By Mary Ransier

Originally published in the September/October 2016 issue of APCO’s PSC magazine.
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“Just shut up.”

This is some of the best leadership advice I’ve ever received. Think for a minute about the best leader, supervisor or boss you’ve ever had. Chances are, there was some component of listening involved. Who doesn’t want to be heard, especially when it comes to something as important as work? Mahatma Gandhi famously said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” How can you become a better leader and instill change? By shutting up.

Employees are the most important facet of your communications center. Why wouldn’t you give them your undivided attention?

I recently made the jump to another agency’s leadership team, which is always a scary endeavor. Before speaking or taking action, I sought to understand, so I spent the first few months in my new position just listening. To this day, during conversations, I encourage my employees to speak first and often. I make a point to touch base with every person who works for me and to spend time on every shift. By doing so I’ve gotten to know my employees, their families, their motivations and their goals. Do you know all your employees’ professional goals off the top of your head?

I also have a strict open door policy. My door is literally always open when I’m in the office. Employees feel free to stick their heads in and talk, bounce an idea off me or ask for something they need. I’m not perfect at it, but I try my best to put down whatever I’m working on in order to talk. Employees are the most important facet of your communications center. Why wouldn’t you give them your undivided attention?

As you might remember from early in your career and training, there is a difference between listening and hearing. Active listening was a valuable skill to develop back then, and it’s just as important to maintain now. Listening for content and context—and being able to discern between the two—are the goals of processing any 9-1-1 call. Those same skills can help you become a better leader. When employees talk, they aren’t communicating only with words. They are also communicating via their body language, tone and pitch. Over 55 percent of communication is conveyed via body language; only a small percentage comes from the actual words we use. Are you even facing your employee when they talk to you? Are you listening, not only to what they say, but also to how they are saying it? Leaders tend to feel obligated to give advice instead of just listening. This can result in unintended communication barriers.

Think about what leadership means to you. Every leader sees this differently; how do you define it? How do you instill leadership in others? Leadership isn’t about position; it’s about behavior.¹ By listening and modeling desired behavior, I have set the tone and already witnessed subtle changes to the dispatch culture. One of the most important behaviors I modeled was taking employees seriously as professional telecommunicators. As you all know, this is not just a job; dispatching and call taking is a career. It’s a young but growing industry with many opportunities for development, growth and training. I take it very seriously; I take my employees and the work they do very seriously. I also expect them to take themselves seriously as professionals in their field. By listening to them, I realized this was something missing from the culture of the center. The idea that they are “just dispatch” and don’t really matter has become a thing of the past.

Of course, you can’t make everyone happy, and I often have had to advise individuals regarding performance issues. While this isn’t the most enjoyable leadership activity, it is necessary for employee growth and development. I’ve found that listening carefully to my employees when discussing their performance issues has proven successful. Think about the goal of performance counseling: Is it to come down hard on people? Just write them up? Not really. You want to see change in their performance. You want to figure out why they did what they did in order to determine if it is a training issue or an actual performance problem. Think back to the feedback model used in CTO: get, give, discuss. I try to start counseling sessions with a “get:” gain some information. For example, “So, tell me what happened with this” or “Can you explain to me why you did it this way?” By letting employees give their explanations first, I am determining the thought processes involved and, in most cases, opening the floor for self-critique. Most people are harder on themselves than you could ever be.

There are exceptions. Every communications center has one or two people who think they are a gift to dispatching. If you listen to them, though, and acknowledge their experience and skills, they just might become great team members. Often, if listening leadership is modeled appropriately, you can develop a culture where employees will start to tattle on themselves and selfcorrect before a complaint escalates. I have seen employees in my center make a mistake, correct it and then call the first responder to apologize or advise that the mistake has been corrected. I only hear about it after it has been handled. They are empowered telecommunicators who know that I trust them to be professionals who make the right decisions. This makes for happy stakeholders and user agencies, plus fewer complaints coming across my desk.

Alfred Brendel once said, “The word ‘listen’ contains the same letters as the word ‘silent.’” Everyone wants to be heard. By respecting this need and being a good listener, you are imparting affirmation and value to your employees. People are the most important component of any dispatch center; remember to demonstrate that importance the next time you interact with them. The power of shutting up might surprise you.

Mary Ransier is the Deputy Director of Macecom, the PSAP for Mason County, Wash. She can be reached at 360-463-1542 or mransier@macecom.org.

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