How did I get here?

The only day that was tolerable was Tuesday.

The only reason was because it was my Captains kelly day along with a couple other pain in the ass coworkers.

A few of us actually called it “Super Tuesday”.

Every other duty day was filled with the Captain plotting to get a couple of the others in trouble. All because he did not like them. If he wasn’t doing that he was sleeping in his room since we only saw him at meal times and on calls.

Meanwhile the other difficult personalities started arguments over issues that never mattered.

If it wasn’t one thing it was another. The conversation usually ended with both shouting back to each other “NO, i’ll write you up”.

WTF!

Before this station assignment, I was with fun crews with respected fire officers.

Who did I piss off to get this assignment?

This was the first time in my career that I actually thought about promoting.

I mean if this jack ass can be a Captain, anybody can.

First things first though. I had to become an Engineer.

How was I going to prepare though? Captain Awesome was no help.

I was stuck. Trying to teach myself something I did not know.

The only thing that saved me is when I met up with a buddy of mine on another shift to work with him and his crew.

This was the only reason I passed the promotional test.

This lead me to realize what I had to do in order to become better. I had to learn from those who had already done what I wanted to achieve.

I got promoted to Engineer…even though I was last on the list.

I was excited though. A had a new Captain with a new crew.

I couldn’t wait for the training and development I would receive.

I can still remember the day I went to my Captain and asked for some forcible entry training.

You see his response changed my perspective forever.

John: “Hey Capt, how about we do some forcible entry training? I would really like to be better”.

Capt: “Any type of training like that, you’ll have to get on your own. The department doesn’t provide that kind of training”.

Wait! What?! To me, I wasn’t asking the department, I was asking my Captain. So either he didn’t want to help or he did not know how to put on the training.

Either way, waiting for my leadership to provide the training I wanted wasn’t working.

I had to seek it out myself.

Unfortunately, YOU can probably relate to my story.

I took the path less traveled.

I signed up for a forcible entry class that some firefighters in the county were offering.

At this training, I met guys just like me but way more passionate and more skilled at our craft.

By the end of the training my buddy and I were forcing doors in zero visibility in a scenario setting.

WOW, was our confidence up afterwards.

Not only that, but we were more passionate about our job also.

WEIRD.

All we did was take a training class that made us more skilled.

It ended up making us happier and more enthusiastic about our job.

This started a habit for me.

I would go on to take more classes and trainings.

Which ultimately shaped how I do things today.

I packaged all the good stuff I learned, my trial and errors, and my success stories in one spot.

In 2009, I started diving into going after my own professional development.

After a few classes and conference, this really became an obsession of mine.

I started reading every book written by great firefighter leaders. I attended hands on conferences and classes. All taught by the guys who were doing things right and making an impact.

Well all this training lead me to keep pushing myself at the firehouse.

Once I finally made Captain (took me two tries), I put everything I had learned into play.

and guess what?

It worked.

In fact it worked so well, that I wanted to share it.

This lead to the creation of “Brotherhood Coaching”.

Also, my book “Fix Your Firehouse”.

I was able to change the culture of my department just within my firehouse.

This all started when I took ownership of me.