Set The Standard

I mentioned once before, either in one of my Podcast episodes, or in a blog post, that it’s important to be a leader regardless of your title. You don’t have to have an official title to be a leader. In fact, you don’t even need to have seniority to be a leader. I think it’s also important to understand, that being a leader, doesn’t mean you boss people around, or tell others what to do and what not to do. But also, in some cases, it does. Let me explain.

A leader does just that, they lead people in the right direction. Whether that’s at work as a firefighter or medic, or it’s at home with your family. The difference between a leader and a boss are pretty simple, and honestly, are spread around on social media quite often. A leader teaches by their words and their actions. A leader shows others how to do things the correct way, whether that’s a skill, or a life lesson in general. A leader has high expectations in others, but even higher expectations in themselves. A leader shows others the path to success, teaches how to follow that path, and then demonstrates it with their own actions. A leader is slow to anger, but quick to praise.

A boss, is different in many ways, but it can be difficult to see which type you are. A boss only wants the title; Chief, Captain, Supervisor, etc. They want the title because they think that will make up for their own lack of skill and will give them more authority over people. A boss demands things be done, things that he or she isn’t willing to do themselves. A bosses mission is success for only themselves, not the team. A boss credits themselves for the teams success, but is quick to blame the team for the failures.

As you can see, it’s easy to point out the failures of someone in one of these roles, but what about the team? Just about every job out there, regardless of the field, is team driven in some sort of way. Don’t believe me? Let’s look:

Garbage collector - The person driving the truck around to pick up your trash every week could be working by themselves (thanks to modern technology) or still working with a partner that gets out and picks up the cans by hand. Regardless, they are both part of a team, to collect the garbage in the coverage area, on time, every day. Sometimes one truck may have to go to another area and help out another truck. Whatever, the point being is they are part of a team driven towards success, whatever that looks like.

Firefighter - This is pretty obvious, but I’ll still explain it. The firefighter is part of a team, not just the crew they work with, but the entire department, especially if there are multiple stations. If they go on a structure fire, med call, car crash, the team works together to succeed at whatever that call is. Inside the station? The team works together to continue their education, staying in shape, helping with mental emotions, etc. No single firefighter works alone, not even the one pump operating. They may appear to be alone, but in reality, they have to work with water supply, safety, incident command, and the other firefighters to make sure they are utilizing their resources to the best of their ability, and giving enough water to those on the other end of the hoseline in an attempt to meet the goal of putting the fire out.

Police Officer - Depending on where in the country you are located, some departments require two officers in one squad car. The vast majority only have one officer working in a single car. While they may work alone often, all of the officers on duty must work as a team to clear the board of calls that are coming in for service.

These are pretty common sense, so let’s look at some more difficult ones and then I’ll get to the point:

Plumber - Let’s say this plumber has his own company. He’s the sole owner and employee. No one else works for him right? Is he still part of a team? Absolutely! The team consists of all of the other plumbers across the country, or even just in the one community, working together to help fix the issues customers are facing. They may be competing against each other, but even then, that makes them a team. They all share the same goal, the same vision, the same mission. Maybe this plumbers team is more so in his private life, his family members. His customers are even considered part of the team, because in order for him to continue to gain more customers, he is reliant on them to pass along the word of how good of a job he performed. Sure, he could spend thousands of dollars each year on advertisement, but if his past customers constantly post bad reviews of him on Google or other social media platforms, eventually, he won’t be near as successful.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. In the grand scheme of things, everyone is part of a team in some way shape or form. In order to be a successful member of the team, you have to be open and willing to doing things that you necessarily don’t want to do. You have to be willing to take constructive criticism from other members of the team. You have to be willing to make changes and improve, for the betterment of the mission, of the team. As a member of the team, you have to understand that in order for you to succeed, the team needs to succeed. You play an important role in the mission towards success. You have to be willing to lead others, and show others the correct path.

For more on this, listen to my next episode discussing how to be a leader without the title. I’ll go into more detail on that.