For want of a nail the shoe was lost,
for want of a shoe the horse was lost,
for want of a horse the knight was lost,
for want of a knight the battle was lost.
So it was a kingdom was lost - all for want of a nail.
For Want of a Leader…
I say this as I’ve spent the better part of a week standing in the sweltering sun proctoring nearly a thousand candidates as they attempted something called the CPAT. That’s the Candidate Physical Agility Test, a pre-requisite for folks who want to become firefighters. No need to go into the details of the CPAT, suffice it to say that it’s a pretty tough physical test. The test lasts about ten minutes, and nearly half of the candidates fail the test.
CPAT failures aren’t fun. They represent a major expense for participants and local governments. Many, many man-hours go into each candidate’s attempt. Unlike American Idol’s ear-splitting auditions, these man-hours don’t generate income for local governments. Quite the opposite is true. Each CPAT failure is like scarce recruiting dollars going up in smoke.
The large number of failures is even more troubling because most of the failures occur in the first three minutes! This in spite of the fact that each CPAT event is demonstrated via detailed videos readily available on the web. If the CPAT were a written test it would be like having the questions and the answers at your fingertips all the time! So why would a person travel to the CPAT, often over long distances and always at their own expense, only to fail an event that is clearly defined for them and for which they can practice well ahead of time?
These candidates want to pass the CPAT. Most of them could pass the CPAT. So if they want it… and they are capable of it with modest preparation… why can’t they pass? They fail for the same reason most things fail… a lack of good leadership.
What about personal responsibility and self-discipline you ask? They should certainly play a role, but despite our common self-delusional fantasies, we must acknowledge that no one is self-made. Self-discipline will take you a long way, but it won’t take you all the way. Any success we enjoy is only a result of someone else providing some leadership.
I’m an admissions officer for the United States Naval Academy. I routinely work with the most intelligent, disciplined and self-motivated students our nation has to offer. Even so, the Naval Academy doesn’t leave it to chance that the best candidates will somehow “self-discipline” themselves through an extremely tough and complicated admissions process. As soon as a candidate accomplishes 30% of the administrative aspects of admissions, he or she is assigned a personal admissions officer to lead them through the process. This “Blue and Gold” officer can’t accomplish the admissions tasks for the candidate, but they can communicate, coach, and yes, even inspire the candidate to put forth the best application possible to achieve the desired outcome. That, by definition, is leadership.
Leadership, however, is not all pep talks and inspiration. It's also about honesty, integrity and reality. Back when I was a Midshipman at the Academy, I asked a senior officer if he thought I might be selected to attend Nuclear Power School. He considered all the evidence and gave me the honest truth that it was extremely unlikely that I would be selected to this highly competitive program. He left no doubt that he thought there were probably better uses of my, and the Navy’s, time than me submitting an application to “Nuke School”.
He was right, and I knew it. As a good leader, he took the time to go over all the other career paths I might take to reach my personal and professional goals. In the end, I didn’t waste valuable time by submitting my name for consideration for nuclear power school.
Proctoring the CPAT was tough this year. Certainly there were some candidates who were thoroughly prepared, but were still unable to complete the CPAT in the required time. For these folks the CPAT was not so much a failure as an indicator. Some folks are not physically capable of carrying out the expected duties of firefighter and the CPAT indicates so, just as NFL training camp would quickly reveal that I am not physically capable of being an NFL player no matter how much I prepared.
However, many of those candidates who couldn’t finish the CPAT were capable, but woefully unprepared. Sure they bear the responsibility for their failure, but failure, when success is within reach, is to be avoided. With a little bit of leadership from someone along the way, someone who coached, inspired and kept reality in mind, those capable candidates could’ve finished that CPAT and moved to the next step in the fire department hiring process.
It would’ve been win-win. The candidate would be in better condition and move along in the process. The department would’ve had that many more persons to choose from for the final hiring, and the overall quality of firefighters would’ve likely gone up. We would’ve reaped a lot more fruit for all of work and expense in running the CPAT. Instead, for want of a few good leaders, we lost many candidates during the CPAT.
We definitely culled the field of applicants, and the next step in the process will be much easier with fewer applicants. But easing the hiring process was not the goal, and unnecessary failure should never be an American idol.
From your perspective as a firefighter, what are your ideas to help by leadership. Assign firefighters as "Blue & Gold Officers" to help via email, phone calls & areas where most failers occur, etc. Should be a viable solution to reducing the failures.
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