Stop Fighting Fires. Start Preventing Them.
The smell of smoke hits before the flames are even visible.
The heat rises, the air thickens, and suddenly...chaos.
People running, alarms screaming, panic taking over.
By the time a fire starts, it’s already too late to stop the damage.
You can contain it, minimise it, but something will be lost. The scorch marks will remain.
That’s why, as a fire engineer, I spent years designing ways to stop the worst from happening. Smoke control, evacuation plans, fire-resistant materials.
But prevention? Prevention is where the real safety lies. No fire. No damage. No loss.
Yet in business, we see leaders run straight into the flames... every day.
Crisis after crisis, problem after problem, teams scrambling to fix what’s already broken.
Firefighting, always firefighting, but never stopping to ask "what if we could stop the fire before it even began?"
Being the Fire Chief, removing obstacles, making the decisions, that's what they are there for... right?
Well no. The most important skill for a leader is not their ability to fight fires and make tough decisions... it's their ability to see the future.
Let me explain...
The Hidden Cost of Firefighting
A fire alarm is cheap. A burned-out building is a financial and emotional catastrophe.
A clear vision costs nothing.
A company without one? That’s millions wasted on misalignment, turnover, and wrong turns.
Think about how much time and money is lost when:
Reacting is expensive.
Confusion is expensive.
But being able to see the future, knowing where you’re going?
That saves more than just money.
It saves time. Energy. Momentum.
Great Leaders See the Fire Before It Starts
Fire safety isn’t about reacting fast.
No, it’s about seeing the risks before they turn into disaster.
Why do we think Leadership is any different?
The best leaders don’t wait for problems to explode.
They see the future, chart the path, and make sure everyone is moving in the right direction.
A team without a vision is like a building without fire protection.
The sparks will fly.
The fire will spread.
And when that happens, leaders who only know how to react will always be too late.
Embedding Vision: The Best Fire Prevention System There Is
A vision isn’t a slogan.
It’s not a slide buried in a corporate deck.
It’s the difference between teams that wait for instructions and teams that bring solutions to the table before there is even a problem to solve!
Here’s what it takes:
1?? Make the vision part of daily life. If people can’t repeat it, they don’t know it. Talk about it. Show how it connects to the work. Keep it alive.
2?? Use it to make decisions. Big or small, every choice should answer one question: Does this move us toward or away from the vision?
3?? Give teams the power to act. When people understand where they’re going, they don’t wait to be told how to get there. They build the path themselves.
Give them the 'Why' and the 'Where' so they can focus on the 'How' - Kim Nuut
Are You Preventing Fires or Fighting Them?
Every leader will face fires.
But some will spend their careers running from one to the next, exhausted, drained, and never quite ahead of the flames.
Others?
They’ll see the danger before it starts.
They’ll build a culture where vision is clear, decisions are easy, and crises are rare.
If you want to be the second kind of leader, the kind who prevents the fire instead of running into it, subscribe to my Infinite Impact Newsletter: Insights, stories, and the tools to help you lead with clarity in this chaotic world.
Because the best way to fight a fire is to make sure it never starts!
Behaviour Change for Employees | Supporting HR Leadership | Time Traveller, TARDIS or Delorean available....
3 天前would you recommend to fight fire with fire?