Description

Wednesday, May 31
9:00am – 4:30pm
Southlake DPS Training Facility
100 East Dove Road, Southlake, Texas 76092

Leading Among Friends in the Fire Service: How to Appropriately Develop Your Relationships Without Harming Your Career

It’s great to love the people you work with, but those same positive feelings can lead to negative outcomes when you or someone close to you gets promoted and suddenly becomes the boss. Few things stir the pot in fire departments like perceptions of favoritism, which lurk in the background when friends become supervisors. The good news is that you don’t have to give up your feelings for the people you work with to lead them effectively. Your friends aren’t stupid—they know you are the boss—and they almost all want you to succeed. You can channel their good intentions by setting and maintaining boundaries and by honing a few key leadership and communication skills to interact with them in a way that’s real, but that’s also appropriate. The Leading Among Friends course will arm leaders with the tools they need to develop relationships in the fire service while also developing their careers.

During this workshop, attendees will learn how to:

• Maintain important relationships without sacrificing the ability to exert authority.
• Recognize the many problems associated even being perceived as playing favorites.
• Assert themselves as leaders without being abrasive.
• Set and maintain realistic expectations while transitioning into a leadership role.
• Communicate clear expectations and boundaries to subordinates.
• Establish and maintain strong peer-to-peer relationships.
• Repair relationships that get off track.

Testimonials from Texas Fire Chiefs

“Don’t pass up the opportunity to send your people to Geoffrey Tumlin’s TFCA workshops. The sessions are so important and insightful that not only have we sent people to every single class, but we also decided to import the workshops for all our shifts. I recommend these workshops wholeheartedly!”
– Robert Isbell, Round Rock Fire Chief

“Geoffrey Tumlin is a friend of the fire service. He talks about new and important ideas in ways that fire fighters quickly understand, and his ideas make enormous positive differences in fire departments. I’m one of many chiefs who turn to Geoffrey for keen insights, second opinions, and trusted advice.”
– Neil Howard, Rowlett Fire Chief

About the workshop leader: Dr. Geoffrey Tumlin is the president of On-Demand Leadership and the author of Stop Talking, Start Communicating (McGraw-Hill, 2013). Geoffrey earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin, and his B.S. from West Point. After graduating from West Point, Geoffrey served as an infantry officer in Hawaii. His work has appeared in over 150 media outlets and publications, including the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Fast Company, Inc.com, SiriusXM radio, Fox Business, Investor’s Business Daily, andCNNMoney/Fortune.com, and he’s a frequent guest of fire service organizations throughout Texas.