Command and Control – What Is It? Why Is It Important In The Public Services? Command and control is vital to the Uniformed Public Services and to the way they function and operate. If there were no command and control the Public Services would not have the ability to take control of situations in order for them not to get out of hand. It is important because it maintains order and helps the Public Services run smoothly and efficiently. If there is very little, poor or no command and control then alsready bad or dangerous situations can turn worse. It is defined as “the running of an armed force or other organization”.
What Skills and Qualities are Needed To Have Good Command and Control? What are skills and qualities? A skill is something that you learn to do over a period of time. You can learn new skills in many ways, including during education, work and many more. Skills that you learn can be used in more than one issue when in everyday life. For example, you will learn the skill of using tools on word processing software while studying an I. T subject at school. You could then use this skill and other skills you learnt towards the future. Such as, completing an assignment for college.
A quality is something that you are born with. You can improve your qualities as you get older due to it being a part of your personality. It is not something that you can learn to do, For example, confidence. Some babies are born shy and some are not. This is a quality that when those shy babies grow older, they can improve on and become more confident. The differences between a skill and a quality are that one is learnt and one is what you are born with. So for example, a skill is gained by working in a job or at an educational location and a quality is one is a part of your personality.
Qualities and skills needed for a good commander Personal skills and qualities required for a good commander Personal qualities are the characteristics of a person. These personal skills are different from personal skills. Personal skills are things that have to be learnt and developed, such as, communication skills. A good commander is required to hold certain personal qualities in order to be effective. Some of these qualities that are important for being a good commander are described below: – Role model – A role model is someone who sets a good example for others to follow.
The reason a good commander should be a good role model is because they need be able to lead by example. They need to set standards that other team members will try to develop to and can look upon. – Courage – This is a quality that shows a lack of fear, even when in danger. The reason a good commander should possess this quality is because if the commander of a team doesn’t have courage, then how is the team going to have it when they are in tricky situations if their commander does not. – Confidence – To have confidence is a vital quality.
The reason being is that in the Army, for example, you work in teams, meaning you, as a commander would be the leader of a team. In a team, members look up to and rely on their leader. This means that you, as their leader, need to be confident in your own judgements and decision-making. – Integrity – As a good commander you must hold great integrities because if you fail to have this quality it can result in distrust within your team. This will affect the work of the team and the team’s morale, which could endanger the team.
If you have integrity, it shows that you are honest and reliable. – Determination – Determination is when someone has a real commitment to carry out whatever tasks are required. It is vital to a good commander as it helps them to complete tasks with their teams. For example, if you are completing a mission and an obstacle occurs, you, as the team’s leader, would not give up; you could be determined and find a different way to complete the mission safely. – Decisiveness – This is the ability to make decisions quickly and effectively and to stand by these decisions.
For example, if you are in a dangerous situation, and you need to exit that situation, you, as the team’s leader, would have to react on what problems and solutions there are and make fast decisions. This is so that the team can leave the dangerous situation as fast as possible (before the danger develops) and safely. – Calmness – It is also important to have the ability to maintain calm when in complex situations. If you can maintain calm, you are able to stay focused on the mission, be decisive and can ensure the safety of yourself and your team. Add example from the video watched in college.
The ability to keep calm when in tricky or dangerous situations. -Morale – Morale affects the way you, a team, or service, operate. Low morale results in unproductively, without it leads to poor team spirit and lack of motivation, which will mean that the jobs set will not be completed and can put the team’s lives at risk. – Responsibility – To be responsible is important when being a commander because as you progress up the ranks, for example, going from a team member to a team leader or from a private to a lance corporal, your responsibilities intensify.
You must be able to have responsibility over your job otherwise it can represent yourself as untrustworthy and lazy as well as many other negative appearances. For example, if you delegate someone else to hold some of your responsibility, so a task of yours to complete, and they do not complete that task to the set standards, then you are responsible for how that person completed the task. If there is no responsibility in a commander then, that commander puts their team members in danger. However, if you are responsible, then it enables your team members to trust and count on you.
They would also obey your orders more without difficulty. – Logic – To be logical makes sure that you are a good commander. This is because, in the Army, you will be in tricky situations where you will need to be able to think fast and clearly. For example, if you and your team are being attacked by the enemy, you would need to be able to be decisive so your team members know what to do to ensure their safety. – Determination – Determination is vital to a good commander as it helps them to complete tasks with their teams.
For example, if you are completing a mission and an obstacle occurs, you, as the team’s leader, would not give up; you could be determined and find a different way to complete the mission safely. -Integrity – As a good commander you must hold great integrities because if you fail to have this quality it can result in distrust within your team. This will affect the work of the team and the team’s morale, which could endanger the team. If you have integrity, it shows that you are honest and reliable. – Loyalty – In order to be a good commander, you should be loyal to all your service and team members.
If you are loyal to others, and they are loyal to you, it means you can trust and rely on them and vice versa. Members of the uniformed services show their loyalty to their commander by having the faith and commitment in the tasks they are asked to carry out, even if this means putting their own lives in danger. – Discipline – Discipline is essential in all the uniformed public services. A good commander would instil and maintain discipline throughout their whole team. If there were to be no discipline, the public services command and control systems would collapse.
Specialist Skills Technical Skills Results of good command and control. As a result of good command and control it enables a team to develop their: Trust – Having trust creates or maintains reliability, this means that team members can depend upon their commanders without any fear or hesitation. Trust is mutual, especially in the Uniformed Public Services, and it is only because trust is reciprocated that command and control is successful. Loyalty – In the Public Services loyalty means that you are faithful to your job, to your responsibility and are ommitted to your tasks.
The roles of the Public Services means that loyalty is vital as there are many situations when members are under tremendous pressure. Loyalty results in a closer working team and better work. Discipline – Without discipline in the Public Services there would be no command and control. This is because the hierarchical structure would collapse, leading to chaos. It is needed for maintaining order and for ensuring that rules and regulations are followed and orders are carried out.
Morale – Morale affects the way you, a team, or service. operate. Low morale results in unproductively, without it leads to poor team spirit and lack of motivation, which will mean that the jobs set will not be completed and can put the team’s lives at risk. Motivation – Lack of motivation can be damaging to the Public Services because it means there is no interest in the job being done. Even when it’s just one person having no motivation it can have an adverse effect on the team’s performance.
It affects the team spirit because not everyone is trying their best and a burden is placed on the remainder of the team. Respect – Without respect for the ranks above you can lead to low morale and lack of motivation, which can affect the smooth operation of the service. Without respect in command and control the team won’t be able to perform effectively and would result in poor performance. How an individual can exercise command and control? In the Public Services, individuals can exercise command and control by being involved with the rank and hierarchical structure of their service.
This is because scenarios of command and control are practised frequently so that the service members know how to respond effectively when in a real situation. There are many times where command and control is exercised in the uniformed public services. For example, when there is a major incident the Police are normally the first to arrive. The first officer that is s on the scene takes charge of the situation and takes control. They are then called what is known as an ‘initial police incident officer’.
In this role, the officer in charge will have to assess the situation and report back to the ain control room to declare a major incident and will then co- ordinate all of the Public Services required. The Police will normally have control of an incident on land. They are the ones in which are responsible for co-ordinating all the Public Services. However, there may be situations where the Police are not in command because of the fact that it isn’t their specialist area. For example, the Fire Service would be in charge in an emergency incident, if it was because of any hazardous materials or if the structure of a building was weak.