5 Fears Every Leader Must Face (And How to Lead Through Them)

Every leader carries fear. Fear of the wrong call, failing their crew, being overwhelmed, conflict and not knowing enough. The ones who pretend otherwise are the most dangerous people in the room. Brad Hauck names all five, draws on 20+ years on the fireground and in business and gives you the practical moves to lead through each one without freezing. Courage isn't about being fearless, it's about running towards the flames anyway.

Transcript

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Welcome to Leadership in the Line of Fire with your host, Brad Hauck. Join Brad as he dives into the heat of leadership challenges, where the flames of business uncertainty meet the hard-earned lessons of firefighting. Embrace change, master agility, and become the trusted leader guiding your team through the smoke. Get ready to ignite your leadership journey. G'day, I'm Brad Hauck, and this is Leadership in the Line of Fire. Whether you're commanding a fire scene or leading in a boardroom, the fears are often the same. Today I'm going to be looking at the big ones. 5 fears leaders must face and why courage isn't about being fearless, it's about leading anyway. So let's get into it. Number 1, the fear of making the wrong call. This is a killer one. Most people suffer from this at some stage. And it's pretty difficult to deal with. You don't want to do the wrong thing and you always want to do the right thing. Deep down inside, that's impossible. So how do we deal with that? The first thing we look at is aim for 70% clarity. You need to understand between 40% and 70% of all the information you need to make a good decision. And we talked about this previously, but if you can get up to 70% of the information you need to make the right decision, you'll be well on your way to be able to make a good decision. And the fact of the matter is that perfect info usually comes way too late to make the right decision. So not making a decision at all can be costly, it can cost lives, let's face it. So making sure you've got enough information and then make a smart decision is really important. So think about that 70% number. It's a really good one to work with. You're never going to get everything you need. It'll always come in light. And there'll always be something that is crucial that you'll discover later. But either way, you've got to make that call. You also need to understand what decisions can be reversed and which ones can't. And this is super important. Sometimes you can make a decision and you can come back later and go, look, yep, that didn't work, so let's try this. That's good, but if it's a situation, say, like in my case, it's a fire, and I make a bad decision and we lose 5 houses, that's not something I can reverse. So understand that some decisions are not the same as other decisions. Some can be reversed. We can go back and have another go at it and others can't. And that should affect how much information you need to get. You want to be closer to the 70% than the 40%, I think, when you're making those sort of decisions. And they're not going to be perfect. And sometimes you're just going to have to rely on luck, chance, and all those sorts of things. Where things come together properly at the last minute to make it through on that decision. We don't like to admit that. No one likes to admit that. But the fact of the matter is you've got to go with your gut. You've got to go with the information you've got and you've got to make the call. One of the things I think is really important when it comes to making the wrong call is ensuring that you actually practice making decisions. So, things like scenarios and drills and online games where they put you in situations or VR allows you to put yourself under pressure to make timely decisions. And timely decisions is the key word here, I think. You are in a situation, you have to make a decision, and then you see what happens next. And one of the things I love about what we call the Blue Frog Kits, they're available here in Australia. Is that we can set up scenarios on tabletops with fire and smoke and trucks and helicopters or whatever we want. And then we can say to someone, okay, what do you want to do? How are you going to do this? And just as easily, I can swing the wind direction around if I want to and change the whole fire. So it puts that person in a position where they're under pressure. And the same for myself, people obviously can set up scenarios that I can play with. So training for pressure is really important because it gives you the chance to actually get it wrong in a safe area. And so then when you are actually faced with the real situation out in the field, whether it be in business or on a fire, you can actually make those decisions. And there's plenty of places online where you can read case studies. You can look at business decisions or fire ground decisions, whatever it is that you're looking at. And try to solve those problems yourself. It's such a good thing to do. So take some time to work on that and remember that good is usually good enough. You're never going to have enough information to make a perfect decision. So the fear of making the wrong call is a really killer one for many people, and it's what freezes them from being able to become a good leader. Overcome it through practice and repetition and working through your systems. Look, if you're struggling with leading through chaos, change, or crisis, I've got something for you.

My new book, Run Towards the Flame: 5:28

Mastering Leadership in Times of Crisis, combines 15 years of firefighting experience with over 25 years of business leadership. It's not theory, it's real-world lessons from someone who's literally run towards danger and helped businesses navigate their biggest challenges. Whether you're facing a company crisis, leading a team through uncertainty, or just want to build the kind of resilience that keeps you moving forward when everyone else freezes, this book is the tool that you need to not just survive but thrive. You can grab it on Amazon right now. Search Run Towards the Flame and my name, Brad Howke, or just check the show notes for a direct link. Because here's the thing, while everyone else is running away from the flames, leaders like you, we run towards them. Number 2, fear of failing your crew. This is one I personally feel. I don't want to fail people. And you need to admit when you're unsure about something. One of the great things about being in a crew is that you have a whole team of people there who are happy to help. Now, not everybody's going to be in the position to give you great advice, but many times you'll have senior people on your crew who you can run your ideas past, or you can talk to get a second opinion. And that's okay. That is a sign of leadership. Consulting your team is always important, but be confident in that process. Lead the process. Okay, we're going to do this. I think this is an issue. I'm not sure. What do you think? Should we put this here or should we put it there? Use your crew, use your people. They're there to support you and they want to support you. The other side to that, of course, is that it's actually a learning experience for them too. Their opportunity to look at the situation and actually think about it rather than just wait for someone to say something and then do it. By bringing them into the process, you are training them up to be a leader because next time they go into a situation, they're going to look at that situation and start to assess it for themselves and think about what they can do. You're going to need to build trust with your team through honest communication and shared planning. You can't just obviously expect people to do this for you all the time. It's a process that happens over time. So build that trust. So when you are unsure about things and you do ask for advice, they feel comfortable doing that, but you're not hiding anything from them. I think transparency is a huge part of being a leader. It's not always easy. People don't like it when you're transparent about stuff sometimes because they don't want everybody knowing. And obviously there is times when you need to be private, but when there's decisions that should be made by the whole team, then the whole team actually needs to know the truth, not the partial truth. So build that trust, allows you to communicate honestly with them, and then they will feel comfortable honestly communicating back on your plans. If you do make a mistake, and you will, take ownership of that mistake because Quick ownership of mistakes earns long-term respect. It's that simple. Admit you're wrong, fix the problem, or move on. It's not pretty. It's not fun. It's what a leader has to do. You aren't going to get it right all the time. I'll say this over and over again. You will make mistakes. We all do. It is the human condition. So make sure you take ownership of your mistakes and learn from them. Your team will respect that. And they'll watch your back because they know that they're human too, and they're also going to make mistakes. We support each other, whether it's on a fire truck as a crew or in business as a team. We must have each other's backs. That's what makes a team, and leaders lead teams, not groups of people. Number 3, fear of being overwhelmed. This is a good one. Watch for overload signs. You've got a short fuse, you're getting angry easy, you're not thinking very clearly, you're not taking notice of your comms and communications, you're ignoring email, whatever it happens to be. Overload happens and it happens more regularly when you're in leadership because there's so much weighing down on you. So I think it's really important. One of the first things you can do to stop overload is to delegate. Now, I've always tried to delegate as much as possible. Again, doesn't always work. Sometimes you take stuff on yourself, you probably should have delegated. You've got to go back and review that from time to time and your team will remind you, I guarantee it. So delegate early and triage any info that's coming in. So something comes in, you go, actually, you know what, that's this person's responsibility or this person normally deals with that. So I'm just going to send that straight through. You read the email, you send it on, whatever it happens to be. Not everything is urgent that you have to do it straight away. 9 times out of 10, in my experience, especially in business, Every email that comes in is urgent, but that's just people wanting you to know that it's important. Urgent and important are two different things. One is it must be done now, or we're going to lose this contract, or we're going to lose this fire or whatever. And the other is I'm letting you know this really important information needs to be done sometime in the next week or so. So make sure that you review whatever's coming in so that you don't get overwhelmed. Otherwise you get caught in this loop of everything being urgent, and that is absolutely absolutely not the truth. It's the biggest lie in the world. And it is especially true these days where we're connected all the time. Every message that comes in appears to be urgent. It has a flag on it or it's sticky or whatever it happens to be. Don't let that be an indicator of whether it's urgent. Triage it. Read it, review it and go, no, and put it in your calendar for 2 days' time or whatever it happens to be. So don't get caught up in that. The other thing is have trusted support people who can help you. Often in a business, a CEO will have a personal assistant. They're worth their weight in gold. In fact, they should be paid more than the CEO most times because their job is to filter everything through. In your case, if you're leading on the fire ground, you might have a scribe who's dealing with the radio and taking messages and things like that for you, or you might have an off-sider who's helping you. With the comms. So they're filtering stuff. You're listening in, you're listening to what's going on, but you're not necessarily having to reply back to that sort of thing unless it's an instruction that you need to give. And that happens with your team. When you've got a team of people underneath you, your leaders that are directly below you, we're talking about span of control, 1 is to 5, so you might have 5 people. Their job is there as support as well. They're there to take everything that's coming up and go, no, I can deal with that, or that person can deal with that. The CEO doesn't need to deal with it. They'll let the CEO know, or they'll let the leader know, but they don't have to actually handle it themselves. And that's what your support crew's there for. Make sure you've got a great support team around you. They really are useful and you have to trust them to do their jobs. Number 4, fear of conflict. Oh, this is a good one. People do not like conflict. And I am no different to anyone else, and neither are you. As a leader, you're going to face conflict. There's going to be times when people disagree with what you believe, and it's fair for them to be able to say that. It doesn't mean you have to agree with them. The difference is that you need to negotiate what will work for both parties, and sometimes that is that they won't get their way, and other times is you won't get yours. It's not easy to accept that. And if you're like myself, I don't like to argue. It is not a fun thing. I didn't come from a background like that. And so for me, it's a difficult thing. I will raise points and I will discuss them, but I don't like to argue. So call out unsafe behavior early when it comes to conflict. You need to have a team that runs well together and It's really important because respect beats avoidance. You need to build that respect and you need to make sure that your team respects each other, not just you. It's a mutual thing. You can't have one person who treats everybody else like crap. That's just not acceptable. And then expects everybody to be really nice to them. If that's what's going on, it needs to be called out and it needs to be dealt with. When you're dealing with those sorts of things, focus on people's actions, not necessarily their attitude. The actions is what normally upsets everybody. You can have a poor attitude but treat people well. But look at the action, deal with the action. This is no different to raising children or when I was a teacher. You deal with the action, not the personality. The personality will change if you deal with the action because they'll learn what's right and wrong. The other thing is choose the right time to deal with it. In front of the group is not the time to deal with things unless it's a safety issue or it's completely disrespectful, in which case it's fair enough to call it out because everybody will understand and everybody will agree with you. Yeah, that was too far. Most times it's best to pull people aside and have a chat to them quietly on their own. And we always talk about this leader's reprimand in private, and that's the way. It gives people a degree of comfort knowing that they're safe, that no one else can hear, so they're not embarrassed, and it gives you the chance to say exactly what you feel without anyone else listening in. Make sure you follow up when there's conflict. This is real important. At first, the conflict's there, and then you might have a discussion with that person, and then a couple of weeks later, have a chat to them. Say, hey, thank you. I can see that you've taken that on board and, you know, you're looking really good. This is where real leadership happens, is making sure that people are okay, that they've dealt with it and they've taken that on board. Alternatively, if they haven't and the behaviour's continuing, then maybe it needs to be looked at further. Number 5, fear of not knowing everything. This is a great one because everybody thinks they know everything when they're a teenager, as we all remember. And then as you get older, you start to realize you know nothing at all. You are not going to have all the answers. You don't need all the answers. What you need is the right people around you. One of the things I love about AI is the fact that I can query it. So if I've forgotten something, I can ask it something about that. Now that's really handy, except the problem is AI hallucinates. But quite frankly, that's no different to people. You ask people their opinion, they'll tell you what they think is right, it doesn't mean it is. So get the right people around you, people you can trust to give you the right answers. When I say the right answers, I mean the truth, not the right answers as they perceive them or the ones you want to hear. Your team around you supports you and they're there and you can go to those people and they might not be around you all the time. They're people you pick up a phone and go, oh, I've got this issue. What would you do? This is what I'm thinking I'd like to do to solve it. What would you do? Don't ever go to people with problems. I've said this 100 times before. Don't come to me with problems, come to me with solutions, and then we'll solve the problem. Let your crew's strength come forward. People in your crews, in your team, will have different strengths because of their life experience. Know their life experience, know what they do, and then use that because you can't know everything, but you'll have people from different backgrounds. You'll have someone who you know, works outdoors in landscaping. You'll have someone who's a surgeon. You might have someone who's been a teacher in a past life and someone who's been a tradesperson in a different field. They've all got different experiences. So tap into that. That's what they're there for. You can't know everything, but as a team, you can know a lot more. And of course, we have the internet, we can look stuff up, but that's not always available. Don't block people from bringing their expertise in just because you are the leader, you are in charge. That's not good leadership. Good leadership takes advantage of the people around them to help them make better decisions for everybody. And know when to step back and when to step up. These are two different things. You can lead from the front or you can lead from behind. They both have their place and time. So sometimes you need to step back and let someone else step up and run a training or to teach people something or to report on a certain topic, step back out of the way. That's their chance to lead and show what they're doing. And then sometimes you'll need to step back in and take over and go, okay, that's great, and move on to the next person or step in and take over control where it has to be done. So know when to step back and know when to step up. These fears, they're normal. No matter who we are, we have to face them. Great leaders don't run away from fear. They use it to stay sharp, stay honest, and stay connected to the people that they work with and those people that count on them. If this episode helped you see something in a new light, share it with someone else in your brigade or your team. And make sure you subscribe. We've got more real-world leadership tools coming your way. I'm Brad Howke. This has been Leadership in the Line of Fire. Stay safe, lead, and remember, run towards the flames. Thank you for tuning in to Leadership in the Line of Fire. If today's episode sparked some insights, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Don't forget to hit like and subscribe so you never miss an episode. Your support fuels this journey. Join us next time as we continue to explore leadership lessons from the fireline. Until then, keep leading with courage and agility.