I recently saw an inspiring video that made me think about the work we do as firefighters and company officers—the difficult work and challenging physical tasks that we find ourselves trying to complete: making a push down a hot hallway; finishing a roof ventilation cut in zero visibility at a top-floor fire; making a primary search on the second floor of a private dwelling for a missing child.
Some of us perform these tasks more often than others. Some firefighters are involved in jobs like this every time they go to work. Others might face these challenges once a month, and some of us only get to experience this kind of challenge once or twice a year. But the fact remains that when the time arrives to get the job done, we must perform.
Take a look at the title of this article: Ability + Encouragement = Performance. Ability is what we all have inside us. It’s the volume, quality and duration of what we can do. We are all different. We come in different sizes and weights, we have different lung capacities and varying amounts of muscle, fat and bone. We all have different skills and abilities, too. Some of us can force a door quickly with one tool and others cannot. Some of us can advance a hoseline faster than others can crawl without one. The fact that we have ability is unquestionable, but ability alone may not get the job done. So what else is there? Encouragement!
The right words
The video I watched was from the movie “Facing the Giants.” It was a football coach on the practice field with a group of young players. They were all looking pretty tired and beat. One of the boys made a comment about the team they were going to face in the next game. Another boy answered that they were a lot “stronger than we are.” The coach asked if he thought they could win, and the boy answered no. What followed was inspirational.
The coach asked that boy to come out onto the field and get on his hands and knees. He had another boy climb on the boy’s back, and the coach had this kid start to crawl across the field with a blindfold on (knees off the ground). The boy started quickly and made good progress. Then he started to slow down. The rest of the team was sitting on the grass hooting and hollering as the boy progressed. As he slowed, the coach, who was right there beside him, started to encourage him. His voice became louder and he got down on the grass and was crawling right next to the boy he was encouraging: “Don’t quit,” “You can do it,” “Ten more yards” and on and on he shouted. The boy was going slower and slower every foot that he traveled, but he did not stop. Several times he was on the verge of collapsing, and the coach would shout even louder for him to “Give me more!”
Eventually the boy collapsed onto the grass in exhaustion. The coach crawled up to him and said in a much softer voice, as he pulled off the blindfold, “Look, look how far you have gone.” The boy had crawled the length of the football field. He probably would not have made it even half way without the coach by his side, shouting those words of encouragement.
The fire connection
So what does this have to do with firefighters and company officers? Everything! That football player crawling across that field is the nozzle firefighter, and the coach is the company officer. What that coach was doing all the way across that football field is what company officers should be doing for their firefighters.
Sometimes firefighters think that the officer has the easy job carrying the flashlight while they have to pull the hose or force the door. No doubt it is less physically challenging, but the job they do is vital to the success of the company.
I can remember being one of two firefighters on a hoseline at a hot, smoky fire where we weren’t sure if we should continue down the hallway, until the officer began to encourage us with almost the same words that the coach used on the football field: “You can do it,” “Ten more feet,” “Don’t quit.” Those words, coming from that officer, made the difference that day. Sure, my partner and I had the ability to get the job done. We had the training required to complete that assignment, but at that particular moment, we needed a little something extra, and the officer provided it.
When you feel like quitting, remember this: Ability + Encouragement = Performance! You heard it here first!
