S Stay alert, keep calm, think clearly, and act decisively.Action If your entire team consistently does this, business fires can be prevented. When crisis strikes, this order will bring about the quickest possible knockdown every time.You have probably discovered that these 10 Success Orders for Business Firefighting spell out fire orders. This is just another way we try to help make these useful principles easier for everyone to remember when crisis strikes. Keep a copy of these principles at the ready when needed. Make a tab or dog-ear the page so that you and your team can quickly refer to these 10 success orders.Even better, use these success orders as a template to customize your own crisis procedures. It doesnt matter what you call it or how it ends up looking. What matters is that it works by making a positive difference in how your organization responds to a crisis.Reprinted by permission of Praeger. Excerpted from Light a Fire Under Your Business. Copyright 2015. All rights reserved.Author BioTom Pandola is a director of communications in the air medical transportation industry. He is also a cofounder of Third Alarm, a leadership consulting company he started with co-author Jim Bird. Pandolas work experience includes 25 years with the Los Angeles City Fire Department.