Leaders Don’t Fix People. Leaders Fix the Environment.
I recently saw a post from L. David Marquet, who stopped me mid-scroll. It was direct and straightforward: Leaders don’t fix people. Leaders fix the environment. Like most good leadership ideas, it landed because it named something many of us have felt but rarely articulate.
I have read several of David’s books, including Turn the Ship Around!, and I have had him on my show more than once. His work has influenced how I think about leadership, authority, and responsibility, especially in complex, high-stakes systems such as emergency management. His message consistently challenges the instinct to control and instead asks leaders to design environments where people can think, decide, and act with purpose.
When I read that post, I realized I could not just nod and move on. It was too closely connected to what I see every day in our profession. Too often, when something goes wrong, we look for someone to fix rather than the problem itself. We focus on individuals when the real issue is the system surrounding them. That realization is what pushed me to write this piece.
Because leadership, especially in emergency management, is not about repairing people. It is about shaping the conditions that allow good people to do good work, even when the situation is uncertain, stressful, and imperfect.
“The leader’s job is not to make decisions for the team, but to create the environment where the team can make better decisions than the leader ever could.”
— L. David Marquet, author of Turn the Ship Around!
