Firefighters Share How to LIGHT A FIRE UNDER YOUR BUSINESS in New Release

Life or death? Profit or loss? The same leadership techniques can work brilliantly in both situations.

In Light a Fire under Your Business: How to Build a Class 1 Corporate Culture through Inspirational Leadership(Praeger; May 28, 2015; $37.00 Hardback) former Los Angeles Fire Department Captains turned business executives Tom Pandola and James W. Bird share principles for management, leadership and success that have the power to continuously improve business operations, personnel motivation, and the bottom line. They learned and applied these lessons over nearly 50 combined years of fire service careers, and used them successfully in nearly 30 combined years in business.

"It hit me: I had been using my previously learned, ingrained fire service management and leadership principles to guide me in my business profession," Bird writes. "My business successes were numerous and were recognized on several occasions by my superiors in two Fortune 500 companies... [Tom Pandola and I] exchanged our similar business success stories--experiences we believed were due to adapting our firefighting principles to fit our new work situations," he continues.

Readers will learn about fire-tested and business-proven principles of management, leadership, and success, including:

* The true value of a shared mission statement.

* Building and earning trust to become an influential leader.

* The importance of two-way communications to take command and lead with vision.

* Methods of planning, review, and revision that can contribute to continuous improvement.

* How to create and maintain high-performance teams.

* Ten success orders for business firefighting; how to safely and effectively deal with crises in your organization or environment.

* How to inspire success in your teams and organization.

"Firefighting is a hot, dirty and dangerous environment," notes Pandola. "And yet, it has also been a great place for us to discover real-world business practices that work. Big fires start small, just like a big accomplishment starts with a single idea. Best practices can spread faster than wildfire if they are shared with others."

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Tom Pandola is a director of communications in the air medical transportation industry. He is also a cofounder of Third Alarm, a leadership consulting company he started with coauthor Jim Bird. Pandola's work experience includes 25 years with the Los Angeles City Fire Department where, as a fire captain and battalion chief, he tested inspirational leadership principles while solving problems associated with responding to fires, floods, riots, and earthquakes. More information is available at http://www.third-alarm.com.

James W. Bird served with the Los Angeles City Fire Department for 24 years, rising to the rank of captain and distinguishing himself as an innovative leader. His business career spanned 20 years in the high-pressure environment of the Fortune 500 where he developed new sales strategies and cross-functional processes while also providing leadership for diverse teams.

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