Leadership Mistakes: It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
I've spent a lot of years in the fire service, and I've seen people make some interesting decisions under pressure. Some were brilliant. Some were questionable. And a few left me wondering what in the world someone was thinking.
Of course, I've made a few leadership mistakes of my own. That's something you discover after spending enough years leading people. Not every good idea turns out to be a good decision, and sometimes the lesson you intended to teach isn't the lesson everyone remembers. One particular ambulance call comes to mind. It involved a patient experiencing cardiac distress, a firefighter with an emergency of his own, and a leadership decision I probably should have reconsidered. At the time, there was absolutely nothing funny about it. Looking back, however, I have to admit it's one of those stories that still makes me laugh.
When Leadership Mistakes Happen at the Worst Possible Time
We responded to a home where someone was experiencing cardiac distress. The patient needed medical attention, and as with any emergency response, everyone had a responsibility. My role was to document what was happening while the other medics assessed the patient, took vital signs, and prepared for transport. We had a system, everyone knew their job, and we worked together to get the patient the care they needed.
At least, that was the plan.
We had barely gotten inside the house when one of my medics looked at me and said, "I gotta go." I looked at him and asked, "You gotta go where?" He looked right back at me and repeated, "I gotta go."
Before I could figure out what he meant, he headed straight for the family's bathroom. Now, understand something. We're in someone's home because a family member is having a medical emergency. These people are understandably concerned, and they're depending on us to be professional, capable, and reassuring. And one of my firefighters has just disappeared into their bathroom.
It didn't take long to figure out exactly what he meant by "I gotta go."
Let's just say the sounds coming from that bathroom, along with the unmistakable aroma, made it impossible to pretend nothing unusual was happening. Meanwhile, I was trying to keep the family calm, help assess the patient, take vital signs, and document what was happening. I was also trying to find some reasonable explanation for why one of the people who had arrived to help their loved one was now occupying their bathroom.
Believe me, there isn't a chapter in the leadership handbook that prepares you for that conversation.
Eventually, the medic emerged, understandably embarrassed. To his credit, he offered to help, but he would have much preferred to retreat to the ambulance and disappear from sight. And I couldn't exactly blame him.
Sometimes You Have to Handle the Situation Before You Understand It
In the moment, none of this was funny. We had a patient who needed care and a family that needed reassurance. Whatever was happening with my medic, I couldn't allow it to interfere with our responsibility to the people who had called us for help. So I adjusted. I took on responsibilities I hadn't expected, kept the work moving, and focused on getting the patient transported.
That's something leaders have to do more often than we'd probably like. People get sick. Equipment fails. Plans fall apart. Someone who was supposed to handle an important responsibility suddenly can't. And when you're the leader, you don't always have the luxury of stopping everything until you understand what happened. You deal with the immediate situation first.
Once the patient had been transported and we were back at the station, the crew could finally appreciate just how ridiculous the whole incident had been. And yes, we laughed, but I also needed to have a conversation with the medic.
I explained my concern about professionalism and the importance of maintaining a patient's and family's confidence in our team. I told him that if he wasn't feeling well, he needed to say something before responding to a call.
That's when I learned something important. He hadn't been feeling sick before the call. The problem had come on suddenly, and he was worried he might have gotten food poisoning.
In other words, he hadn't knowingly reported for duty unable to do his job. He'd been caught off guard by an emergency of his own. It didn't change what had happened, but it certainly changed how I understood it.
That should have been the end of the story. Unfortunately, I had another idea.
My Leadership Mistake Seemed Like a Good Idea Too
Some time after the incident, I decided we needed to have a shift-wide meeting. My intention was reasonable enough. I wanted to reinforce the importance of recognizing when you're too sick to work, communicating with your supervisor, and maintaining professionalism when we're responding to emergencies. After all, patients and their families need to have confidence in the people who arrive to help them. So far, so good.
Then I made the decision to explain exactly what had happened during that ambulance call.
Now, if you've ever worked with firefighters, you probably already know where this is going.
I was trying to have a serious conversation about professionalism, but the moment I shared the story, the meeting took on a life of its own. Let's just say the discussion went sideways in a hurry.
Instead of concentrating on the important message I was trying to communicate, everyone had a new story to laugh about. And I'd just given them all the details. Remember, we'd already had a good laugh about the incident when we got back to the station. Apparently, I thought we needed an encore.
Looking back, I can appreciate the irony. I was trying to prevent another embarrassing situation, and in the process, I brought the original embarrassing situation right back into the spotlight. The medic wasn't the only one who had made a questionable decision. Mine just happened to involve an entire shift crew in a meeting.
What Leadership Mistakes Can Teach Us About Good Intentions
Here's something I've learned over the years: having a good reason for doing something doesn't automatically make it the right approach. I had a legitimate concern about our team's professionalism. I wanted everyone to understand that if they weren't physically able to perform their duties, they needed to communicate that before putting themselves, their coworkers, or the people we served in a difficult position, but the firefighter's situation wasn't quite that simple. He hadn't known he was going to become sick, and he'd already experienced more embarrassment than anyone would want.
I could have reinforced the expectations without retelling an identifiable employee's unfortunate experience to the entire shift. Instead, I gave everyone a story that was far more memorable than the message I intended to deliver.
Leaders do this in other workplaces, too. An employee makes a mistake, so we call a team meeting. Something goes wrong with a customer, so we create a new procedure for everyone. One person has a performance issue, and suddenly the entire department is sitting through a reminder about expectations.
Sometimes a group conversation is necessary. But sometimes we're using the whole team to address something that would be better handled individually. Before turning an incident into a leadership lesson, it's worth asking a few questions. Does everyone need to hear this? Am I protecting the dignity of the person involved? And will the way I deliver the message help people learn, or will it distract them from what I'm trying to teach? Those are questions I probably should have asked before that shift meeting.
One of the things I've always enjoyed about working in the fire service is the humor. Firefighters have a way of finding something to laugh about, even after difficult days. That humor can help people deal with stress and build strong relationships, but there's a time and place for it.
During that ambulance call, our patient needed care, and the family deserved our full attention. There was nothing funny about their situation, and it was my responsibility to make sure we continued doing our jobs. Back at the station, after the patient had been transported, we could laugh about the unexpected turn the call had taken. And when I later turned the incident into a shift-wide meeting that didn't go quite as planned, I eventually had to recognize the humor in my own decision, too.
That's another part of leadership we don't always talk about. You aren't going to make every decision perfectly. Sometimes you'll misjudge a situation, say something you wish you'd phrased differently, or discover that your brilliant idea wasn't nearly as brilliant as you thought. What matters is whether you're willing to recognize it, learn from it, and do better the next time.
Keep Learning From Real Leadership Experiences
Leadership development isn't about never making mistakes. It's about learning from experience and becoming more effective at leading people. Explore LIA Training's Learning Hub for practical leadership resources and ideas you can put to work with your team.
I still believe professionalism matters. I still believe leaders need to address problems and reinforce expectations. And I still believe there's value in learning from situations that don't go as planned. But I also learned that not every incident needs to become a group discussion.
Sometimes the best leadership decision is to handle the problem, have the necessary conversation, and leave the story alone. Especially when the story involves a firefighter, a patient's bathroom, and a shift full of people who will never let anyone forget it.
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