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.

LATET ARTICLES

Leadership

Why fire officers need emotional intelligence

There’s real science showing how to measure and improve emotional intelligence, and that it is a key to good leadership — especially in the fire service

November 29, 2014 01:42 PM

Linda Willing

Fire Chief

Fire officers: Don’t give ‘fraudulent, bogus’ performance evals

Done wrong, the performance evaluation process can do more harm than good; and doing it right takes training

November 11, 2014 10:48 AM

Linda Willing

Fire officers: Don’t get burned by what you write

Training for the crucial job of documentation is often lacking; here are ways to make sure what you write is accurate and doesn’t come back to burn you

November 05, 2014 01:56 AM

Linda Willing

Lessons for fire chiefs from an island invasion

The shortcomings of a hastily planned military invasion holds lessons in planning for fire chiefs

October 16, 2014 08:55 AM

Linda Willing

Firefighters make a big difference doing small things

Those little acts of kindness are both easy to do and easy to overlook, but make a huge difference to those having their worst day

October 08, 2014 03:10 AM

Linda Willing

Exclusives

How fire chiefs can make better decisions

Deeper problems, outside a yes-no decision, require a well-crafted plan to avoid the mental pitfalls that leave the best decisions undiscovered

September 06, 2014 12:18 PM

Linda Willing

Why firefighters must avoid ‘small vision’ culture

Getting in the habit of missing what’s happening due to smartphone tunnel vision has negative carryover to the fireground

September 02, 2014 05:22 AM

Linda Willing

Fire Chief

When is a racial slur OK?

The answer of course is never; here are the four steps to clean up your department’s language and reduce its risk of lawsuit

August 11, 2014 08:44 AM

Linda Willing

Fire officers must ‘own’ firefighter high jinks

Firefighter safety is the company officer’s job, on and off the fireground — that means being the adult in the room when pranks get out of hand

August 11, 2014 03:51 AM

Linda Willing

Fire Chief

Cornrows and ink: a fire chief’s grooming-standard minefield

A ‘my way or the highway’ grooming standard won’t cut it in today’s world; here’s a look at why fire chiefs need to navigate this minefield with care

July 14, 2014 11:02 AM

Linda Willing