Are you familiar with psychologist Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? He taught that we humans have certain needs, and those needs are aligned in a pyramid formation. The most basic and important for survival are at the bottom, and the more psychological and fulfilling at the top.
The foundation begins with things like food, water, shelter. No problem. Next comes our safety. I have my health. I am not worried, too much, about being pillaged in my sleep. Then there is love. I’ve got a loving family, friends, and social connections. I am not a societal outcast. And then esteem. I believe I’m fairly respected in my circle. I usually feel good about myself. And finally, there is self-actualization, reaching your fullest potential in life. Uh oh. I think I just hit a snag!
The personal question of whether I reached my full career potential has been a thorn in my side since I retired from my first career department in 2018 as a lieutenant. Why is that? It is because my goal, from the beginning, was to retire as a captain, at least. The “what ifs” have been incessant! What if I had finished my degree like they asked? What if I had spent time on the heavy rescue? What if I had been more of a politician? What if I had been willing to work on more department projects uncompensated? What if I had kept my mouth shut more? What if I had opened my mouth more?
The question bothered me to a point that I actually researched how to reach your potential after retirement. What I discovered has brought me some needed relief. I imagine others have gone through the same insecurities, so I am writing this in the hopes of it helping you, too.
What is Self-Actualization About?
Self-actualization is not about rank. It is about your influences and how much impact you had in your career.
I have known firefighters and drivers and lieutenants who had wide influence in our department and impacted many through their mentoring and coaching. Firefighter Hank Hopkins was the consummate senior firefighter that every station officer needed to naturally take the new guys under his wing. Lieutenant Russell Wood trained a plethora of folks in pump operations, helping many of them to become engineers or just be able to pump competently on a fire. And coach Dale Hutson established the foundation for the fitness and health initiatives that Cobb County, Ga., firefighters benefit from today. Russell had one lonely bugle on his collar. Hank and Dale had zero, but they contributed mightily to improving others and the department!
I’ve worked for some awesome chiefs during my career. But I’ve also known some with a collar full of bugles that never contributed anything more than a dirty coffee cup in the sink every third day that someone else had to wash. Who came closer to reaching their full potential?
We should all desire to retire feeling like we gave our best. We contributed. We made our little corner of the world a better place for having been there. Having the benefit of mulling the topic over for some time now, I would like to offer some suggestions on how you can reach your personal potential:
Co-workers
Are you a team player? That does not mean you can never disagree with something jacked up a co-worker is doing. In fact, calling out bad behaviors, diplomatically and constructively, can be a great way to influence others.
Be a coach and a mentor around the station. If you know about a topic and you know you know about the topic, then share it.
This is true for everyone, but especially for company officers and those in leadership positions. Know your people and how to read them. Say you have a driver who is usually singing some old hair metal song when they roll into the station for shift. But today they are unusually reserved. Do you notice it? Do you ask about it? “Hey bro, you’re not singing Def Leppard this morning. Everything all right?”
They might just be tired and tell you everything is fine. Years later, when your name is brought up, they will remember you were the one who always had your finger on their emotional pulse. That is impact. That means something to people!
Subordinates
My career started in the ’80s and we were not very big on encouragement back then. One of my first company officers seemed to make it his intention to alienate me every shift, to shine a spotlight on my failures and insecurities. Then, when I went to work for Cobb County, we caught a high-rise alarm in the wee hours of the morning one shift. I climbed on the elevator with a crew from Station 19 and Lieutenant Van Cunningham, who immediately began telling me all the good things he had heard about me and how he was looking forward to working with me.
Both of these lieutenants made an impact on me, one negative and one positive. They both influenced me. What sort of influence do you want to be remembered for?
Community
You impact the community every time the tones drop, every time you start an IV, every time you help an elderly person off the floor at 2 a.m. But you can take it deeper if you want. You can teach fire safety, get involved in your department’s Community Risk Reduction Programs. You can teach CPR. If impacting the community appeals to you, find something you are particularly interested in or have a knack for. Take ownership and run with it. Create your own programs. Ask the department what you can do and make it your own!
Department
At the end of the day, helping your department simply means doing your job the best that you can. It means finding your niche and using your expertise to help others in the department reach their goals and be their best.
Good News and Bad News
The good news is your ultimate potential is not equated with your rank. You may never get that second bugle or third bugle, heck even your first bugle, but you can be a contributor. You can be a positive influence. You can have an impact!
The bad news is Maslow has deceived us. He makes it seem like attaining your full potential can be done. It cannot. The reality is we will never reach self-actualization. Why is that? It is because every time we come close, we have even more potential. When you finish your probationary period, you now have potential to mentor the next probie. When you make driver, now you can teach pumping to the station or in the training division. When you make lieutenant, now you can mentor your people toward their own promotions or simply grow to the point you realize when they are in a sour mood and be an ear.
You don’t feel like you had an impact. I bet you had more than you think you did!
