Security Supervision and Management, 3rd Edition

126 SECURITY SUPERVISION AND MANAGEMENT

The Counseling Session

1. Have a positive feeling about yourself as a supervisor. A positive self-image is crucial

for counseling.

2. Gather all pertinent facts first.

3. Summarize and review important material.

4. Stay calm; do not attempt to counsel while emotionally involved in the issue.

5. Call indirect attention to the subordinate’s mistake.

6. Listen with empathy.

7. Provide feedback.

8. Invite the subordinate to respond.

9. Think before you speak.

10. Restate the problem, using the subordinate’s words to ensure clarification.

11. Identify the policy or proper procedural response for the subordinate.

12. Set goals and objectives to facilitate remedial training.

13. Effect completeness.

14. Celebrate successes.

What You Should Do and Say

1. Allow the subordinate to determine which of his/her negative behaviors they want to

work on first.

2. Help the subordinate to establish counseling related personal goals.

3. Help the subordinate to identify logic and/or performance that is self-defeating.

4. Assist the subordinate to reach self-understanding by examining his/her detrimental

behaviors.

5. Help the subordinate to establish a maintenance system for the concerned behaviors

by finding alternatives.

What Not To Do

1. Warn or threaten.

2. Order, command, or direct.

3. Moralize or preach.

4. Lecture or give logical arguments

Conflict Management

From time to time emergency management personnel arrive at the scene of a critical incident

and find themselves in a hostile environment. One of these phenomenon that has been pro-

pelled to the forefront for private emergency management teams is characterized as “going

postal” (violence in the workplace). Conflict management becomes a priority in the situation

when an employee is being assaulted by a spouse or a recently terminated employee returns

to work to seek revenge. To be prepared for such an event, it is essential that the emergency

response team be trained in safety skills required to “read” a potential conflict and do every-

thing possible to avoid or mitigate violence.

Response Principals

1. Never rush into anything without first obtaining information about the type of

conflict you are walking into. If need be, attempt to watch the dispute surreptitiously

prior to entering the location. Avoid attempting to deal with the situation by yourself

without a backup. Approach from a concealed position as much as possible. Stay

behind cover as much as possible. Always “think knives and guns”: be in a position

and have a plan for confronting them. Remember to always see the palms of the hands

to insure that weapons are not being held. If people secrete weapons on their bodythey

are most likely to be in the waist area. They may be hidden elsewhere; observing the

person for unnatural gait, etc.