Endurance by Alfred Lansing

We might as well start with my all-time favorite book. It's the story of the doomed attempt by Sir Ernest Shackleton and over 20 men to cross Antarctica, and the year they spent trying to get back to civilization. It's an incredible tale of survival, intelligence, and determination. Shackleton's ability to keep his men motivated in the most desperate of circumstances has become legend. This story is also a powerful reminder for all of what true adversity looks like. When you think you've got it bad, remember the crew of the Endurance.

It also happens to have the all time best first line of a book: "The order to abandon ship was given at 5 P.M."  The book starts with the ship sinking! How awesome is that?

Recommended for all ranks

On Leadership by John W. Gardner

I think I might consider this book to be my leadership bible. It’s absolutely tremendous. I highlighted so much of this book that you would think it was printed on orange paper. The best recommendation I have for it is the following passage (I can’t say it any better and there are many more passages just like it in the book):

“We cannot design a production line that turns out leaders. But we can offer promising young people opportunities and challenges favorable to the flowering of whatever leadership gifts they may have. Some will become leaders, partly from what we enabled them to learn and from challenges we set before them, partly from the self-knowledge we help them achieve. Beyond that, time and events will teach them. Mistakes and failures will teach them. And with respect to the very greatest leaders, a decent humility should remind us that we do not fully understand – may never fully understand – their emergence.”

Recommended for Officers

Leadership Lessons Of The Navy SEALs by Jeff Cannon and Lt. Cmdr. Jon Cannon

I've met three strangers, who in conversation (and without any prompting) told me that they were former Navy SEALs. Now, one of two things must be happening: either these men are claiming to be something they aren't, or there are many more SEALs than I thought there were, and they all want to tell everyone about the formerly secret organization that they were part of. I believe that either of those two scenarios is the result of the general public becoming more aware of special forces.

That's why I was initially very reluctant to read this book. It was actually one of those Amazon recommendations based on some other book I had purchased. I took a shot and bought it, but thought that it would be an empty book trading off the popularity of the Navy SEALs moniker. I couldn't have been more wrong.

More than any of the other leadership books I've detailed on this page, this book is a very clear and concise list of what a leader should do. This book is awesome. Chapter 1 Lesson 6: "Build Your Goal Around A Problem, Not The Other Way Around." Simple and profound when you think about it. And there's plenty more where that came from.

Recommended for Officers

Why Courage Matters - The Way To A Braver Life by John McCain with Mark Salter

I involuntarily recoil whenever I hear the word “hero” applied to firefighters as a group. Not that there aren’t plenty of firefighters who have done some truly heroic things (I can talk for hours about the rope rescue in Times Square), I just don’t like when people call all firefighters heroes because to me, firefighting is just something we have chosen to do.

For me, the hero is the person who does the things that I’m not sure I could have done if I were placed in the moment they were. It’s a debate I have with myself often: How would I have performed on the beaches at Normandy? It’s easy to say you would be courageous, but it’s a different thing when you’re in the boat, bullets bouncing off the front and sides right up to the point you hear the ramp drop.

McCain explores these ideas as he tries to define what courage is, what’s required for us to have it, and what it is that makes some of us find it when others can’t. He has firm ideas about what isn’t courage, and how throwing the word around cheapens it. And for me personally, advancing a hose line into a burning building doesn’t hold a candle to some of the heroes highlighted in this book…which I suppose is the reason I reflexively dislike hearing the word applied to firefighters as a whole. Anyway, you should decide for yourself.

I read this book when it came out in 2004, and read it again recently. It was even better the second time. And it took just over three hours, so you don’t get to claim you don’t have time to read.

Recommended for all ranks

My American Journey by Colin Powell with Joseph E. Persico

This is an amazing book that tells the story of Colin Powell's life. From his (by his own accounts) un-impressive beginnings to his eventual rise to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and then to Secretary of State. You may be thinking, "This book is his life story, so why is it on a list of leadership books?"

The reccurring theme of this book is to always take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. Secretary Powell's personal goal was to command V Corps, but as he worked toward that goal, he kept getting sidetracked by special assignments that took him further and further from his dream command. It wasn't necessarily what he wanted to do, but all of those "diversions" were the building blocks for his future successes.

There are plenty in the fire service who will tell you not to volunteer for anything. Those are the people who don't want you to volunteer because it will only highlight the fact that they are not volunteering. Colin Powell's success as National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of State, and Commander of V Corps in Germany were all a result of him saying "yes" to those difficult assignments.

Recommended for Officers

Leadership Secrets of Atilla The Hun by Wess Roberts

The first thing a brand new firefighter needs to realize is that the public can't recognize their newness. The public sees you as an expert; a jake like the rest of us who is going to solve their problem. The corollary realization is for you, the new firefighter, to realize that even though you "don't know anything," you ARE a leader. You might not feel like one, but the public will look to you to lead regardless. And as soon as someone is around with a day less experience than you, that person will be looking to you to lead them.

I say all that to point out that "leadership" books aren't just for the officers. In the fire service, everyone is expected to be a leader at times. (Everyone is expected to follow at times, as well.) This book uses a fictionalized account of Attila's military campaigns to illustrate leadership principles. It's pretty straightforward, but you have to put a little effort into drawing the lessons out. If you take the time, you'll find that the principles are on point.

And as the cover states, there are a half million copies in print. That means that just about every used book store has a copy waiting for you.

Recommended for all ranks (Read it a few times throughout your career and see how your perception of the lessons changes.)

Recommended for all ranks

Into The Unknown: Leadership Lessons from Lewis and Clark's Daring Westward Expedition by Jack Uldrich

This one was really a surprise. I found it in the used book store sandwiched between two books on how to beat the stock market. Of course, the title jumped out at me. (And just to be clear, I don't only read "leadership" books, but the last two books I read before this one were true fire service history books that just happened to suck so I haven't listed them here.)

Admittedly, I don't know much about Lewis and Clark so the material in this book about their expedition was interesting. But the tie-ins to "leadership" were also very compelling. It wasn't the same old book where someone repeats "lead from the front" over and over. For me, there were some true revelations here; specifically with regard to optimism. And the challenges of the expedition rang true as close parallels to working in the fire service.

Recommended for Officers

Extreme Ownership: How US Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

This book was recommended to me by another firefighter. Like I've said above, I reflexively cringe a little when I pick up a Navy SEALs book. When folks involved in a "secret" organization are willing to spill their guts, I'm worried about what the motivation is. To these authors' credit, their preface addresses that exact concern.

I have also previously questioned how much leadership it takes to lead a group of top performers. In other words, "What lessons can they possibly have on leadership when they haven't had to deal with that firefighter I've got at Station X?" One of the authors, Jocko Willink spoke to this during a podcast in which he says that contrary to conventional wisdom, the SEALs actually have poor performers. Apparently, you can get through all that training and still not be good for the teams.

Recommended for Officers

Leading With Honor: Leadership Lessons From The Hanoi Hilton by Lee Ellis

Fire Departments exist within the confines of the communities and governments they serve. In other words, we are charged to do whatever it takes to "save lives and protect property," but are saddled with constraints; many of which we have no say in. It's easy to get discouraged in a situation like that. You feel like you have no control.

For me, books like this one (and Endurance) reinforce the idea that it is possible to stay positive and ultimately prevail in the most dire of circumstances. Lee Ellis was shot down over Vietnam and spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war; much of that time in the infamous Hanoi Hilton. He writes:

"Authentic leaders know that life is difficult. They expect to get knocked down, and they have the proper attitude and outlook to persevere. You have a choice about how you will respond to difficulties. Confront the brutal realities of your situation, but never give up hope."

Recommended for Officers

Lincoln On Leadership by Donald T. Phillips

This entry on the "________ On Leadership" books that have flooded the Business sections of your local bookstore is actually very worth the read. I gauge how much I like a book based on how much I have highlighted. At the end of this one, I had quite a lot in orange.

The author's lessons on leadership are illustrated with very entertaining and often humorous stories of Lincoln and many of the things he wrote and said. It's a really easy read. This book is obviously all about "leadership," but I'm recommending it for all ranks, because it is so easy to read and understand. And because [say it with me] "We're all leaders."

Recommended for all ranks

How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie

This book has been in print for 80 years, and was written when books trying to teach leadership principles weren't so commonplace. But don't let that fool you into thinking that the models of behavior that it espouses are outdated. Quite the contrary; they are so simple that they are timeless.

Now, to be fair, I have to say that I don't really like how many times the author brings up stories related to him by people taking his classes. It comes off as a sales pitch that you should be taking his class too. And you might be tempted to read only the last page of each chapter to see the principle of that chapter outlined in a single sentence, but you'll be doing yourself a disservice if you do. This book is very easy to read, and has some pretty profound suggestions on how to behave if you really sit and think about them; more specifically if you sit and think about if you are embodying those suggestions.

Recommended for all ranks

It Worked For Me: In Life And Leadership by Colin Powell with Tony Koltz

I'm a big fan of Colin Powell's biography which I recommended here for leaders. This book isn't necessarily a "follow-up" to that book, but what it is is a more focused take on some of the leadership lessons of his biography; lessons that were a little more hidden in his biography.

This book is very easy to read, and I have read it whenever I had ten minutes to spare. I don't think there is a chapter longer than ten pages, and it's shortest chapter is just two pages. Powell tackles all areas that he thinks leaders operate in, and gives supporting examples from his career to reinforce why he thinks the lesson is a good one.

My informal rating for any book is to see how much I've highlighted when I'm done reading. My copy of this book has a whole lot of orange in it. Enough said.

Recommended for all ranks

The Mission, The Men, and Me by Pete Blaber

This book is much more storytelling than I was expecting. A large part of it is the events leading up to and the story of Operation Anaconda and the Battle of Takur Ghar. Along the way, the author presents a handful of powerful concepts. The primary one that seems to keep coming up is “Always listen to the guy on the ground.” It’s actually something that Colin Powell recommends in the two of his books on my list here. I believe in this concept completely.

But I worry that “Always listen to the guy on the ground” can get corrupted into “The guy on the ground is always right.” Those two ideas are not the same, and one of them is pretty dangerous. Also, “the guy on the ground” is just the guy who is in the action and knows what’s going on. That makes most of us instinctively think downward; that “the guy on the ground” is always further down the chain. But the guy closer to the action may be above you, depending on what the action is. The concept of “Always listen to the guy on the ground” applies in all directions, which is pretty powerful when you realize it.

Recommended for Officers

Leadership on the line: staying alive through the dangers of change by ronald heifetz and Marty linsky

This book is a little bit harder to read. It’s much more of a textbook than anything else I have recommended here before. And in full disclosure, I had to read it for a class. But when I went back and was looking at the parts that I highlighted, I was reminded just how good of a book it is. The following quote is particularly hard-hitting:

“In this sense, exercising leadership might be understood as disappointing people at a rate they can absorb.”

That idea alone is enough for this book to be worth the read, but there are a whole lot more gems in it. It’s dry, but it’s worth the effort.

Recommended for Officers

Shackleton’s Way: leadership Lessons from the great antarctic explorer by margot morrell and stephanie capparell

This is one of the first “leadership books” that I remember reading. I was a couple of years into my promotion to Captain, and I picked this up in a used book store solely based on my affinity for Shackleton and his incredible story (detailed in Alfred Lansing’s Endurance which is also on my list of recommended reading.) As a matter of fact, don’t go anywhere near this book without first reading Endurance.

I recently re-read this book, and it holds up. I don’t know how much of it should be credited with building some of the tenets of what I consider good leadership, but I can definitely see where I might have picked up some important lessons when I read this back in 2006. And this most recent reading also revealed something that Shackleton did for his men that I need to do a better job of.

Recommended for Officers (and maybe especially new officers)

HAL MOORE ON LEADERSHIP: WINNING WHEN OUTGUNNED AND OUTMANNED BY LT. GEN. HAROLD G. MOORE (USA, RET) AND MIKE GUARDIA

My introduction to Hal Moore was a short video of his leadership principles being read while set to images of U.S troops in combat. It’s still on YouTube all these years later, and I revisit it every few months. Deputy Chief Bill Smith was the one that exposed it to me (he used to play it at the beginning of meetings), and while I enjoyed it, I was always a little dubious about whether the quotes attributed to Moore were actually his, or if they were actually Morgan Freemen (the internet, right?)

I’m glad to find out after reading that everything I loved about that video is all Hal Moore. I was also happy that as with most things, there was more to the story. This book is a pretty damned good primer for all leaders; new leaders and established leaders who may need to be reminded periodically what it’s always all about: the people.

I read this book in two days. It’s short, a very easy read, and jam-packed with good advice. He was quite a man and only recently passed away in 2017. I wish I could have gotten to meet him, and I couldn’t think of a better compliment than if I were to have somehow gotten “the nod” from him.

Recommended for all ranks

Turn The Ship Around! by L. David Marquet

This book came to me via the National Fire Academy (it was required reading for a class), and I really liked it. I’ve also read It’s Your Ship, and while I like that book which is also written by a Naval commander who took his assigned ship from “worst to first,” I prefer this one for a couple of reasons.

The key concept for me from Turn the Ship Around! is the idea that authority should be pushed down as far as possible. However, that authority isn’t bestowed without responsibility. Marquet writes, "...as authority is delegated, technical knowledge at all levels takes on a greater importance. There is an extra burden for technical competence." The captain put a practice into place on his ship that I really liked: sailors weren’t allowed to ask for permission; instead they had to state: “I intend to…” before telling what they were about to do. I really like that.

I also really like Marquet’s assertion that empowerment programs don’t actually empower due to the fact that it means the program has the ability to confer empowerment on someone, which Marquet argues, it doesn’t. I like this because it bothers me when people in an organization feel helpless to change things. Everyone should have the power to move the organization positively within their sphere of influence.

Recommended for Officers

LEADERS: MYTH AND REALITY BY GENERAL STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL (U.S. ARMY, RETIRED), JEFF EGGERS AND JASON MANGONE

This is a good book. It features the biographies of 13 leaders that run the gamut of leadership qualities. It’s a good book.

But Chapters 9 and 10 are effin’ incredible. In those chapters, the authors wrap up their theory on leadership, and it’s revolutionary stuff. Really. I’ve listened to the audiobook of those two chapters at least twenty times.

I recommend the whole book, but I think all leaders should listen/read Chapters 9 and 10. Takes you about an hour. Who doesn’t have an hour?

Recommended for Officers

The Sofa Super Store Fire firefighter fatality Report

On the night of June 18, 2007, nine Charleston firefighters died fighting a fire at the Sofa Super Store. They became known as the Charleston Nine. I’ve read this report over 30 times, and I have been teaching a class about the lessons from this fire for the last 12 years (approaching 100 times). This report is extremely critical of the Charleston Fire Department on the night of this fire, and much of it is deserved. But the real lesson for all of us to read this incredibly important document in fire service history is that most of our departments, on most of the fires we got to, continue to make many of the mistakes made by Charleston that night. Sofa Super Store Firefighter Fatality Investigative Report

Recommended for all ranks (because as a member of the fire profession, we should have a knowledge of our history.)

YOUNG MEN AND FIRE BY NORMAN MACLEAN

I first read this book as a very young firefighter. I decided to read it again recently, and my appreciation for it has grown substantially.

It’s the true story of 13 Smokejumpers who died on a “nothing” fire in 1949, and the 3 survivors who held its secrets. It’s the story of the author, Norman Maclean, who spent years and years investigating the fire on his own. And it’s one of the best written books about a fire that I’ve ever read. Simple, beautiful passages about a horrible fire and the deaths of 13 young firefighters:

“To project ourselves into their final thoughts will require feelings about a special kind of death—the sudden death in fire of the young, elite, unfulfilled, and seemingly unconquerable. As the elite of young men, they felt more surely than most who are young that they were immortal. So if we are to feel with them, we must feel that we are set apart from the rest of the universe and safe from fires, all of which are expected to be put out by ten o’clock the morning after the Smokejumpers are dropped on them.”

Recommended for all ranks (because as a member of the fire profession, we should have a knowledge of our history.)

To Sleep With The Angels by David Cowan and John Kuenster

Most books that tell the story of a famous fire aren't written for firefighters; they're written for the public. So, for me, there always seems to be a little bit of romanticizing and hero worship (which I don't respond well to.) This book very effectively avoids that in its telling of the horrific fire at the Our Lady of Angels School which resulted in the deaths of 92 students and 3 nuns. The telling really hit me hard on a couple of different levels; firefighter, parent, etc. The then head of the NFPA famously said, "There are no new lessons to be learned from this fire; only old lessons that tragically went unheeded."

Recommended for all ranks (because as a member of the fire profession, we should have a knowledge of our history.)

The Perfect Fire by Sean Flynn

The Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. Fire claimed the lives of six firefighters in 1999. It could have killed more firefighters. This is an excellent Esquire Magazine article originally published in 2000 about the fire, and it’s an article that I have recommended to Acting Officers in Charge or new Captains ever since the article was published. And, yes, Sean Flynn wrote a book called “3000 Degrees: The True Story of a Deadly Fire and the Men Who Fought It,” but I much prefer the shorter magazine article: The Perfect Fire by Sean Flynn

Recommended for all ranks (because as a member of the fire profession, we should have a knowledge of our history.)

The Winecoff Fire by Sam Heys and Allen B. Goodwin

Years ago, an elderly man walked into the fire station I was assigned to and began to talk. He eventually revealed he was in the Winecoff Hotel that horrible night and escaped the fire. His story was amazing (as was his list of things he now does in every hotel before going to sleep.) The Winecoff Hotel was a "Fire Proof" hotel that managed to catch fire and kill 119 guests; many of whom were under 20 years old. It's still the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history. I'm not going to pump the book up here; it's only an average read. But I'm glad I had read the book and had some knowledge of the fire when that elderly gentlemen visited the station.

Recommended for all ranks (because as a member of the fire profession, we should have a knowledge of our history.)

Trapped Under The Sea by Neil Swidey

This is the story of a ten mile long tunnel under Boston Harbor, the problem at the end of the tunnel, and the men sent in to fix it. Some barely escaped with their lives. Some didn't. More importantly, and why it makes my list, is the fact that this tragedy is like most tragedies involving the fire service: when we look back at what went wrong, it isn't one glaring problem. Instead, it's a series of very small problems; so small that they may have been overlooked accidentally, or tragically considered so minute at the time that they couldn't possibly matter (but ultimately did.)

Confined space. IDLH environments. High Risk/Low Frequency event. Specially designed new equipment. Never tried before tactics. This story about divers could just as easily have been one about firefighters. And as you read, you'll see similarities between this story and some of our profession's worst tragedies.

There is a strong lesson here for the leaders: if your idea is so great, it should be able to withstand scrutiny. The lesson for the followers is as important: when something doesn't feel right, it's your obligation to voice your concerns.

Recommended for all ranks (Because we are all leaders and followers)

Fire In The Grove: The Cocoanut Grove Tragedy and Its Aftermath by John C. Esposito

492 dead. Wrap your mind around that one. No one will ever be able to say, but it's estimated that there were about 1000 guests and employees in the Cocoanut Grove Nightclub at the time of the fire. Half of them died. Add to that, the fact that by all accounts, the fire department had a knockdown of the fire just 30 minutes after it had begun; a testament to the ferocity of the fire as it consumed the available fuel. A fire that moved so fast, some victims were found in their seats holding their drink. Firefighters entering the building described piles of bodies 8 feet high near the exits. This is the fire that made outward swinging entrance doors and collapsible revolving doors the standard.

I'm not going to say this is the best history book I've read on a fire (see To Sleep With Angels above on my list,) but it is a good read about a very bad fire. There are also a couple of surprises in the book; specifically a chapter dedicated to one of Cocoanut Grove's burn survivors whose treatment was pioneering in burn care. Also, the author ties this fire in with the Station Nightclub fire in the postscript and actually adds a list of things for the public to consider when they enter a structure, regarding available exits, fire protection, etc.

Recommended for all ranks (because as a member of the fire profession, we should have a knowledge of our history.)

The Circus Fire by Stewart O'nan

In 1944, an estimated 6000 people packed the big top in Hartford Connecticut for a matinee performance; a big top made of heavy canvas and waterproofed with paraffin wax. 167 were killed and over 700 were injured when a fire broke out behind one of the grandstands and quickly consumed the tent, raining down flaming canvas and melted globs of burning wax.

This book paints a pretty good picture of the circus that day, and as a firefighter reading it, you can see where some of the details of how the seating and exits of the big top would create a real problem in the event of an emergency. This story reminded me a lot of the Station Nightclub Fire. In both of those fires, precious moments at the beginning of the fire were wasted while the audience watched the fire grow.

This book goes into detail covering the stories of many of the people there that day. So many stories that it often becomes confusing trying to keep up with names. But the author was making a conscious decision to include as many of those stories as possible, since many of the previous books on this fire have concentrated on some of the more gripping personal narratives of this fire. It's admirable to do so, but it ultimately makes this book a little hard to follow with so many small details.

However, this is once again a story of a large fire that shocked an American public that was tempered by WWII and eventually changed fire codes. And for that reason, it has to be included on my list.

Recommended for all ranks (because as a member of the fire profession, we should have a knowledge of our history.)

GHOSTS OF THE FIREGROUND BY PETER M. LESCHAK

On October 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire killed 300 people. We’ve all heard of this fire, and National Fire Safety Week actually commemorates it. But on the same day, a wildfire consumed the town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin killing almost the entire population (estimated to be between 1500 and 2500 people). An accurate count was impossible due to the fact that the firestorm turned bodies to ash which blew away in the wind. The fire even killed fish underwater in the river that ran through town.

This book tells two stories: the story of Father Peter Pernin who survived the Peshtigo Fire, and the author’s story of fighting wildfire. Both are interesting and at times incredibly compelling.

“Each year I train rookies and tell them the truth: wildland firefighting is mostly dirt and drudgery. You do it for the 5 percent of the time when it's the best gig in the world; for the peak experience moments when all other vocations are as ashes beneath your boots; for the days when you feel sorry for the poor saps who opted for law school, med school, or Silicon Valley; for the brutal hours when the pain is so intense it shades into a kind of ecstasy; for the dreadful/wonderful moments when fear makes you so alive you simply cannot die.”

Recommended for all ranks (because as a member of the fire profession, we should have a knowledge of our history.)

Profiles In Courage by John F. Kennedy

Written by then Senator John F. Kennedy (ghostwritten by Kennedy speechwriter Ted Sorenson), this book could have been titled: "So, This Is The Hill You Want To Die On." It's the collected stories of eight U.S. Senators who made choices to go against their own party or the public in the interest of doing what was right. It's an empowering book for an idealist (yours truly in my more self indulgent moments,) but also a very harsh book when you realize the terrible price that standing on your principles can exact.

This book, like my last recommendation, doesn't appear on the outside like a book aimed at rookie firefighters. But I think this book is perfect for rookie firefighters because they have a tendency to think that every hill is worth dying on. Granted, there are definitely times to take a stand, but seasoned firefighters and officers in a department get tempered throughout their careers to learn when to make a stand and when to live to fight another day.

This book very effectively highlights instances where it was important to make a stand. The hill was certainly worth dying on. It's a lesson for newer firefighters because whether you can wear shorts as part of your station uniform isn't a hill worth dying on.

Recommended to all ranks (I mean, it won a Pulitzer Prize. What more do you want?)

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink

Another of my used bookstore finds. The title was definitely intriguing, so I handed over my four dollars.

I've attended any number of leadership classes where someone stands in front of you and tells you that "people don't work for money." (I've always disagreed with this and told the lecturer/instructor so. I most definitely work for money. If you stop paying me, I'll have to find someone else who will pay me. Gotta eat. Gotta pay the bills.)

What I think those instructors were trying to say is that people don't do great work for money. That motivation, to do extraordinary things, is inside every one of us. As the author Pink writes, "Have you ever seen a six-month old or a three-year-old who's not curious and self-directed?...That's how we are out of the box. If, at age fourteen or forty-three, we're passive and inert...it's because something flipped our default setting."

I've had a long standing debate with myself about whether you can truly motivate someone else, or whether all motivation comes from within. (I can beat you with a stick and get you to do something, but that's a corrupted kind of motivation.) There are lots of great ideas in this book about unlocking a person's self motivation. In fact, the last chapter of the book is a toolkit with ideas to find your spark, or maybe your coworker's. I think it's definitely worth your time.

Recommended for all ranks

Team Of Teams: New Rules Of Engagement For A Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal (U.S. Army, Retired) with Tantum Collins, David Silverman, and Chris Fussell

The title of this book really fooled me. I thought the title referred to General McChrystal's team being the pinnacle of a what a team should be. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it's about creating a team comprised of smaller teams.

General McChrystal writes extensively on the benefits of valuing adaptability instead of efficiency. It's a much larger concept that is well covered in the book, and too large to summarize here. But the following quote from the book pretty accurately sums it up, while at the same time perfectly illustrating why the lessons of this book are perfect applied to the fire service:

"...victory as defined by the squad - the primary unit of allegiance - may not align with victory as defined by the task force. The goal becomes to accomplish missions better than the team that bunks on the other side of the base, rather than to win the war. In other words, the magic of teams is a double-edged sword once organizations get big: some of the same traits that make an adaptable team great can make it incompatible with the structure it serves."

Recommended for Officers

Risk - A User’s guide by General Stanley McChrystal (U.S. Army, Retired) and Anna Butrico

Risk is a part of every firefighter’s daily life. Not just on the job. Once exposed to all those things that can go wrong for other people, we tend to recognize risk all around us all the time.

I like McChrystal as an author and this is a pretty deep and interesting dive on a subject that I really haven’t done a lot of direct reading on.

“Effectively dealing with risk is not relying on a novice gambler’s luck and the next turn of a card, nor is it covering your ears as you walk through a minefield in the hopes that if you don’t hear the boom then it won’t eviscerate you. Dealing with risk is the active practice of controlling any single factor within your reach.”

Recommended for Officers

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales

This book was recommended to me by a friend who does a lot of leadership training and is retired special forces. Conversations with him at dinner are always interesting, and a discussion about who lives and who dies one meal led to this recommendation from him.

Deep Survival uses a number of real-life stories of tragedy to explore what it is that makes people survive in horrible situations. There’s a chapter in the book that resonated with me so much, I stopped at the end of the chapter and went back and read it again before continuing in the book. The author examines risk, why people take risks they know they shouldn’t, what actually happens to your mind when you get lost, and how the potential for catastrophe increases the more complex a system becomes attempting to limit risk.

One of my favorite quotes in the book speaks about the sport of mountain climbing and how climbers ironically celebrate at the summit:

“The trap lay in the fact that they were only halfway to their real goal. They were celebrating when they had the worst part of the climb ahead of them [the descent]. Climbers are the only sportsmen who do that.”

It’s a fascinating book, and I won’t ruin for you the part about the sandpile.

Recommended for all ranks

When Cops Kill by Lance J. LoRusso

Granted, this is a little bit of a stretch for this list, but hear me out. The author, Lance J. LoRusso, is a former police officer, now attorney who defends police officers. And if you're thinking, "Well, that's cop stuff," you couldn't be more wrong. Whether it's a cop that shot someone, a cop who has been shot, a firefighter who was killed or injured, or a firefighter who was negligent, the basic process for your department's investigation is virtually the same.

This book is very insightful explaining in detail the ins and outs of the internal affairs investigation process. Hopefully, most of you will never need this insight. But as a chief officer in a large metropolitan department, some of the information in this short book has been very helpful to me.

Recommended for Officers

SOURCES OF POWER: HOW PEOPLE MAKE DECISIONS BY GARY KLEIN

The author studied how firefighters make decisions. There’s a lot in the book about firefighters. And in my experience, the Recognition Primed Decision-Making model he proposes is exactly how we (firefighters as a species) make decisions.

And “experience” is the word to stress. What others may call “instinct” Klein says is actually a process of pattern recognition and mental simulation that is entirely based on experience. Experience that builds into expertise. This is a fantastic book.

Recommended for all ranks.

THINK AGAIN: THE POWER OF KNOWING WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW BY ADAM GRANT

The irony of this book about building your ability to admit that you might be wrong, is the fact that in order for its lessons to be useful, you already need to be willing to admit that you might be wrong and the book might be right.

Still, it was an incredibly fast read filled with lots of nuggets. As with other books on this list about thinking, I’ve realized that I’m still not doing it very well. But that’s the whole point of Think Again. We’re at our best when we are continually learning, continually growing, and by consequence, continually changing.

The book also advocates for a “Challenge Team” which is very close to the Tenth Man concept that we have extolled the virtues of on our podcast (Episode 078 The Tenth Man). A little bit different in execution, but the same basic concept, and more importantly, the same result: a better idea.

Recommended for All Ranks