Our Mission:
- Serve
- Be Ready
- Create Excellent Outcomes
Our Core Values:
- Dedication
- Professionalism
- Integrity
Our Vision:
The Town of Leland Fire/Rescue Department is the place of choice where motivated people can be their best. We have shared values and are fulfilled by the work we do and the excellent outcomes we create. We are engaged and dedicated in service to each other and our community, who trust us to protect their safety, resources, and quality of life.
See a deeper explanation of what these words and concepts mean to us below.
Our mission is our purpose. It is what we exist to do and accomplish. We believe the statement outlining what our mission is to us and those in the community we serve should be short and simple, so that everyone can understand it, remember it, and be able to make decisions based on it every day in everything we do. It also must be broad enough to encompass everything we can do to take care of each other and the community, beyond what people traditionally think a fire department does. The mission should not limit how we can serve others to just emergency response.
Serve
The mission of any fire department in one word is SERVICE: service to the people of our community and to our personnel charged with fulfilling that mission. This consists of more than just putting out fires and taking care of those who are sick or hurt. It means service in any way that we can help to take care of them and enhance their quality of life. In the words of author Simon Sinek, service is “sacrificing your interests for the good of another human being’s life.”
Be Ready
Being ready encompasses all the things we do when we are not responding to a call for service. Preparation includes training and education, developing and mentoring our people, equipment and vehicle checks, budgeting effectively for the next fiscal year, strategic planning for the future, fire code inspections to ensure buildings are ready to protect occupants, touring and pre-planning buildings we may respond to, being physically and mentally fit for duty, ensuring proper staffing, equipment, vehicles and facilities, and so much more. This part of the mission statement allows people to evaluate what they are doing at any given moment on any given day, and to ask themselves if it is helping us to be ready.
Create Excellent Outcomes
Outcomes are those things that we believe the people of our community want us to protect. Often, if you ask people what they want from their fire department, they usually don’t say anything about response times in the form of minutes and they don’t talk about things like training, certifications, tools, equipment, vehicles, or even a specific number of people who will show up to their emergency. Many people simply want us to show up fast, do our best to make things right, and get them as close as we can back to the way they were before their emergency occurred. They want us to protect those things that they hold most dear to them: their life, health, wealth, security, and quality of life. Quality of life consists of things like the environment, their employment, their kids’ education, their freedom, and their family. Some examples of this include protecting their wealth by being responsible with the funding and resources they provide us. We protect their employment by confining a fire in the business where they work to the room where the fire started, thereby allowing the business to reopen in days rather than weeks or months, getting them and their co-workers back to work.
We believe the mission of the Town of Leland Fire/Rescue Department ties directly into and supports the overall mission of the Town of Leland: We serve our community with ethics, integrity, and transparency while providing efficient, effective, and fiscally responsible municipal services through a commitment to excellence and our core values.
Our vision gives everyone a clear and inspiring view of where we are going and what kind of organization we want to create. It is written in the present tense because it paints a picture of what success looks like for us in the future. Our shared, inspiring vision of what we want to create will help us outline the operational plan, moving forward each year, to get us there.
The Town of Leland Fire/Rescue Department is the place of choice where motivated people can be their best.
We want to be the place where the best people want to come to work. In order to do that, we need to create a culture and organization that reflects the kind of people we want to attract here. People who believe in excellence will come to a place they feel believes in what they believe, and they will bring their passion and motivation with them.
We have shared values and are fulfilled by the work we do and the excellent outcomes we create.
We want to be united as one team on the same mission with shared beliefs and values. We want our people to feel satisfied and fulfilled each day they complete their shift and head home, and to look forward to coming back to work the next morning. We want to feel like we are a part of something bigger than ourselves and making a difference in serving a larger cause. To achieve that, we must create an environment where people feel that they are supported so they can be successful and be their best, and therefore, the organization will be successful and be its best. Everyone has a sense of ownership in the success of the organization and the means toward achieving that success. The reference to excellent outcomes will tie into our mission statement.
We are engaged and dedicated in service to each other and our community, who trusts us to protect their safety, resources, and quality of life.
Our mission is to serve each other and the community. Serving each other means we support one another; we help and push each other to get better each day in order to reach excellence and hold each other accountable to the goal of excellence when needed. Leadership is a choice, no matter what our position or rank may be. We choose to take care of the person to our right and left in order to reach excellence in service to the greater good in our community.
We serve the community in such a way that we create a relationship through our words, actions, and beliefs that enable them to make the conscious decision to trust us. The community trusts us with their safety, their resources (i.e., they trust us to responsibly utilize resources, such as the hard-earned tax funding, personnel, vehicles, equipment, and facilities, that they provide to us in order to create the excellent outcomes they expect) and trust us with their quality of life (protecting their environment, employment, education, freedom, and family).
Trust must be earned every day. We feel that the ultimate picture of success for us is a community that trusts us.
We believe this vision of the Town of Leland Fire/Rescue Department ties directly into and supports the overall vision of the Town of Leland: Leland is a vibrant, safe, inviting, and resilient Town with exceptional services that support a diverse community.
Core values are those things in which the organization truly believes. They communicate to all members how the organization expects everyone to behave and act. They also give everyone a basis for making everyday decisions. Organizational core values are those things that are so important, they will not be compromised for any reason at any time. A set of mutually shared core values builds a cohesive culture and supports the vision and mission of the organization. While the department’s mission tells us what we do, core values tell us how we should go about doing it. They also help us to identify the character traits that are important to us in choosing new members to join our team.
Dedication
Passionate belief in our mission as a fire department
Professionalism
Commitment to quality of service and pride in our work
Integrity
Moral and intellectual honesty