A Reflection in the Fire

        Rick Lasky's article "Pride and Owndership, the Love for the Job The Firefighter" seems cheesy and dramatic in a positive way, and that's a good thing. The way he describes the values of a fireman radiates pride in his industry, both in the work and the people he's worked with. They definitely feel like the words of someone who's been in love with his profession for a good while.

        Most firemen I've had the pleasure of meeting have all been in, or plan to be in, the fire industry for life. Lasky talks about pride, honor, integrity, and more, but the trait I notice the most is loyalty, both to the people they work with and their sense of duty. I can't name five people outside the fire and military industries who I know would trade their weekly earnings for the opportunity to protect people. I believe his words on being a fireman taking a special kind of person to be true. 

        While reading this article, a scene from the film American Sniper comes to mind. At the beginning of the film, the protagonist's father makes a metaphor about the three different types of people in the world being wolves, sheep, and the sheep dog. In short, wolves try to prey on the sheep and the sheep dogs protect them while the sheep just go about their lives. Obviously fires aren't what he meant by wolves, but the men and women of the fire industry I can easily see as the sheep dogs, blessed with the gift of aggression towards protecting others.

        To get to the point, I'm unsure where my career goals in the fire industry lie. They may lie in a different industry all together, being military. But these two industries seem to take a special kind of person to sacrifice parts of their life, possibly safety, and even income for the sake of their profession and the safety of people as a whole. Within either industry I will not become the worlds next millionaire, but I will be able to carry something money can never buy, a single word worth more than all the money in the world. Pride. 

Personality Traits for Effective Leadership: My E-S-T-Pride

Not everyone is a leader. If you look at any industry you can see that the people within it are structured similar to a pyramid. Employees have supervisors, supervisors have supervisors, and so on until you reach the tip of the network. The heads of any industry share similar qualities, which can be summed up in words like “hard working”, “risk taker”, “strong willed”, etc, and have the right combination of certain traits, as well as luck, to reach those positions. The cool thing is that these words are directly related to the individual’s personality which we can now test and categorize with an internet connection, and honesty, using the typology test. While any type may be able to become a good leader, I believe certain types may be more prone to becoming a great one.

After taking the test three times, to ensure accuracy, I wrote a list of what I felt my strengths and weaknesses are, similar to Harry R. Carter’s “Developing a Plan for Self-Evaluation”. As an ESTP, my strongest traits are honesty, loyalty, confidence, humor and a dash of intelligence. My weaknesses are procrastination, poor time management (I’m writing this blog past its due date), impulsiveness, being overly critical, and a lack of attention to how my actions affect others. While my positive traits are desirable for a leadership position, my current negatives would hold me back. If I were to supervise a team my inability to empathize as well as being overly critical would soon become my downfall. I would lose respect, which would destroy overall performance.

To work on these, I’ve created a plan for self-empowerment! I will read at least two other blogs and not close the window to find another at the first grammatical error. Instead, I shall read through the entire post and find the deeper meaning in the words posted, proper punctuation or not! In regards to my shortcoming in empathy, I shall henceforth actively try to be more understanding towards others during any conversation or interaction. Time management and procrastination will have to wait, I’m a college student, they won't be fixed anytime soon.

           Should I reduce my negative traits, I believe my personality type would enable me to become a great leader, not just a good one. With age comes wisdom, so hopefully over time they will become non-existent. Whether I end up as a career fireman, soldier, pilot or manager at McDonalds, I won’t stop until I reach the top.

Apples and Oranges

                Strawberries and bananas are both fruits, they both taste sweet, and they both are considered delicious by many. These two succulent flavors are popular in candy and other forms of sweets, including smoothies or yogurt. Growing up I ate a lot of Trix yogurt, and by far the best flavor was the combination of both strawberries and bananas.

                There’s a point behind that stupid analogy, it’s that one set of rules for psychological needs may be able to cover all the needs of humans, but also may not be the most correct in every way. Maslow seems to cover things in a very linear fashion, being that without the things below you on the pyramid, you cannot climb it any higher. These guidelines make very good sense, as without a shelter and a vehicle, odds are you will not become the next Steve Jobs. Herzberg also makes good points though, being that you need motivators as well as hygienic factors to keep your life in balance. As I’m sure anyone reading this is already aware, this means you need room to improve and exercise your abilities, as well as the opportunity to help out others to feel complete.

                Both sets of guidelines make sense and optimally I would not just use one or the other as they share some qualities and cover others that the opposing set does not. But, if I were forced to choose the one that covers more, I would go with Maslow. Herzberg’s guidelines make perfect sense for modern society, specifically in a workplace environment, but the simplicity and broadness of Maslow’s make them seem more universally applicable. After reading about his hierarchy, I believe I am approaching the peak of my esteem needs, as it’s likely I will graduate with a degree after this semester. Following this I can begin reaching my full potential in a military or fire career path.