Читать книгу The 7 Minute Leadership Handbook - Paul Falavolito - Страница 5

I have never been a real fashionable kind of guy. Pretty much my entire life, I have been in some kind of uniform. When I am off work, I love to dress down and when I am at work, it's some kind of uniform. The fundamental facts support that there are societal standards we sometimes have to live by, especially in the business world. In my field, if we have facial hair, that means that our gas mask isn't going to seal properly in the event that we are deployed into an area where that life-saving equipment cannot fail. No facial hair, or properly groomed facial hair, in the business world means they want you to look professional and not like Grizzly Adams, because the aesthetic might not be right for their brand. Either way, grooming is something we have to pay attention to and commit time to doing. If we are going to do it, let's do it right, and no, I am not saying go out and buy thousand-dollar Gucci suits or Coach purses, but I am saying there are small things that matter. This is where that attention to detail thing becomes so important for leaders.

I realize everyone reading this book may not wear a professional uniform. The same one, the same look, day after day, but the same grooming rules apply. If you are that person that has the food stain on every shirt, jacket, and hoodie that you wear, then you obviously realize that isn't a good look, right? It is definitely not the look of a leader. I am not above getting the occasional food stain on my shirt, but I am prepared for it if and when it does happen. This leads me to this point.

Make an emergency kit for what you're wearing – Tide pens, Tide wipes, or whatever we are calling them these days, but have something so you can quickly fix it. If you have the luxury of having a locker or closet in your office, keep a spare shirt handy because there will come a time when you need it. Can we jump to shoes really quick? If you wear shoes that are meant to have a shine to them, then shine them. I see too many people walking around that look like they shined their shoes with a Hershey bar. It looks horrible, it looks sloppy, and more importantly, it looks like they just gave up. Certainly not the quality I look for in leaders.

If you wear clothing that is meant to be ironed or dry-cleaned, then by all means, make sure you treat your articles of clothing to that luxury. Nothing beats the look of a well-ironed shirt or blouse or the crisp look of a dry-cleaned pair of pants or jacket. The wrinkled, just-slept-in look usually works best for college students or reporters that live inside the media van fourteen hours a day. Did you know there is a magical thing called wrinkle release? It’s another great addition to your clothing emergency kit that you're going to make.

Do you carry scissors or a small Swiss Army knife? If you don't have one or carry them in your purse or pocket, do yourself the favor and grab one of those items. Those little strings that appear on your clothes out of nowhere, yeah, those things, we have to get rid of them as soon as they appear. Don't just pull on them – cut them. Some people have even burned them off, but I prefer the cut method. In the military, we referred to those little strings as Irish pennants. Don't ask me why; that's just what I grew up knowing them as. They are like the weeds that grow on clothing, and they are one of my biggest pet peeves. Before I put anything on, I look for the Irish pennants and I get rid of them immediately.

Again, the head-to-toe once-over of what you are going to wear for the day should take no longer than seven minutes to perfect. You want people to always have a positive image of you. They will notice the attention to detail you put into your outfit or uniform, and if you can perfect attention to detail on the small things like clothing, then you are going to be a master of attention to detail on the bigger things in life that really matter.

I can remember my attention to detail failure all too well. It was very early on in my paramedic career. We were dispatched to a house fire. We pulled up to the scene of the fire and parked almost directly behind the fire truck. We got out of the ambulance and pulled out the stretcher, placed the oxygen bag and jump kit on it, and positioned ourselves kind of off to the side. We needed to be as close as we could be in case one of the firefighters got injured. What we didn't expect was one of the neighbors to come and tap us on the shoulder and tell us that her husband was having chest pain and wanted to go to the hospital. We loaded him onto the stretcher and put him in the back of the ambulance. Guess what we couldn't do? If you guessed drive away, you would be correct. We were now trapped by the fire hose that was all over the street in every direction and the other police and emergency vehicles that were also parked. We were trapped and had to make the embarrassing radio call to the 911 dispatcher and have them send another ambulance because we had trapped ourselves in and couldn't go anywhere. When we originally pulled up on scene, we should have paid attention to the small details like where we were parking and that fact that in a few minutes, there would be hundreds of feet of fire hose in every direction. But we didn't, and in the end, the failure to pay attention to the small things cost us big time when it really mattered. Luckily for us, the other ambulance crew was right around the corner and with the help of a few police officers, we were able to lift the stretcher over the fire hose and wheel him to the other ambulance. Attention to detail on the small things will help you for the big things.