I was riding my bicycle to town the other day past a familiar church signboard, and another message caught my attention. It said: "Those who shine from within do not need a spotlight."
I started thinking about those who always seek attention for themselves — why they do it, what effect this behavior has on the larger group, and how this applies to the fire service.
On one level, fire service culture is the opposite of self-serving attention seeking. There was an unwritten rule on my department that if you got your picture in the newspaper, you had to buy ice cream for the station. It was a joke, but it reinforced the understanding that on emergency scenes, individual achievement did not matter. It was all about the team.
That rule did not mean that we lacked people who sometimes enjoyed being the center of attention. Being the focal point often manifested in positive ways: these people were the best storytellers or the most skilled instructors.