For three years in a row, poor agency leadership has been flagged among What Firefighters Want survey respondents as one of the top negative impacts on the job, plus a major factor in retention challenges. How did we get here, and more importantly, how do we fix it?

Pittsburgh Fire Chief Darryl Jones, who tackled this issue in the newly released What Firefighters Want in 2024 report, argues that while you might not have caused the issue, it’s still up to the current fire service leaders to fix the problem at the root. Jones shares his advice for fostering strong fire department leadership, along with lessons learned from his personal and professional challenges and successes. Plus, we dig into all this:

The extra 15 minutes that changed Jones’ professional life
How early fatal fires – and PTSD – affected his leadership path
His response to being called an “EEOC chief”
Two books all fire service leaders should read

Download the What Firefighters Want digital edition to read Chief Jones’ guidance for combatting poor fire department leadership, plus insights from Chiefs John Oates, Dena Ali and Reggie Freeman.

This episode of the Better Every Shift podcast is sponsored by ImageTrend. Learn how you can finish NFIRS reports before you get back to the station at ImageTrend.com.

Chief Darryl Jones: ‘Attack the problem, not the people’