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Leadership in Supervision O0645

Training Specialist


Ed Kensler
301-447-1158

Delivery type


6-day off-campus

ACE recommendation


There is not an American Council on Education credit recommendation for this course.

Please note: This course is scheduled and delivered through your state's fire training agency. Please contact your state fire training agency for more information.

This 6-day course is the combination of the 3 2-day courses within the Leadership in Supervision series: "Creating Environments for Professional Growth" (F/O/W0646), "Perspectives in Thinking" (F/O/W0647), and "Frameworks to Success" (F/O/W0648).

This series presents the fire and emergency medical services (EMS) supervisor with the basic leadership skills and tools needed to perform effectively in the fire and EMS environment, to successfully transition to supervisory and leadership roles, and to establish a conceptual foundation and framework for success in leadership roles by exploring creative, analytical, political and critical thinking perspectives.

Topics in the course include: adaptive leadership, change management, active followership, effective communication including difficult conversations, advocacy-inquiry-based dialogue and persuasion, ethics, authority, power, decision-making, assessing situations from multiple perspectives, fostering creativity and innovation, professionalism, resilience, emotional intelligence, situational awareness, managing conflict, delegating, mentoring, coaching, empowerment, and building collaboration and synergy for professional growth.

The course includes the development of a personal plan for active engagement in the provision of leadership in supervision.

This course meets the requirements of the Managing Officer Program for completion of Leadership I, II and III.

The primary target audience is those individuals who are at the first-line level of supervision. For purposes of student selection, first-line level is considered to be those at the Company Officer or Unit (fire prevention, fire education, communications, EMS, etc.) Supervisor level.

More specifically, primary selection criteria are as follows:

  • First-line supervisors in fire and EMS organizations.
  • Fire and EMS personnel due for promotion/appointment to a first-line supervisory position within 18 months.
  • Fire and EMS personnel who are regularly assigned acting supervisory positions.

Fire and EMS personnel currently enrolled in the National Fire Academy Managing Officer Program will be provided priority selection.

The secondary target audiences are fire and EMS personnel at the first-line management level (Chief Officer or above). Students at this level may be given consideration on a space-available basis.

Recommended: Incident Command System (ICS)-100-level and ICS-200-level training. Preferred courses are Q0462 and Q0463, available through NFA Online.