Knife Hand Strong!!

(By Kurmis - Own work, CC BY 3.0, Wikipedia)

When I was younger and playing collegiate and professional basketball, "leadership" focused on the direct and constant yelling of orders. This communication style was based on colorful language that cannot be repeated here with the yeller using the "knife hand." 

For those not familiar with the "knife hand" concept, I'll try to explain. 

1. Start with a very aggressive and totalitarian stance, bending slightly at the knee. 
2. Assume a look of anger and hate, like you are about to fight a bear. 
3. Extend your knife hand sternly with a slight bend at the elbow and thumb tucked into the palm with all fingers pointed in a definite strong straight line at the source of the problem, similar to a judo chop directed at a person who needs to be redirected with conviction and an expression of how they have completely and utterly let you down. (Abusive language usually comes around this point in a tone anger at the level of a jet taking off.) The idea of only tucking the thumb and keeping all other fingers pointed at the person is that they are the obvious mistake. If you were to roll the hand only pointing one finger, the other fingers would be pointing back at you as if you were to blame.

*I am not condoning the use of the knife hand, but it is a good reference point.*

Since taking the position as coordinator for my agency, I have wanted to fall to this style of leadership on multiple occasion; however, this would not grow my team or my end goal for my district. We may have changed from a volunteer fire district to a paid professional a long time ago, but we are still are growing pieces of our culture. More times than not, I have erred on the side of empathy with my team and district. I encouraged my team and myself to embrace that we are building something bigger and better. I can't knife hand the situation to be better. This culture and team dynamics must be built with empathy and a commitment to the individuals. Instead of orders and knife hands, have sit-down meetings and visits to explain and show direction. Yelling orders and knife handing people to do what we want is not leading. We have to lead our teams and agencies in the way that we would want to be led. The golden rule still stands “treat people the way you want to be treated.”

 

If we work to show people empathy and understanding rather than just trying to direct them with orders and demands, we begin to build a culture where people feel valued and safe. Through leading by example, our current leaders and future leaders will understand that our culture is growing people.

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Christopher Ayer is a Firefighter/Firefighter Type 1/Paramedic for Corona De Tucson Fire Department in Tucson, Arizona. The expressions and views are those of the author.