The Perils of Leadership: Making Chief is the Easy Part
by Chief John Buckman
Here is the 8th and last installment of Chief John Buckman's Leadership Series.....
SET THE EXAMPLE: LOOK UP!
I believe the people we deal with can be divided into two categories: those who lift you up and those who pull you down. Don't we all know people who only open their mouth to deprecate someone else?
Feel sorry for those poor souls. They tear down only to build themselves up.
We must teach them by example that the greatest responsibility each of us has is to raise the life condition of everyone we touch. Encouragement breeds success; discouragement breeds contempt. No one can deny the law of cause and effect. Your subordinates and superiors will not think well of you unless you think well of yourself. You cannot think well of yourself unless you think well of others.
Most negative people are only envious. If you malign people in the hopes that you will look better nothing but the opposite is true. You are actually degrading yourself and bringing misery to those around you.
I have survived as a Fire Chief by maintaining a positive attitude about my life and my person. No one will tear that down as my opinion on those matters are the only ones that do matter. There are so many people out there that belittle others so that they might appear bigger. The sad fact is that those people only belittle themselves. I believe that I do what is right at the right time and in the right place. Do I make mistakes? Yes, I am human and as such I will make mistakes, but they are not for a lack of trying. I believe action requires one to make a mistake once in a while.
Well, as previously mentioned, this is the last of this series of articles on Leadership by Chief John Buckman.
I hope you were able to get something out of the series.
For more articles on Leadership, visit Fireengineering.com.
Until next time....
