The 7 Minute Leadership Handbook. Paul Falavolito
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thoughts and ideas. When that is done, I will stop and look at the page and find the ones that are the most realistic to achieve with the resources I have or the resources that I need and I start to make the connection to the main idea on the top of the page. One of the other brainstorming sessions I like to host is gathering team members around a table and just making a single statement and letting everyone just speak out whatever comes to mind, regardless of how silly or impossible it sounds. It makes for a fun session with a lot of laughs and wishful thinking. You would be surprised how some of those wishful thinking ideas turn into realities when you put your minds and resources together.
Fourteen years ago during a board meeting, we were having a brainstorming session and singing the blues about not having as much money as we would like to have. We had some big projects and goals we wanted to achieve and some upgrades to some of the ambulance base resources. I can remember we desperately were in need of a portable generator. I made the comment out loud and word-for-word, it went exactly like this, "If we were smart, we would take every penny we have in the bank and hire an agent in New York and pitch them the idea of doing an EMS reality show, because the things that go on here would be very entertaining to the public." Of course, everyone laughed and said, "Great idea."But it wasn't going to happen. A little while later, I started doing these video blogs because I was traveling all over the country and I wanted work colleagues, friends, and family to see where I was and what I was doing. I created a YouTube channel and posted the videos. It became very popular pretty quickly. One specific situation occurred during one of our Search and Rescue training weekends.
In the Laurel Highlands, just east of Pittsburgh, is where we conducted our weekend training sessions. At the time, we had a thirty-four foot slide out FEMA trailer that we used as our Mobile Command Center. For this particular winter training weekend, Murphy's law was about to strike and strike hard. We towed the trailer up to the training site. The truck we used to tow the trailer broke down in the process, but we managed to get the trailer to the site and conduct the training. One of the guys drove the trailer back to Pittsburgh and dropped it off at the dealer to get repaired and we were told it would take a few days. The plan was to lock up and leave the trailer there when we were done. On the last night of training, something mechanical happened to the mobile command vehicle and we lost all power. All of the team members decided to leave the training a day early because we had no power in the command vehicle. Myself and one of the other team members decided to stay with the sinking ship. Of course it was freezing that night, and in an effort to create some kind of entertainment for ourselves, we decided to video the whole thing. The next day, the truck that had initially broken down was repaired early and came back to pick up the command vehicle. We returned back to the ambulance base cold and anxious to upload this new video. One week later, a U-Haul truck backed into the ambulance base and the driver was knocking on my office door asking me to sign for the delivery. We didn't order anything, and I couldn't figure out what it was. I went down to the garage and read the note on the packing slip. Enjoy your new portable generator and thanks for making us laugh on YouTube. It was signed the "X" family, White Oak, Pa. The generosity of people is truly amazing.
Challenge 10 (Stop Procrastinating)
Stop reading this right now. Since you didn't listen, I will give you another chance after you hear me out. I recently interviewed one of my Emergency Management mentors for an episode of the Emergency Management podcast that I host. His name is Kelly McKinney from New York. During the interview, he made a very powerful statement to me. We were discussing the book that he authored and he said that "Everyone has a book to write inside of them; you just have to start." The same applies to starting a project, your day, or just doing something that you keep putting off. So whatever that is, stop reading and just go and start it.
There is that great Navy SEAL video online where the commander is giving a speech at a commencement and he mentions making your bed every morning and how you will feel better because you will have accomplished your first task of the day and it will make the rest of the tasks easier to accomplish. I love that video and the message behind that because it is true. We all get caught up in the routine of life. For most of us, that routine is all too familiar and can make it very difficult to start something new. I always say that I come to work every day with a list of things I want to accomplish and within minutes of walking through the door, I am onto a new list of things I am doing because of the unpredictable nature of the field I work in.
For me, I have my entire week sketched out. I know what days are my social media days for social media posts and strategies, and I also know what days are my admin days where I will work on policy and procedure. I make time for strategic planning days and employee counseling days. The trick is being able to accomplish those things and making sure all of your ducks are in a row so you can stick to your plan. When I used to be a professional scuba diving instructor I would always preach, "Plan your dive, and dive your plan." That fundamental is taught to every basic open water diver from day one and when I was teaching diving in places like Mexico and the Bahamas, I would often have to rescue divers who failed to adhere to that basic rule. When you don't have a plan or can't stick to your plan, depending on your type of business, it can cost your company money and loss of productivity. In the hiking world, mountain climbing world, and scuba world, it can cost you your life.
Teaching scuba all over the world was a dream come true for me – something I honestly never thought would become a reality. I would lead dive trips to some very exotic locations. One in particular was in the Bahamas. I had a boat full of twelve divers for this particular day at sea. It was set to be a two-tank dive and the divers were broken up into groups. Each group had to have an instructor with them because of the dangerous area we were diving in. In this particular location, the underwater currents were particularly bad just past the reef. Each group was briefed at least three times prior to getting in the water to incorporate this no dive zone into their dive plan. I took my group into the water and spent about thirty minutes exploring the reef and then got back on-board. No issues. I will never forget the sound of one of the other instructors hitting the surface and screaming to the boat that he couldn't find one of the divers in his group. One by one, they all came back onto the boat. It was confirmed that one was missing. The remaining instructors all grabbed their gear and dove back in to perform an underwater search. The captain and dive master would scan the horizon with binoculars, looking for a distress signal from the missing diver. We searched until our air was low and surfaced. No luck from the underwater search team. When we got back on board, the captain said he didn't see anything either. Our hearts were heavy, fearing this would be a day we would never forget. A short time later, the radio crackled. It was the captain from another charter boat, far away from our location: "Is anybody missing a diver?" Our captain quickly verified this was our guy. Thankfully, he was alive and okay. Guess what happened to him? He went into the no dive zone and the current carried him far away. Plan your dive and dive your plan!!!
Procrastination is the great excuse, and it's just that. It's an excuse for why you can't succeed. Having a plan for the day is one of the single most important things you can do as a leader. So if you want to win or be successful, it all starts with you. Get after it – we all have a book to write; we all have goals to achieve, so stop procrastinating. Take seven minutes out of your day when you read this and pick something off your list of things you have been putting aside and start doing it.
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