By Cheryl Konarski

Presenter: Zim Schwartze

Zim Schwartze, director of Springfield-Greene County 911, shared a fascinating perspective for those thinking about becoming a director, or even moving up into a leadership role in their communications center.

Zim began her career in public safety in law enforcement. Through a series of twists and turns, she became the director of a 9-1-1 center. She shared the many lessons she has learned along the way. One of the most important is to surround yourself with qualified people who will strengthen your weaknesses. If they aren’t in place when you begin, seek them out.

Another lesson learned is to realize the common misconceptions between disciplines. You will be dealing with multiple agencies and disciplines who each believe they know what the other is doing. You must have an awareness of each other to be effective. You need to educate yourself and educate them to help build a cohesive team.

The third important lesson is to have the right personality to be a director and learn to fight the battles that matter. How you handle a situation makes the difference in the outcome you are trying to achieve. Not everyone is meant to be a director. Recognize that and determine if this is truly what you want.

You will spend most of your days in meetings. This is a good thing – you are being invited to the table and your opinion matters. You will also be handling issues and complaints, projects, technology issues, and most important, being there for your people. You are going to be caught in the middle of everything – your board, other agency heads, the public, your supervisory staff, and again, your people. You will have many unique challenges, including budgets, juggling projects, educating the public and user agencies on what you do, responding to media requests, and keeping your people happy.

If, after all this, you still want it, just go for it! Drive and push yourself to reach any goals you set for yourself. According to Zim “If you have the right personality and right people, you can do anything.”