When the Floor is Dirty, Pick Up the Broom

You are never too important to get something done.

When you are a firefighter, you spend a lot of your time not fighting fires. Even in a big city, things aren’t constantly burning down and the medical calls and commercial alarms let up for hours or days on end. At that point, the firefighting work boils down to a few things:

1. Training

2. Equipment Management

3. Firehouse Cohabitation

The value of training and equipment management is obvious, but firehouse cohabitation is actually more important than both of those things. The way the firehouse operates in between calls and other chores is what lays the basis for the strength of the team. Without a strong team, it doesn’t matter how tight your training drills are or how clean the equipment is. A weak team isn’t even worth the weight of the gear they are carrying because they will fall apart when they need to use it.

When I left professional firefighting, the training knowledge and the equipment management didn’t follow me into my career in SecurityTech. What came with me into the office was the lessons I learned from the day-to-day of maintaining the firehouse.

No One is Too Important to Sweep the Floor 🧹

As I mentioned, a lot of time in firefighting is spent laying in wait, staying prepared to head out at a moment’s notice. That means cooking food, staying alert, and keeping the place clean. The last of those is where the strength of the team is built.

The team is built around keeping the place clean because there are inevitably people who like to cook, and staying alert involves chatting or watching a movie with a pot of coffee and the radios turned up. Easy enough and enjoyable enough.

But no one likes cleaning. And no one feels like it is their job to sweep the floors or wipe down the tables.

This is why my first firehouse had a saying: “No one is too good to sweep the floor”.

That meant all the things you would imagine: That we were all in it together, we were all part of the team, and that even the chief wasn’t above the smallest tasks that it takes to keep the operation running.

But, no one being above sweeping the floor comes with an important follow-up. If you see the floor needs sweeping, pick up the broom and sweep it.

The ethos of picking up the broom and getting the job done brings the team together because it immediately shifts everyone’s perspective from wondering “Who is going to do this for the team?” to “I am going to do this for the team”. And when everyone is acting from a place of “I am going to handle this for the team”, everyone can be trusted to get things done and to have each other’s back. It shows that everyone is there to support as well as be supported, and no one is their to ride on the hard work of others.

Having this mutual trust is essential to go into any fire and come out the other side, and the same can be said for a corporate crisis. If your team is not built on trust, your outcomes are going to be the product of self-interested actions. Everybody will act in the way that best serves them, not in the way that best serves the team, and the end product will be weaker as a result.

So, how can a leader build a team that is mutually trusting and intrinsically supportive?

The answer is shockingly simple.

It all goes back to picking up the broom.

Lead By Example: Sweep the Floor

If you are a firefighter and you walk in to find your captain or chief sweeping the floor, you might think twice about asking “Who’s gonna sweep the floor?” when you see some dust. Seeing someone who outranks you sweep the floor makes it very clear that you are not “above” sweeping the floor. They aren’t, so neither are you.

So, as a leader, “picking up the broom” and taking on a task that people often avoid will cure the “out loud” part of your team thinking they are above certain tasks.

But will it cure the team from everyone thinking they are above a task and just waiting around for someone else to do it?

Honestly, yes. But it might take a little longer.

This is where “pick up the broom” becomes a tool for really building the culture of your team.

Ripple Effects and Virtuous Cycles

If you continuously “pick up the broom” as a leader, that will be an example to your team that leaders do what needs to be done, regardless of whether it is the highest or lowest level task. The message that comes with this association between leadership and service is that anyone who wants to be a leader needs to serve.

With this in mind, team members will start to pick up the broom. And, as more and more people start to serve the team and do what needs to be done, even more will follow along. Most people genuinely want to help those who help them, and no one wants the reputation of not helping out.

A leader who picks up the broom kicks off a chain reaction of volunteerism that will drive not only better team cohesion, but also better results. When everyone is working to support the team, the numbers will show it.

Positive Byproducts

In the firehouse, the daily tasks rarely change. In the corporate environment, however, there are always new tasks that no one wants to do. They either seem menial or out of scope for everyone’s roles, or no one knows how to do them. New tasks and challenges don’t follow established patterns or job descriptions, so no one really knows who “should” take care of it.

This is where the advantage of “picking up the broom” goes beyond everything I mentioned above. It is also the best possible tool for personal development, and for the development of organizations as a whole. Someone going out into uncharted territory will always learn new skills, and will come back with insights that benefit them and their wider organization.

In a leadership position, “picking up the broom” will allow you to expand your expertise and break open new possibilities for the company. When your team members “pick up the broom”, they will come back from the experience with new skills and make the team better for it. They will also be building a base of execution in new territory that will support their career growth.

That is exactly how I came to find myself in leadership positions. I picked up broom after broom and eventually had the skills, experience, and reputation to lead teams myself. Often, I would lead those teams to go pick up “other” brooms and take on challenges that no other team was handling. This has reliably led to next steps and new opportunities in my career, and in the careers of those on my team.

For 18 years, since that first firehouse, picking up the broom has been the key to the success in broader projects and in my personal career. It has become more of a habit over the years, and now it is second nature. With that, I expect to keep growing on the back of it.

When the Floor is Dusty…

So, when the floor is dusty or something needs to be done, pick up the broom. Get it done. When everyone is looking at each other to see who will do it, you will stand out as the one who does it. Others will notice and follow your lead. To stick with the sweeping metaphor until the bitter end, this will create a culture of problem solving. So, whenever the “floor is dirty”, it won’t stay that way for long.

And that’s about as good as any organization can hope for.