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can only bring partnering agencies to the same room and help
them collaborate. Two county directors commented on their
jobs, as shown below:
I am not actually out there in the field saving lives . . .
you don’t see me out there on the beach with the
microphone predicting weather. Again, I am not the
one doing the fascinating work. I am the conductor,
think of an orchestra, I am not playing the instrument.
I am just conducting and I am the one going to motivate
all of the people to play the music, play their
instruments beautifully. And that’s what I do. If I can’t
encourage that collaboration, then I’ve failed. (ID12)
I think it is our job to educate and inform the
administration of the local government on what could
happen, what needs to be done, should that occur, and
who needs to help to do that. Because, honestly, the
community cannot do this and the government cannot
do this on their own. It has to be a community-wide
effort. And one of our tasks is trying to bring different
entities within the community together by using
collaboration and coordination to address whatever did
happen. (ID2)
Moreover, in order to complete their duties, local
emergency managers must understand their personal abilities
and quickly adjust to different situations. A successful local
emergency manager therefore should be flexible, equipped with
good interpersonal skills, and be able to adjust rapidly to all
kinds of situations since collaboration is always expected and
encouraged. A county director said the following:
Emergency managers have to be flexible in terms of
adjusting to different situations, different emergencies,
also adjusting to different leadership styles based on
people’s behavior. So first of all having a good
understanding of your own behavior and how you
respond, how your leadership skill responds to those
emergent situations. It’s critical to be able to adjust and
account for other people. (ID6)