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Write. Reflect. Lead.

Crisis leadership punishes leaders who never step away. The world does not slow down for your comfort. Alarms ring. Decisions demand presence. People look to you while chaos presses in. You move fast. You act. You survive.


Surviving is not learning.


Pressure-driven leadership conditions reaction. Fast. Decisive. Relentless. That ability keeps things moving. It also degrades judgment if you never leave it. Autopilot hides patterns. Busy feels productive. Exhausted feels earned. Reflection gets dismissed. That is a mistake.


Solitude is not a break from influence. It is part of it. Judgment recovers only when the noise drops.


You record what happens around you: timelines, actions, outcomes. You rarely record what happens inside you: decisions made under pressure, emotions controlled in public, doubt buried so momentum holds.


History shows that unwritten experience does not vanish. It resurfaces as short patience, repeated mistakes, and decision fatigue you cannot explain.


Writing creates separation, lifting you out of the moment and restoring perspective. The act delays the noise enough for judgment to come back online. Reaction gives way to recovery. Recovery is where mitigation starts.


Andy Fredericks inspired a profession. Little Drops of Water taught that mastery came from disciplined repetition. Small acts done consistently. Often alone. Skill was built before the call, not during it. Influence works the same way: small, deliberate moments of reflection, even after the fire fades, compound into judgment and insight. Just as Fredericks’ streams shaped outcomes on the fireground, your small acts of reflection shape outcomes in your mind.


Reflection follows the same rule. Judgment is constructed like skill: quiet work, honest review, small passes after the noise fades.


That is why writing after decisive moments matters. Many fear the starting line because they think writing means pages. It does not. Start small. Take an index card. Write what happened. Write what matters now. Write the decision that cannot wait. No explanation. No story. Just facts and priority. That small act restores order.


As pressure fades, write again. Where did you hesitate? What did you miss? What held under stress? Do not chase insight. Let feedback surface. Confidence grows. A paragraph becomes a page. Reflection follows. Stop when clarity arrives or when you know who has it.


Most leaders rush forward once the heat fades. They skip the quiet work that turns experience into judgment. They assume lessons will settle on their own. History is unforgiving to that habit. Crises repeat when feedback goes unrecorded.


Over time, the pages teach you. They show where judgment bent and where it held. They expose habits that supported success and systems that failed under pressure. This is not blame. It is direction. Preparation begins here.


You do not prepare alone. Writing reveals thin thinking. Mentors and coaches sharpen thought. Seeking counsel is not retreat. It is mitigation.


The most dangerous crisis is internal. Constant alertness. Reactivity. Exhaustion mistaken for commitment. Solitude restores proportion. Writing recalibrates judgment.


Pressure will return.


Leaders who practice small, private reflection respond ready. Those who do not repeat themselves under pressure.


This article was written by Wes Hill Fire Chief – Fort Riley Fire & Emergency Services


Photo Credits: AI and Wes Hill


Download the fillable PDF curated by Wes Hill and CJ Dickinson below to evaluate your leadership blind spots.




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