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Linda Willing

Leading the Team

Linda Willing is a retired career fire officer and currently works with emergency services agencies and other organizations on issues of leadership development, decision-making and diversity management. She was an adjunct instructor and curriculum advisor with the National Fire Academy for over 20 years. Willing is the author of On the Line: Women Firefighters Tell Their Stories and was co-founder of Women in the Fire Service. Willing has a bachelor’s degree in American studies, a master’s degree in organization development and is a certified mediator. She is a member of the FireRescue1/Fire Chief Editorial Advisory Board. Connect with Willing via email.

LATEST ARTICLES
Interviewing firefighters before they quit will keep the best ones on the department; here’s how to do it
Ending harassment within a fire department is simple and fully with in a fire chief’s control
Worst-case scenario planning and hands-on training is great way to mix things up while honing basic skills
Surviving 2,000 feet below the surface for more than two months on limited supplies offers key insights into effective leadership
These concrete actions will help firefighters and officers eliminate harassing behavior from their departments
The now famous photo of a firefighter’s wife breastfeeding their infant in a turnout coat sparks questions about why he got in trouble
Firefighters leave the job for a variety of reasons, setting things in order before recruiting them can cut those losses
Device obsession harms team building and personal communication, which hurts both fire department culture and performance
Financial compensation is a small piece of why firefighters stay or leave a department; here are the bigger reasons
SOPs built around general expectations rather than specific behaviors will improve morale and be easier to enforce