Counseling and Discipline

            It should not really be a surprise that what works in regular relationships should also work in a professional setting. The idea of listing to your people should be a no brainer. While it is hard sometimes to not give your input I do agree with Richard Marinucci that sometimes all the person needs is to vent. Having them say what they need to say is often times a great relief, it is one of the main aspects of professional counseling. Like the article also said is that logic rarely mixes with emotion. This I think is a huge takeaway in the aspect of not giving advice unless they ask for it. They are not in the right mind set to be receptive to it if they do not ask.

            In regards to discipline I believe that fairness and uniformity is key. If two people break the same rule then they should be dealt with in the same manner. To many times have I seen two people do the same thing and one received a more severe punishment. This seemed to be because of the relationship with the superior. In my mind this is not acceptable and will breed disdain. As a leader we need to make sure everyone is playing by the same rule book. While this may be hard to do if you are the boss of a friend it is still needed, and once the punishment is done most of the time the relationship will be back to normal. As always whenever someone needs to be disciplined use it as a learning experience and counsel them through the situation so that it will not happen again. 

To be or not to be a good leader it’s up to you

            Certain things are brought to light every so often, some good some not so much. As I am a stubborn person and a bit of a perfectionist at times for me I usually see them as the latter. This being said it still needs to be noted that being a good leader is not just looking at how I can improve others but how can I improve myself. For years I thought of this as improving myself to help others, until one day it hit me in the face like a sack of bricks. I needed to improve my inner self so that it was possible to better help others. This might seem like a no-brainer to some people but for me it was a wake-up call, I do not put myself first hardly ever and because of that I would start to get burnt out. Along with that I have a hard time expressing my concerns without coming off like a jerk. It was not all that surprising to look at my test results and have those traits confirmed.

            I have never been good at being politically correct, personally I think it is a shame that we have to be. Being politically correct makes us hide what we truly think. However, in today’s society, where most everyone’s feelings can get hurt at the drop of a hat, learning how to be politically correct is an essential skill to have. Over the years I have begun to learn to shut my mouth in certain circumstances, but not all, and for me it is a skill I need to develop further and with an unprecedented quickness. My other big skill that I need to practice more is counseling, this includes professional, and personal. By professional I am referring to guiding people to achieve their working goals, and also with issues working that they may have that they do or do not see. Personal counseling is when someone comes to talk to me about a problem at home or just with themselves. I feel that a leader should be able to do both effectively so that working towards the companies goals will not be hindered. I have a fair amount of experience in counseling, yet it is a skill that always needs to be worked on. 

How we satisfy the needs that drive us.

While Maslow’s Hierarchy at face value seems like an overall life task list I see it in many more facets. Consider the hierarchy a building block. No one builds a house with just one block, well unless you live in a cave. To build a house it takes many if not hundreds of blocks. The house representing your life and each block is another piece; such has job, family, and so forth. With each aspect you can apply Maslow’s ideas.

Take your job for instance the physiological factors that go into it are having a job, being able to go to your job. Safety will you keep your job. Love, relationships, do you get along with your coworkers. Esteem, is it satisfying. Lastly self-actualization, do you want to do more than you are and help others. Over all if any of these pieces are missing the chance of self-actualization are minimal.  Herzberg would call it motivation and that may be more appropriate in the job sense.

Herzberg breaks down the base layer into a lot of pieces. While more may be better to reach a state of motivation I do not believe they all have to be present all the time. Some may come and go and the end result will not be affected. To stick with the house analogy it would be like remolding a house as long as not to much is taken away no one really notices.

While Herzberg’s ideas may seem like a ladder to climb I see it more like a bunch of items that are needed to succeed, once again not all have to be present but the more the better chance of being motivated.

All in all both equate to getting on a track to not get burnt out at your job or in life. Personally I find more truth in Maslow’s ideas. 

Pride and Ownership

Lasky evokes a series of emotions throughout his article. Most of which are familiar or identical to ones that I felt as I served in the Army. Pride is an ever-essential part to have job satisfaction. Even though we are told that all pride is bad and everyone is equal. That is just crap. We are all different and we should have pride in that, especially if we feel that or is proven that our station or crew is better than another one. Now being a cocky and trying to peacock is another story. No one likes the show off, yet that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t show off our achievements. Like Lasky says, “let them have the company logos” that is a proven way to build esprit de corps without being a showoff. I also believe that pride is the building block for enthusiasm and motivation. Without it enthusiasm and motivation will have died and be non-existent by the time the job is done. It may be cheesy, but I love the idea of working to help someone. It is the reason I joined the Army and it is the main reason I wanted to become and EMT. The sense of community is also something that is hard to come by in a mainstream job. There is no brotherhood working in an office, yet with the fire and EMS service the bonds that are created are very strong. While there may be bad days or ones that your would just rather forget the one thing that you can always count on is the man and woman standing next to you will always have your back.