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Chief Conversations: Mentoring in the fire service

Fire Chief Marc Bashoor speaks with Fairfax County, Virginia, Chief John Butler at Fire Rescue International 2018 about the importance of mentoring in the fire service

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By FireRescue1

FireRescue1 Executive Editor Chief Marc Bashoor speaks with Fairfax County, Virginia, Chief John Butler at Fire Rescue International 2018 about the importance of mentoring in the fire service.

Butler, who is a former Marine and was previously the Fire Chief in Howard County, Maryland, tells Bashoor, “Mentoring is the secret sauce to any public safety institution, the military and business in general. This is the most effective way to transfer knowledge from one generation to the other and across the institutions.”

Butler also notes the influence of the milennial generation on older industry professionals, in a reverse-mentorship capacity, particularly due to their fluency with technology.

“Some of that technology can play well in to what we do and how we’ve done things in the past,” he says.

Chief Marc S. Bashoor joined the Lexipol team in 2018, serving as the FireRescue1 and Fire Chief executive editor and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board. With 40 years in emergency services, Chief Bashoor previously served as public safety director in Highlands County, Florida; as chief of the Prince George’s County (Maryland) Fire/EMS Department; and as emergency manager in Mineral County, West Virginia. Chief Bashoor assisted the NFPA with fire service missions in Brazil and China, and has presented at many industry conferences and trade shows. He has contributed to several industry publications. He is a National Pro-board certified Fire Officer IV, Fire Instructor III and Fire Instructor. Connect with Chief Bashoor at on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Do you have a leadership tip or incident you’d like to discuss? Send the chief an email.
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