When I began my career as a Paramedic I never could have guessed that the leadership lessons I learnt from Emergency Services could be translated into the corporate world. However years later when I entered a leadership position in a large corporate I found myself drawing strongly from this experience. Here are 5 of my favorite tips:
- Leave the ego at home (it’s not wanted here)
When you’re a paramedic it’s very easy to develop an inflated image of yourself. After all you are performing life saving work right? The same is true about leaders in business. It’s easy to think that you are now the top dog and you don’t need to listen to anyone. Wrong. If fact this attitude will be your downfall as it prevents you from doing introspection which is vital to your growth as a leader. Egotistical leaders will struggle to admit their mistakes and will not be able to positively influence their staff. Be humble, it’s what the position calls for.
2. You have responsibilities here
Great, you’re a leader! Time to kick back and let everyone else do the work for a change right? Absolutely not. Going from doing individual work to being a leader is all about realizing how much responsibility you now have. It’s great to be a senior paramedic but when you get on that accident scene you have to know you are responsible for everyone and everything that happens. No more blame games, it’s just you.
3. Delegate or die
It’s pretty much impossible for one paramedic to deal with multiple patients who all need emergency attention. I mean they only have one set of hands. First time managers often make the mistake of trying to do it all to prove their abilities. However you are no longer an individual worker. You have a group of people to manage and you need to ensure that they are assisting you, especially in the day to day functions of your department.
4. If you panic, everyone panics
Imagine you were having a heart attack and the ambulance crew who arrived to assist you started to panic? That would be scary right? Your staff will always follow your lead. If you give them a manager who cracks under pressure and is inconsistent that is the way they will behave and it’s hardly productive. It’s okay to be scared, even worried, but be strong for your people.
5. Respect
The saddest thing I see in the corporate world is a lack of respect that sometimes extends even to the clients they serve. Part of being a leader is realizing you are definitely not the most important person in the business despite your job title. You could not operate without the people doing the grunt work or the lady who cleans the toilets. If your staff see that you don’t respect them or others then you have zero chance of them respecting you.
Written By JessicaB 