Confidence is a coveted trait. People recognize high confidence and are drawn to those oozing it as quickly as they calibrate those without. Confidence is a prerequisite for leadership and critical for safety on the fire ground. Fire departments are keen to hire confident people, balanced ones anyway – arrogance and under-confidence are problems in equal measure.
In this edition’s Trainer’s Corner, Ed Brouwer discusses how to develop confidence in your firefighters during training, which he says comes from practicing the actual performance, rather than just talking about the act. Be as hands-on as possible in all aspects. Experience counts, and as experience builds in layers, it sheds scales of self-doubt.
This hands-on nature of confidence building can be complimented by visualization. If you can see a difficult fire hall conversation taking place, and the outcome you desire, you are more likely to execute it with leadership, compassion and grace, knowing you have predicted the possible reactions and how you will handle them.
Confidence can also be bolstered by way of self-care, such as good sleep, and while I believe it puts you in a better place, it’s not the trigger for high confidence. You can be exercising barely-a-wit of self-care in your hectic life and still pull off a high-performance function with confidence if you genuinely believe you can do it. I do not mean to diminish or disregard best practices of holistic health with cynicism, but merely point out that a high level of confidence needs reflection, visualization and hands-on repetition. High-confidence people believe they can manage the emotional or physical ramifications of what they face; they’ll get through it. Often it’s failure and life’s less peachy parts that have taught them that.
But there seems to be much anxiety in the younger generations, and this is the kryptonite of confidence. A recent study from the University of Alberta found Millenials and Gen Z to be more anxious than previous generations: Half of surveyed millennials (24 to 39), said they left a job in part for mental health reasons and for Gen-Z (18 to 23), the percentage is 75, compared with just 20 per cent of the general population. The U.S. firm Harmoney Healthcare IT surveyed about 1,000 Gen-Zers of and found more than one in two are struggling daily due to anxieties about the future (most common), finances, work, social activities and relationships. As far as the cause of the anxiety, the general public tops out at No. 1, then crowds, bosses and coworkers, acquaintances and family.
It may be incumbent on fire service leaders to consider further their role in building confidence, a task that may emerge as significant for workplace culture as younger generations continue to come up through the ranks.
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