By Brycen Garrison
We are trained to recognize threats and take action – quickly, decisively and often under immense pressure. But in leadership, the most effective moves often happen before a problem becomes urgent. The best leaders don’t just react to challenges. They anticipate them, prepare for them and solve them before they grow.
With this in mind, let’s address a powerful leadership mantra: Never walk past a problem you can help solve. It’s about teaching yourself and your team to work with foresight, clarity and intention, because when we operate with this mindset, we stop running from fire to fire and start building a sustainable vision for the long-term health of the organization.
Solve tomorrow’s problems today
There are always challenges on the horizon, issues waiting just out of view. If you’re only focused on what’s in front of you today, you’re already behind. That’s the paradox of leadership: solving today’s problems is often just survival. To lead well, you need to be working on tomorrow’s problems.
“Tomorrow” might mean five years from now or it might mean literally mean tomorrow. It’s not about the timeline; it’s about mindset. Being prepared for what’s next keeps your organization from constantly operating in a state of triage. It frees up your people to grow, to innovate and to focus on what actually moves your department forward.
Whether it’s a minor oversight that can snowball into something bigger or a slow-building trend that requires a major investment, leaders must develop the discipline of acting early. If you know a challenge is coming, you should prepare a strategy that’s in place long before the challenge lands on your doorstep.
From the fireground to the five-year plan
This principle applies at every level of the organization. It could be something large, like planning for a new fire station. If your community is growing – and you’re paying attention – you know where the demand is headed. With a bit of data, long-range vision and strategic property acquisition, you can have the infrastructure ready when needed, not after your response times have already suffered.
It could also be something as small as noticing a tool left on the ground. You stop, pick it up and put it back. That one moment prevents an injury, a workers’ comp claim, a gap in staffing and all the cascading effects that follow. One second of attention avoids weeks or months of headaches.
Big or small, the problems we see today are often the seeds of bigger issues tomorrow. Solving them early is not only practical, it’s leadership in its purest form.
Activity isn’t the same as progress
There’s another trap we fall into as leaders: the cult of busyness. We convince ourselves we’re doing meaningful work because our calendars are full and our phones won’t stop ringing. But “busy” doesn’t always mean “productive.” In fact, the word busy often masks a lack of focus.
Every time we say we’re busy, we get a little dopamine hit – a momentary rush that feels like accomplishment. But if the activity isn’t aligned with our purpose or vision, it’s just motion without direction.
Remove busy from your vocabulary. Replace it with intentional. Replace it with focused. The goal isn’t to look like you’re working hard; it’s to actually move your organization forward in a meaningful way.
Vision first, strategy always
Everything you do today should align with your vision for tomorrow. As a leader, you need to know what you’re trying to accomplish – and every small decision should point in that direction. That means having a clear vision, then making sure the little things you do today are building toward it.
Teach your team to see this too. Help them recognize the connection between everyday choices and long-term outcomes. Show them what it means to act with foresight, not just urgency.
And when something catches you off guard, as it inevitably will, pause, regroup, clarify what needs to be done, and refocus on the mission. Leadership isn’t about perfection. It’s about being ready. It’s about making progress. And it’s about helping others do the same.
So never walk past a problem you can help solve. That small act of leadership may be the first step in solving a much bigger one tomorrow.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brycen Garrison is the fire chief of the Brighton Fire Rescue District in Colorado. Garrison has over two decades of leadership experience in emergency services, having previously served as assistant chief of training and special operations for the City of Thornton Fire Rescue, and having worked as a rescue tool specialist, teaching advanced extrication techniques to firefighters across the country. Garrison holds a master’s degree in emergency services management from Columbia Southern University and a bachelor’s degree with an emphasis in psychology and sociology from Colorado State University. He is a Certified Fire Officer (CFO) and previously a Chief Training Officer (CTO) through the Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE). Garrison is also a part of multiple fire chief associations, boards of directors and community leadership groups.
