Prioritizing Member Needs and Gender Inclusivity in the Fire Department

This week’s guest is Dr. Reginald Freeman, whose doctoral research focused on servant leadership. Dr. Freeman has served in leadership roles in both private and public organizations and currently serves as Fire Chief in the City of Oakland, California. Servant leadership is a philosophy in which the leader aims to serve. This is different from traditional leadership, where the leader's primary focus is the thriving of their company or organization. A servant leader shares power puts the employees’ needs first, and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible. While fire rescue service is a reasonably traditional profession, Dr. Freeman focuses on serving all the members of the organization he leads by fighting along with members of the organization for a culture where the voices of everyone are the organization is heard, so they can bring their best self to the critical work that they do.