“Leaders have to be knowledgeable and proficient all the way around, day and night and in all areas. That knowledge, or the lack thereof, is easily read by all followers. My basic point with being tactically and technically proficient is that leaders must know their job, know their people, and be physically involved with them; […]

So I get a call from a young brother on the other side o’ the country. We’ve broken bread together a coupla’ times and he’s the kind of Jake you just naturally take a liking to. He’s all fired and up and rarin’ to go, just askin’ for a little leadership to light the way. […]

“Leadership is intangible, hard to measure, and difficult to describe. It’s quality would seem to stem from many factors. But certainly they must include a measure of inherent ability to control and direct, self-confidence based on expert knowledge, initiative, loyalty, pride and sense of responsibility. Inherent ability cannot be instilled, but that which is latent […]

“Spend quality time with the team, learning who they are and what motivates them.” — Lt. Col Hal Moore, USA Ret. Old Man Winter keeps crackin’ on here in the North. I’m lookin’ forward to Spring. Had a garage fire the other night. Two snowmachines (snow mobiles for those of you down in America), caught […]

Move over a skosh,..got hot Joe comin’ through! Man,..its cold up here in the North today! Say, a fella’ I know was discussing fire service leadership, and you know me, I’ll allow that is right up my alley! So we sat and brewed up some thoughts together and this is what spilt out: Before we […]

Ok, the Joe is hot..lets evaluate the probie’s coffee skills. I have with me the FDNY Probationary Firefighting Skill – Coffee Making check sheet, obtained from Brother LeBlanc. We can check things off while Probie makes another pot and we talk a little about my favorite topic, ….”Leadership”. I promised I’d continue with Leadership Principles […]

Here we sit at the kitchen table. I enjoy the table in the back lot too, but there’s no C’gars allowed these days. Can’t say as I like it, but can’t argue much with it either. So its hot Joe, n’ we’ll make do. Had a heck of a time, this past several weeks. Been […]

“Leadership is intangible, and therefore no weapon ever designed can replace it.”  — General Omar Bradley   This is the way I see it over the rim of my cup o’ Joe.  Today’s fire service is faced with countless difficulties including economics, extreme technical leaps, generational differences in values and ethics and now even post […]

Recently recieved an email from a former member, “Cap, miss hangin’ out with you, these guys don’t seem to have any drive to train or get better at the job!”…Not the first time I’ve gotten a note like that.  I responded with encouragement and the belief that this particular Jake would put things right in […]

Hey Brother,….The Good Book says in Proverbs, that “iron sharpens iron..” meaning that iron in one form can be sharpened by iron in another form (like a file).  It goes on to say that in a similar way,  good friends build each other up. Sometimes by being brutally honest with each other.  A skilled, attentive […]