Grace Under Fire

     Question: You have organized a leadership meeting for your supervisors and part of what you have scheduled for them is a training session on incident management. But your system is no different than any other, and you have some serious day-to-day issues that would surely frustrate their adherence to NIMS. Being paramedics, they point that out to you—perhaps untactfully.

     The interruption catches you off guard, and you're a little irritated. You spent valuable sleep time planning this discussion of a topic you care about. It's one that fascinates you, and there's no arguing its importance.

     Answer: At the time of this writing, we're all engaged in a selection process for presidential nominees. As the number of candidates dwindles, we are seeing wide variation in their command of a gift we all hope to wield when we deal with people: grace. Grace isn't just a woman's name and it's more than an ancient spiritual notion, or a descriptor of physical balance in architecture, art, dancing or athletics. However considered, grace presupposes balance, and it absolutely depends on humility. If you're not graceful, you're clumsy in any sense. But grace does not imply weakness.

     We all know people who would never tolerate an interruption like the one described. There is a time to fight, of course. Ideally, you never get there. Go there too soon, and you're an aggressor. Do so verbally, and you come across like a thug. (Despite a classy pedigree, at least one president comes to mind.) Do it verbally or physically, and I think you'll prompt people to join forces against you.

     You can avoid that unfortunate outcome next time you're challenged by someone if you just ask yourself a simple question: Are they right? Answer it honestly (which is why we need to be humble), and respond accordingly. If you do that, you'll deserve people's respect—and you'll probably get it. Most people understand that leaders and their subordinates have two things in common: None of us are always right, and none of us are always wrong.

Thom Dick has been involved in EMS for 38 years, 23 of them as a full-time EMT and paramedic in San Diego County. He is the quality care coordinator for Platte Valley Ambulance Service, a community-owned, hospital-based 9-1-1 provider in Brighton, CO. Reach him at boxcar_414@yahoo.com.