Fire Officer Leadership Academy Blog
The Fire Officer Leadership Academy blog is a resource for fire officers committed to continuous growth. Here you’ll find practical insights on leadership, communication, career development, and character-based decision-making—drawn from real-world fire service experience and written to support officers at every stage of their leadership journey.
-
Be the One That Counts
This post continues the series based on comments made by Mark Cole, the CEO of the Maxwell Certified Leadership Team. Speaking at the International Maxwell Certification event held in Orlando, Florida, he said, “Be the one” and then he touched on eight topics, one of which was “Be the one that counts.” What does that…
-
Be the One That Takes the Journey
This blog post, “Be the One That Takes the Journey,” is a continuation of a series I began in September based on comments made by Mark Cole, the CEO of the Maxwell Certified Leadership Team. Speaking at the International Maxwell Certification event held in Orlando, Florida, he said “Be the One.” What does “be the…
-
Be the One that Develops the Leader Within
Last month I started a series based on comments made by Mark Cole, the CEO of the Maxwell Certified Leadership Team. Speaking at the International Maxwell Certification event held in Orlando, Florida, he said “Be the One.” His first point was, “Be the one that develops the leader within” and for me that means: Developing…
-
What Has Happened to Character Based Leadership?
Recently, I wrote a series of blogs about leadership traits including justice, integrity, unselfishness, and courage. On September 10, 2025, a deranged individual assassinated Charlie Kirk leaving behind a widow, children without a father, parents without a son, and creating untold grief and agony amongst family members, friends, associates, and others. Since then, we have…
-
Be the One!
In the last two blogs, I referred to the International Maxwell Certification event that I attended as a member of the Maxwell Certified Leadership Team. On the first day of the event, Mark Cole the CEO of the Team said, “Be the one.” Mark elaborated by stating, What does all this mean? Over the next…
-
Climbing the Ladder of Leadership Development
The title of my last blog was Keep Climbing, and I wrote about the four-day International Maxwell Certification event I recently attended. Climbing the ladder often refers to vertical movement through an organizational hierarchy. The phrase has also been attached to success, but that topic will be addressed in a future blog. Are you ascending…
-
Keep Climbing!
As a member of the John Maxwell Certified Leadership Team, I recently attended the semi-annual leadership conference in Orlando, Florida. It was a fantastic four-day event surrounded by like-minded people and filled with world-class speakers such as John Maxwell, Jesse Cole of the Savannah Bananas baseball team, and many more. The title of this blog…
-
Dependability: The Trait That Brings the Team Home
As I continue with the series on the fourteen Marine Corps leadership traits, this week’s topic is dependability. According to Merriam-Webster, dependability is “capable of being trusted or depended on: reliable.1” An Explosion In 1970, Apollo 13 was planned as the seventh manned mission to the moon. On April 11 of that year, three astronauts, James Lovell,…
-
From Drive-Through’s to Emergency Scenes: The Pain of Indecision
In this series of articles, I have been writing about the fourteen leadership traits identified by the U.S. Marine Corps. This week’s topic is decisiveness which is the “Ability to make decisions promptly and to announce them in a clear, forceful manner.1” Indecisive People I loathe the drive through lane at fast food restaurants for…
-
Do You Have the Courage to do What’s Right?
Courage is one of the fourteen leadership traits the Marine Corps has identified, and it is the physical and mental control of fear. Notice that courage is not the absence of fear, it is controlling fear. Physical and Mental Control of Fear On Sunday, August 17, 1975, there was a tragedy, multiple alarm fire at…
