My father was a paramedic and a firefighter. Looking back I can remember watching him pull out his boots and a box of boot polish gear to shine his boots. Maybe not every single shift, but he never went to work with scuffed up, muddy, tattered boots. His pants and shirts always had creases and his hair was neatly combed (whatever was left of it). He was proud of what he did, he was proud of himself, and he would never betray the hard work he had done over the years by looking like a slob who did not take what he did seriously. Regardless of how he personally felt about his bosses, the organization, or his life’s circumstances he always ensured that he portrayed himself as a professional who took the job seriously and paid attention to detail.
I cannot say that this is commonplace in a lot of organizations that I have seen since I have been on the job. In fact, it is hard to say that there is a ton of visible pride out there beyond what may be written on the cab of the truck. Call me old fashioned, but pride and attention to detail are large parts of the professionalism that we aim to be known for.
How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything
As it pertains to a physical appearance/presentation tells people (your patients, your teammates, and your leadership) three things:
You can prioritize effectively
You have good time management skills
You plan effectively.
I’m going to say it again, how you do anything is how you do everything. If you put in a half-hearted effort on your physical appearance then people have zero expectation that you will approach your job like a professional. If you cannot take care of your own personal appearance (note I did not specify physique) , how can anyone reasonably expect you to take care of a million dollars worth of equipment, or the people you load into it? You leadership can assume that you are there to punch in, punch out, and get a paycheck. If you do not prioritize having a clean and well-prepared uniform, to include shined boots, you will not prioritize ensuring that your rig is clean and has everything on it that it is supposed to have. If you do not leave yourself enough time in a 24 hour period to physically take care of yourself (maintaining physical fitness/nutrition/hydration) and prepare for the day ahead (prepare uniforms and duty gear), then you will not leave yourself enough time to take care of yourself amid the grind and distraction of a 12 or 24 hour EMS shift. Meaning, you will crap out when you can least afford it. Sustaining yourself for a 24 hour shift takes an immense amount of preparation and pre-planning, which requires a large investment in time management.
Your leaders are not looking for perfection. They are looking for the effort. There is a really good chance that your initial education program did not stress any of these things. In fact, the minimum acceptable standard likely was that you wore the correct polo to the clinical experience site and that it was tucked in. Anything other than that, was purely extra.
The effort is all that is needed. Just try…
It’s not hard. You just have to care about doing your best… in everything. I’m talking about doing your best. I am not talking about making the boss happy. I am certainly not talking about conforming to the group norms in an attempt to make yourself more likeable. I am talking about putting forth the incredible effort required to be the best at what you do so that you can do the best that you are absolutely capable of.
Operating at your best begins and ends with attention to detail. Paying attention to the smallest, seemingly insignificant details… like shined boots. If people look at you and it is obvious that you do not care about how you present yourself as a professional; as an embodiment of what your team/organization stands for, then they can have no reasonable expectation that you have put in any effort to prepare or perfect your execution of your craft… and lives depend on your preparation and attention to detail. It is quite literally life and death.
Let me unpack what looking being a slob will not do for you:
It will not inspire confidence in your skills. Because you will not do the prep work necessary to be proficient. This requires more effort than shining boots and ironing your pants.
It will not inspire confidence in your ability to take command of a situation and lead. Because you cannot lead yourself. Folks will likely look right past you and toward someone who looks prepared and up to the task.
It does not set the bar very high for your performance, and therefore you will settle for being less than you could be.
That last bullet will have the single greatest negative impact on you and your career. It is the reason why caring about the small details matters. When you do not set the bar for performance very high for yourself, your leaders will only reward you for mediocrity. When you are rewarded for mediocrity (which is known as a “breathing raise”), it reinforces the mediocre behavior and you will begin to be conditioned to seek only the rewards that require the minimal effort. Soon you have a resume full of participation trophies and no real demonstrable advancement of yourself and your career. Good luck getting promoted at that point. It is not impossible but highly unlikely in a truly competitive promotional process.
The impact of low expectations cannot be overstated. Yes, people in this profession (likely a supervisor or manager) look down on people who do not take care of the small things. When that bar is low (by your own doing), you will not get the needed opportunities to prove yourself. You will not get the tough assignments that showcase your greatness and acumen for the job. You will not get promoted to leadership positions when it is obvious you cannot/will not lead yourself. You will have no idea what excellence feels like because you will never get close enough to it to know. You will never realize your full and true potential.
Close Out
The bottom line is this, it is incredibly difficult for people to take you seriously when it is obvious that you do not take yourself seriously. The smallest details have the greatest impact. Sitting in your living room the night before a shift and shining your boots, pressing your uniform, and putting in the effort to lead yourself to do the little things when it seemingly does not matter will have a huge impact on your career. The crazy thing about this is that it requires no special skills, talent, or knowledge. Pay attention to the details that your peers (who will later be your competitors for promotion) are taking for granted. Be the standard that they will be measured against.
