THE POWER OF ATTITUDE: IT INFLUENCES FOR BETTER OR WORSE

Attitude is a tremendously powerful tool and the key by which fire service members can “take the fire service back to the way it is SUPPOSED to be,” explained Division Chief Eddie Buchanan of Hanover County (VA) Fire & EMS. In his “It’s All About Attitude” presentation, Buchanan challenged his audience “to go back to your department and lead with attitude!” It’s all about making a personal choice to change, to use your ‘crazy power’ to change the culture of the fire service, he said.. “You can take our fire service back so that generations to come can love it like we do!” Buchanan views that “renewed” fire service as one in which “we take care of each other in spite of our internal differences and stand shoulder to shoulder – personally, tactically, and even politically.”

To work, the attitude must be positive – an attitude that focuses on ways to make a difference, not on things that cannot be changed. And, warned Buchanan, it is easy to slip into a negative attitude without even realizing it. He related how he found himself “becoming the very thing I thought I stood against.” He was surprised to find “my attitude compass needed a little calibration.” He was complaining about his company, his division, his department. “How did I wind up like this?” he wondered.

Attitude can do many things, according to Buchanan. Among examples he cited were company officers’ ability to effect change not only in their own companies but also throughout the department and help members focus on safety. “We won’t see a significant reduction in line-of-duty deaths until we change the way we act, think, and feel about safety,” he stressed. To put it in perspective, Buchanan asked what the LODD numbers would look like “if attitude were listed as a contributing factor. Failure to wear PPE and SCBA, seat belts, poor accountability, lack of understanding of building construction and fire behavior – ALL ATTITUDE, OUR ATTITUDE!” he asserted. It’s ironic, he said, that firefighters “can muster the courage to run into a burning building and grin the whole time we’re doing it [and] yet we seem to struggle to find the courage to make a stand on issues like safety because it goes against the cultural norms.”

He likened attitudes to “open circuits, each swirling around, influencing or being influenced by others.” In a group of people, such as an engine company, he pointed out, the dominant personality or attitude would set the tone for the group and the others would follow that lead. “You need not hold rank to have the dominant attitude! You only need to be the dominant personality, and the negative attitude always seems to have the advantage,” Buchanan related.

Bad attitudes breed mistrust, skepticism, and rumors – all things that kill morale and productivity and are at the root of many of the issues that trouble us today, Buchanan pointed out. Attitude encompasses whatever affects the workplace, whether it be “initiations” that get out of hand (what about the duty to protect each other?) or treating recruits with respect and dignity.

How do you overcome the negative attitudes in your organization? Buchanan asked rhetorically. “You take it back to where the focus is on helping others and quality service. You take it back to where it’s about being a family and earning the title of firefighter and becoming a brother or a sister. You take it back to training, where you’re judged in this business by what you know, not whom you know.”

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