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Chief Frank Leeb returns: Make yourself ‘difficult to injure, impossible to kill’

The FDNY chief of safety – and Better Every Shift’s first guest – returns a year later to talk leadership, safety and training

To help Better Every Shift mark its milestone 1-year anniversary, our very first guest, FDNY Chief of Safety Frank Leeb, returns to the show to talk all things leadership, safety and training – including the critical mindset that “we owe it to our loved ones to be better every day to make sure that we are making ourselves difficult to injure and impossible to kill.”

Plus, we dig into all this:

  • What Leeb believes will keep fire chiefs up at night for the next 20 years
  • Key principles from Leeb’s new book, “Cornerstones of Leadership” – and even his favorite chapter
  • Leeb’s advice for giving crews just the right amount of information to get the job done
  • Firefighters’ training lineages and why “we need to have as many children as possible”
  • How to give crews both “tasty and nutritious” training and education (and why M&Ms should sponsor the podcast)
  • Leeb’s personal connection to encouraging bystander CPR education
  • Where Leeb sees himself in 1 year
  • A shared love of Tigger, naturally

Episode power quote: “I will never retire from the fire service because the one thing I know for sure is that I could live to be 150 years old, and I will never go to enough fires to satisfy my appetite to go to fires.”

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Previously on the Better Every Shift Podcast
Deputy Chief Vince Bettinazzi explains how EV weight, battery placement and limited lifting points can complicate operations
Senior investigator Wesley Attwood details explains how NIOSH investigations begin, what investigators look for and how crews can put the report findings to work
Zam shares four practical strategies to improve communication, build trust and strengthen leadership
Captain Jim Barnhart explains why alternative energy systems are changing the fireground faster than many departments can adapt — and how to close the gap
The new U.S. Wildland Fire Service director shares his vision for a more unified, firefighter-focused wildfire response