Gordon Graham here – and once again, thank you for taking the time to visit my little corner of this website – and for all your work in fire service operations. I met many of you at the CFED event in Palm Springs last month and I was so impressed with how you are keeping America safe.

The title of this piece was designed to catch your attention – but for those of us over fifty, it may be a thought you have had yourself. I picked it up from my Dad a long time ago and it became a joke between us – never pass up a restroom. And every now and then, I will violate that rule – most recently in an airport when I just wanted to get in my car and go home – and about half way home I was wishing I would not have violated that “rule.”

So with that theme of “never passing up a restroom” – here are a couple of other things that I try “not” to miss – because all too often it was a fleeting opportunity that you may not have again. So in no particular order, here are some thoughts.

Never pass up the opportunity to thank people for their work. I try to do this at airports when I see women and men in a military uniform. And here is a thought. Ask that soldier or sailor or Marine if you can buy them lunch. You will be amazed at the response.

I try to thank the great people I work around at Lexipol. I tried to do this when I was with the State Patrol. I am saddened to hear from people that the only time they hear from bosses or co-workers is when something went “wrong” and I have a problem with that.

Never pass up an opportunity to recruit for your profession. I wrote about this in an earlier iteration of this column, and I try to do this as often as I can and I know some of you do also. I was in Grand Rapids last week and when I got out of my ride to the airport, there was a security guard – a young guy watching traffic. It took just a moment to tell him that I was impressed with his vigilance and since I recruit for the CHP, I asked if he was interested in a career in law enforcement (in an area devoid of snow). And, that the CHP was always looking for good people and here is a card with some website information. This brief conversation ended up in a follow up email from him and hopefully it will lead to something.

Never pass up the opportunity to encourage kids to stay in school and work hard. Whenever I see a teen or young twenty-something reading a textbook – if the opportunity presents itself I will inquire about what they are studying and what they are going to do with that education. Amazingly, I have never been rebuffed and they seem genuinely grateful that someone cares enough to ask.

Never pass up an opportunity to give someone a break in traffic. This is a common courtesy that many have forgotten. If you see someone trying to merge or change lanes in front of you – how much time do you really lose by allowing them to get in front of you? Sure, this might backfire occasionally. I remember once on Lakewood Boulevard that I gave a Douglas Corporation vehicle (this was some time ago) an opportunity to leave the driveway from a parking lot. He blocked my lane with his vehicle and allowed all of the other cars in the lot to pass him on the right side and get into traffic. It took a couple of minutes out of my day – and I did not do that again when I was in a similar situation, but in retrospect it was not that big of a deal.

Never pass up an opportunity to tell a supervisor about the good work of an employee. Say you are at a restaurant and you get great service from a waitperson. You might “tip” a little extra – but say something to the host or hostess also – or ask for the owner and tell him or her about your observation. I don’t think a lot of people do that – and I base that statement on conversations I have with the owners of establishments. It costs nothing to do this and who knows how it will impact the employee’s life.

Never pass up the opportunity to thank the pilot on the way out of the airplane for a safe flight. In talking to pilots over the years, very few people acknowledge their work and that brief comment is so much appreciated.

Never pass up the opportunity to mention to a harried mom (or dad) how well-behaved their kids are in a restaurant – that is if in fact the kids are well-behaved. There are so many kids acting like jerks in restaurants (and on planes and other public places) and there is nothing you can really do about them – but telling the parents who are making the extra effort that their kids are well-behaved might help them through the day.

Never pass up the opportunity to acknowledge the “safe” behavior of a co-worker. We take it for granted that our co-workers are doing things right to prevent bad things from happening, but that quick mention about the way they backed up the rig or secured the brake or whatever will ratify their behavior and thus encourage future good behavior.

Never pass up the opportunity to thank a teacher for all they are doing to get kids ready for the future. America has some huge challenges in this regard – and the people who are transferring knowledge from one generation to the next are oftentimes not appreciated.

Never pass up the opportunity to compliment someone on their weight loss. I lost of ton of weight (well, not a ton) years ago and I have been fortunate enough to keep it off and every now and then someone will say something nice and I appreciate that.

Never pass up the opportunity to (fill in the blank).

I would love to hear from you about your thoughts on this – and if you have a “filler for the blank” – let me know about it and I will share it with others.

I am also aware that there are some very odd people in the world that may be greatly offended by your comment – but they are the rare ones and there is usually some “clue” that they are odd and it might be best if you just passed them by.

But as you go through your day and you have contact with – and here is my list from yesterday if you care – my wife, the staff at my office, the gardener, the teller at the bank, the bank manager, the hostess at Denny’s, the waitress, the cook, the woman with the well-behaved kid in the booth next to us, the kid at the gas station, the shuttle driver at the airport, the woman on the shuttle bus with the well-behaved kid, the TSA person, the woman taking the ticket at the jet bridge, the pilot, the flight attendant, the Hertz guy at the desk, the Hertz guy in the lot, the hotel clerk, the waitress and the security guard at the elevator here in the hotel – each of these “comments” took less than five seconds and I really do believe they make a difference.

And how do I know that? And what was the genesis of this topic today? When I checked into the hotel here in Reno last night, the woman at the front desk slid my Amex Card through and then turned the card over to check the signature. And being a good “risk manager” I have “Demand Photo ID” in the signature box – and she then looked at me and asked for photo ID and I thanked her for doing that and she was somewhat taken aback.

In our quick conversation (and there was no line behind me) she told me how offended some people get when she asks for ID when people have “Demand Photo ID” printed on their credit card. So why on earth would you write “Demand Photo ID” on the back of your credit card if in fact you did not want them to “Demand Photo ID?” Indeed, there are some odd people in our world.

Hey, that is it for me today. I hope this column brought a smile to your face and reinforced what you are already doing. And for all of you in my age range, remember the sage advice contained in the title of this piece. And again, my thanks to you for all you are doing and have done to keep us safe. And I really do mean that!

Gordon Graham
Co-President, Lexipol

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 12:49 pm and is filed under FD Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.