All Blog Posts Tagged 'leadership' (49)

Rebel or Revolutionary - You Make the Choice

With all of the change going on in the atmosphere, I was contemplating the difference between being a rebel and a revolutionary. It seems to me that there are plenty of firefighters who are a little mixed up and don't understand the difference. The problem is that while revolutionaries effect change in a situation, rebels simply refuse to obey.

Why should that matter? When we… Continue

Added by Mick Mayers on November 5, 2008 at 11:11pm — 2 Comments

Consistency and Standardization - Terminology Blog In Extremis

Well, I'm glad that there's been a lot of discussion about the terminology issue, but my point wasn't just about terminology and communications standardization being a problem for the fire service. Without digressing, despite some of the very considerate and well expressed views pointed out by readers in the Terminology blog I wrote, it is a problem- go back and look at the reports of any disaster… Continue

Added by Mick Mayers on October 7, 2008 at 5:30pm — 13 Comments

Terminology - The Language We Speak

Surprisingly enough, I'm sitting here at my computer wrangling over the definition of a "working fire" although after 28 years on the job, I know exactly what I mean when I say I have arrived and have a working fire, but putting it into words for our procedure manual doesn't seem to be going well.

This whole revelation occurs at the confluence of two events: 1) I'm working on our SOG manual's definitions section and 2) the other night I arrived on scene of a well-involved structure… Continue

Added by Mick Mayers on September 28, 2008 at 1:00pm — 22 Comments

Motivation- It's What Moves Us

So if you think I haven't been motivated lately, and thus no recent blogs, you are wrong; just busy, is all. Motivation is all around us; like beauty, it is in the eye of the beholder. if you aren't feeling motivated by something, you probably aren't looking.

Motivation is what differentiates us sentient beings from ameobas, but even then, some painful stimuli from time to time will get even the lowest form of life to do something relatively modest and therefore, if we are just… Continue

Added by Mick Mayers on May 5, 2008 at 10:58pm — 10 Comments

Inspiration From Others

My daughter Caroline turns four tomorrow. She’s our middle child and some of you know she has Down syndrome which makes her life a little more interesting than yours and mine. When she was born, we really had no idea what to expect. I knew some friends whose children had DS, but really, other than that, I had no inkling of the potential issues that could possibly be made manifest as a result of this diagnosis.

The short form… Continue

Added by Mick Mayers on April 14, 2008 at 8:30pm — 5 Comments

Reaching Your Audience

I was thinking the other day after I wrestled with posting my blog that there are probably a dozen guys at work I could call to answer my question as to what was up with my computer. In my frustration, I was thinking, I am pretty competent with a computer for a 44-year old guy who still types with two or three fingers, yet it seems like some of the people I work with run circles around me when it comes to troubleshooting this stuff.

The first computer I was assigned at work was an… Continue

Added by Mick Mayers on April 8, 2008 at 9:00pm — 5 Comments

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa

Editor's Note: If you only knew what WebChief and I have been through for the past day trying to post this. Talk about issues- for some reason the computer I was using wasn't allowing my post to save (which resulted in my first version disappearing) and luckily I learned from my mistakes. As Staind sings: "Falling is easy, its the getting back up that's hard". Well, special thanks to Dave for saving my sanity. And with that...

I have often heard it said, “Love means never… Continue

Added by Mick Mayers on April 2, 2008 at 9:00pm — 6 Comments

R.E.S.P.E.C.T

If you weren't aware of it, that spells "respect", just like Aretha Franklin said so many years ago. So what is it? Why is it so elusive in emergency services? When you read the blogs and posts here on the Nation, so much of what is bandied about is the need for respect or the apparent lack of respect. Some of it is directed at respecting your elders (the crusty officer in your crew), respect for the youngsters (those probies you endure), respect for the opposite gender, and the public's… Continue

Added by Mick Mayers on February 29, 2008 at 9:36pm — 7 Comments

There Is No "I" In Team

It seems to me that there are those of us bonding as a team here to improve the fire service, which is pretty cool when you think about the fact that we're spread all over the country and some of us have never met. It made me think about teamwork and what composes a team, and about the inner workings of teams that make them special.

Teams like the Patriots and the Giants (for some of you, these are football teams) and their trip from the beginning of the season that culminated in a… Continue

Added by Mick Mayers on February 14, 2008 at 10:53pm — 13 Comments