Tag Archives: fire service leadership

By: Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer, with Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell In a recent post on FireRescue1, Rachel Engel, associate editor of FireRescue1.com and EMS1.com, wrote “While many fire service leaders still consider millennials to be the latest department newbies, it’s those in Generation Z (aka, Zeds) that are peak-rookie age.” She went on to ask, “What should fire service leaders know ...

Bravery and courage are frequently used interchangeably in our daily discussions. But in truth, they convey two different reactions that we humans can have to a stressful situation. Read on to see what those two reactions look like.

When two individuals who are equally qualified for a promotion, one from the majority group and the other from the minority group, and you still pick the majority group member when you have zero members of the minority group “at the table,” that’s your Majority Group Bias Showing.

By: Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer In the online publishing world, my editors use the term evergreen to describe a past article, that with a bit of tweaking (updating), is still highly relevant enough to use again. In the past few months, as I was tasked with tweaking a couple of my past articles for new posting, I started looking ...

But over the course of my career (both of them) I've embraced this definition of integrity “Keeping your promises.” As in when you get married you promise many things (love, honor, cherish, etc.) and above all to be faithful to your spouse.

We've only seen the beginning of the firefighters developing cancer from their occupational exposures. The numbers for those cases are going to skyrocket in the next 10 years; and along with the number of cases will be an even more daunting rise in health care premiums (That many localities still pay for their firefighters) and workers compensation claims being paid by local and state governments.

Battalion Chief (Ret.) Robert Avsec and his guest bloggers write about fire service leadership topics that should resonate with fire service leaders and those who aspire to leadership positions in the future.

Be a leader not just a manager. Model the behavior you expect to see. Empower personnel to make decisions befitting their rank. When personnel and officers are given the freedom to do this with the expectation that they make decisions supporting the mission, vision, and values of the department and the town an amazing thing happens, they do the right thing every time.

Now that I'm a grandmother looking back on my fire service career, I feel as if I have something to share that I believe will help other public safety leaders to never lose faith in people and their organization. This is the best job in the world and my enthusiasm 36 years later is stronger than ever! I'm going to speak from the heart because I've always been a compassionate person who loves people.

With my acceptance into the program, I joined a cohort of 21 other members who are newly appointed fire chiefs and aspiring fire chiefs from around the nation. Before our first session in May, retired Fire Chief Mary Beth Michos, the coordinator for FSEDI, sent out biographies of each cohort member. As I read through the other 21 biographies, I was “floored”, awed, daunted, and honored. Impressive is an understatement for the biographies. I fumble to find the right word to describe the group of individuals I was reading about: remarkable, inspiring, extraordinary, amazing… No pressure.