Decision making is a crucial part of leading in any industry, never mind the public sector.
With decisions being made that can have life changing consequences for entire communities it is vital that leaders are accountable, able to make decisions under pressure, and able to foresee the challenges that they might face in the future.
To talk about making decisions under pressure, the journey that the organisation has been on, and his personal career, Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service’s Mark Smyth joined host Dan Benn on the latest episode of the Public Sector Executive Podcast.
Talking about some of the challenges that the fire and rescue service faces over the course of the next year, Mark said: “There’s many major threats when you start to look at the national risk registers and you look at dealing with climate change. We’re getting more flooding, we’re getting longer periods of wetness. You’re starting to see the large wildfires and gorse fires that hit the Southeast of England last year.”
Challenges don’t stop with climate change, however, as Mark expanded: “There’s challenges in and around the operational side of our culture and changing, that’s major for us. You’ll know that financially and under budget restraints that we have in the world we’re in now, there’s really big challenges around that, and providing the service that the public want with the limited financial resources we have.”
To hear more about the challenges of leadership in a high pressure environment, as well as what the future might hold within fire and rescue, listen to the latest episode of the Public Sector Executive Podcast.
