Leadership is like being a firefighter

Why leadership is like being a firefighter

Firefighters have a demanding job. On the one hand, they do everything we expect in a crisis, like turning up and fighting a roaring blaze. Behind the scenes is all the important stuff we don’t see – getting prepared for the next big fire and working to create conditions that make fires difficult to take hold.

Leadership is the same. Part of the job is responding to issues as they present, while another is front-footing fires before they can kindle. Even better: we can think more like bush firefighters and set a controlled burn to clear out accumulated mess before it turns into a problem.

Brave public leaders occasionally set the world on fire. They do this by thinking big and embracing new opportunities to achieve their vision for the community.

Careful with your flame

Lighting fires shouldn’t be done willy-nilly. Bold, effective decisions mean we need to be clear about where we’re going and what might get in our way.

“Wind extinguishes a candle and energizes fire. Likewise with randomness, uncertainty, chaos; you want to use them, not hide from them. You want to be the fire and wish for the wind.”

- Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Taking strategic risks

Some of the most enjoyable work I do with boards and leadership teams is helping them make better, faster decisions by understanding strategic risk.

Strategic risk often gets mixed in with garden-variety operational risk management. When this happens, decision-makers get stuck in the weeds, and risk falls by the wayside, is delegated, or is ignored. There's a lot of traffic light matrices, but very little big judgement calls.

The result: slow and scattered decision-making, wasted time and lost opportunities.

Strategic risk management is about lighting the odd fire. While operational risk management focuses on protecting the value we already have, strategic risk management is about creating new value.

Operational risk asks, "How do we keep everything ticking over safely?”
Strategic risk asks, "What stands in the way of meaningful change?”

The difference is like night and day. When senior leaders and decision-makers focus on the bigger questions, we do much cooler stuff.

What do you reckon: is it time to light some fires?