The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - Leverage Differences in Your Team | FF26

Episode Date: July 16, 2021

Our children, our fire engine crews and our project teams are filled with people that have various strengths. As leaders we have opportunity to leverage the best in each of these people and build cohesion amongst them.

Hey everybody, Kevin Pinnell. Welcome to Foundations Friday 26. Leverage the differences in your team members. This week I actually was inspired to share this thought as I thought of my three sons. I have three boys, a teenager, a 10-year-old and an 8-year-old. So 15-year-old, 10-year-old, 8-year-old. And they're different. And that's great. And I thought of each of them and their traits. And my oldest son, he gets after in the gym. He does sports. He's a leader to his little brothers. There's a four-year difference, almost five full ones.

And so he's always kind of he's bigger, faster, and stronger. He's older. He has more experience. So he's one kind of archetype of a team member or a crew member if you're on an engine or a squad or whatever capacity that is. And then my 10-year-old isn't quite as athletically gifted except his arm he can throw really good. But he's super book smart and he soaks up knowledge and can just recall that information. And then my youngest is the just getting after it has some natural athletic talents, but he doesn't have the experience or the knowledge. So one, I as a dad try and help build them up. My oldest, again, he does great with him.

I try and help him with some leadership tips on being a leader with his brothers. And, you know, he's a teenager now, but he does a great job at that. And so, but my 10-year-old is in the middle, right? And for all you middle children out there, I'm the youngest, so I don't know what this is, and my wife is as well. But for all you middle children out there, I heard it's pretty hard, right? You don't get the attention of the baby. You weren't the first like the first. You're kind of in the middle.

And he's feeling that. and he's feeling that, and he's feeling that he's not quite as fast, even as his younger brother, um, or his older brother. And he's at a tough spot. And then my youngest is just again, getting after it. He just doesn't have the experience and the knowledge is the other one. So then it made me think about, you know, our teams, our project teams, our, crews, our squads, or different areas covered in precinct, our medic crews, all those kind of things of, there are similar archetypes in each of those, right? So think of, and I'm more familiar with firing MS, or even the crews, you know, corpsmen or teams in the hospital working cases and stuff, but let's go with an

engine crew. So you've got your leader, right. That has the experience, has the time in, um, hopefully they're getting after it, right. For all the first responders out there of, of all, you know, phases that we're getting after it, we're staying healthy, but they have the knowledge. They're the leader. They've been around a little bit longer. Um, they are, you know, should be pretty strong and fast and know how to use that speed more. And then on the crew, you could have your thinker, your intellectual. They can still get the job done. They still can do more than the minimum physical standards, but really smart. It made me think of like a driver pump operator or the engineer, depending on what department you call it. You have to know the pressures and flows

and what tools do what on the thing. So it made me think of my middle son who can recall this information after he's read it and learn things. And then you've got your new young firefighter or even maybe recruits or police officer. They're fast, right? They have natural abilities. They've learned a little something, but they don't have the experience that the other folks do. And then you think of a project right into me, and I'm in healthcare technology. So I think of, okay, the experienced person that's been around for a while, they have the muscle memory, they have more experience, they've done this before, thinking of your manager, your senior leader, or your sponsor, right? Sometimes also,

depending on like, I'm a senior project manager. So I've been around a little bit, but really thinking, for me, that the more senior leader or the director kind of folks that have that leverage, have that knowledge and the ability, and then the folks, your technical folks, right, who have some experience or a lot, but they have very much technical knowledge, that strength that we can draw on. They may not be used to as much working in different situations and being more dynamic as like the project manager or the sponsor that's been around for a while or other leaders. And then you have your person maybe that's new coming on that has some skills that's really eager to help. And there's a place for each of those people on the project. And there's a place for us as project managers or product

owners or program managers or lieutenants of an engine or captains of a firehouse or sergeants of your squad or precinct or whatever, whatever kind of leadership capacity to think about all the different attributes that your people have and help them work with each other to feed off each other for the more experienced that are used to being a more dynamic and maybe have even in some instances, physical attributes to help those that don't. So helping the folks that are really deep thinkers, really smart, help them build their physical attributes up. They can help then us, you know, that maybe don't know as much, learn some things. And then there's new folks that are just eager and have that drive and want to get after it. We need to help build their experience. We need to help bring them up, give them opportunities, not shut them out,

not be like, oh no, this is just for management or whatever, right? Other than some conversations where you get maybe deep into money or have HR issues, most of the conversations on a project or in a program I think should be transparent. So thank you so much for listening to this episode 26, you know, taking advantage of the differences in your, in your people on your teams. It, it, it is, it makes a big difference when you incorporate everyone where you can get a really, you know, in how people experience their lookout, their outlook, their motivation, all that kind of stuff. When you can get them to work together, the teams will gel, they'll feed off each other, they'll build each other up, just like you've helped build up the show. And I really appreciate that. And I hope you all are getting ready to have a great weekend

and get some rest or get after it, whatever you do. If you're out there working, stay safe out there. Maybe check out some previous episodes. They're on all the platforms, Apple, Spotify, Google Play, Amazon, a bunch of other places. Check out pupilprocessprogress.com. Get a hold of me at pupilprocessprogress at gmail.com if you want directly. Also on the Instagram and Facebook. So thank you all so much. Please stay safe out there.

Wash those hands and Godspeed.