Over the years, I’ve watched a lot of young firefighters come into the fire service carrying the same picture in their minds that most of us probably did at one point. Big fires, fast rescues and charging through smoke. The scenes we grew up watching in movies. And to be fair, there are moments in this job that can feel intense and unforgettable. But Hollywood rarely shows you the real weight of leadership.
When I first transitioned from firefighter to being a Chief Officer, one of the hardest adjustments wasn’t learning command strategy or radio communication. It was learning to stay outside.
As a firefighter, your instinct is to go in with the crew. You advance the line, you search, you work beside your people. You want to be in the middle of the action because that’s where firefighters feel useful. But as an officer, your responsibility changes. Your job becomes coordinating the response, establishing command and tracking accountability. Managing incoming units, water supply, changing conditions, communication, and strategy. You are no longer focused on a single task, you are responsible for the entire scene and for every person operating inside of it.
And sometimes that means standing outside the structure while your crew disappears into the smoke.
That transition was harder than I expected because part of you still wants to go inside with them. Part of you still feels the pull to grab a line and get to work. But leadership requires something different. It requires trust. You trust your crew to do the job right. You trust their training, their judgment and at the same time, you carry the weight of knowing their safety still rests on your shoulders.
That space between responsibility and authority can be a lot to carry.
Over the years, I’ve realized the same lesson applies far beyond the fire service. I’ve watched many young safety professionals go through a similar transition. Early on, many believe leadership comes from authority, policies, procedures and Stop work power. The ability to tell people what to do. But eventually they discover something important, that you can't stand beside every worker during every decision. You can't force people to care. You can't control every action someone takes.
What you can do is prepare people, support, teach, mentor and build trust with them. Help create an environment where better decisions are more likely to happen. Real leadership often lives in that uncomfortable space between responsibility and control.
And if we’re honest, that weight can follow good leaders home sometimes.
But I think that’s also what makes leadership meaningful. Not authority, titles or recognition. The willingness to carry responsibility for other people while trusting them enough to grow into the role themselves.
That’s the space between.
And sometimes, it can feel very heavy.
But it also means you care.
-Chuck Dornisch
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