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Suggested Citation:"CEO Roles and Responsibilities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2014. Managing Catastrophic Transportation Emergencies: A Guide for Transportation Executives. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22304.
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Page 12
Page 13
Suggested Citation:"CEO Roles and Responsibilities." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2014. Managing Catastrophic Transportation Emergencies: A Guide for Transportation Executives. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22304.
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Page 13

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Training/Continual Improvement • Does the agency practice and/or train for all classes of emergencies? • How do it document lessons learned from incidents? • How do it document lessons learned from training and exercises? CEO Roles and Responsibilities During emergencies, a transportation CEO has a number of roles: operations leader, political leader, spokesperson, and local/regional partner. As operations leader of the DOT, the CEO sets the agency’s agenda and must establish priorities for planning for and responding to emergencies. The agency’s reputation, and its funding, may be based on how the DOT responds. As a CEO, you need to set internal expectations and support the staff as they strive to meet those expectations. It is important to stay in touch with the overall big picture without getting bogged down in the details of everyday items. It is important to keep in mind this advice from one of your peers: “Things never go perfect in a major event. There are always issues, so don’t throw staff under the bus. You will have a much stronger organization by doing such.” As a political leader, the role of a transportation CEO is distinct and different from that of the governor and other elected officials. You need to understand the political implications of the event and provide guidance to the elected official (typically the governor) to whom you report in order to, as one as your peers has advised, “ensure that we were not stepping into a political minefield.” To be effective, you must have the full confidence of the governor and understand how to address the political requirements so that the professionals in your agency can perform their jobs. The DOT CEO may be the public face of the state’s response to an event, especially if it involves damage to or destruction of critical transportation infrastructure or requires closing major transportation facilities. Make sure that effective communications mechanisms and people are in place so that the agency can communicate regularly and competently to all stakeholders. This is critical for both the governor and the public. Given the speed and frequency with which communication travels in today’s environment, communicating regularly and often means multiple times per day. The CEO does not need to be the communicator in all cases, but the CEO must insist on this pattern to be effective. As a public entity in a crisis, the agency may be inundated with requests for public information. Get ahead of the curve by releasing relevant and related public data prior to requests. Demonstrating a commitment to honest transparency with information and public data can help build and maintain an agency’s reputation during a crisis. During an event, a DOT sits at the nexus of multiple stakeholders, resources, authorities, and responsibilities. The CEO needs to understand these relationships and how best to manage them during emergencies. He or she will need to be the advocate for the DOT with other agencies so that they can “During an event, be visible to put a face on the response. The public wants to know someone is in charge and that there is leadership that is concerned about them. Also, to let the employees know you trust them and are there to support them.” “The CEO must focus on clear and correct information and the long-term reputation of the organization.” 10

understand DOT capabilities and resources. To do this, the CEO must establish relationships before an event happens with the leadership in partner agencies both within the state and in neighboring states, since some emergencies are regional and require multistate coordination. •DOT reputation and funding may be based on how the DOT responds when the major incident or weather event occurs. •The full confidence of the elected official (typically the governor) is critical. •Demonstrating that someone is in charge of the crisis and that the agency’s primary goal is to do whatever is necessary to protect public safety and/or address the needs of injured parties are important. •A commitment to honest transparency will help build and maintain an organization’s reputation during a crisis. •Partnership and relationships are critical at all levels in the emergency response community. Remember: “if they know you, they will trust you.” What You NEED TO KNOW •Focusing on the long-term reputation of the DOT. •Communicating clearly and correctly. •Understanding the importance of dealing with politics. •Advocating for your agency with the governor and with other agencies. •Suppporting your partner agencies. YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES •Be visible early in a crisis. Empathy is critical. •Communicate regularly and often to all stakeholders. “Communicate and then communicate that you communicated.” •Understand and build on the relationships among various stakeholders, resources, authorities, and responsibilities. •Establish solid relationships with the leadership in partner agencies, both within the state and in neighboring states. What you NEED TO DO 11

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TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 206: Managing Catastrophic Transportation Emergencies: A Guide for Transportation Executives provides guidance to new chief executive officers (CEOs) about the roles and actions that CEOs take during emergency events.

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