What Leadership Is Really About.

In this heartfelt, face-to-face interview for The Fire Chief Podcast, host Lee Scheinbart engages in a profound conversation with Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling US Army (ret), author of the recently published book, If I Don't Return: A Father's Wartime Journal. Together they explore their shared passion, research, and results in leadership development and the impact of context in leadership teaching. The conversation covers key concepts like trust, self-awareness, and adapting leadership to changing environments. In the second half of the interview, they turn to the recent publication and Mark offers timeless lessons on character, the scars of leadership, and the value of service. The two compare profound parallels between the military and medicine, and in a moving moment near the end of the discussion, Mark offers his deeply personal reflections on why he wrote the book. Finally, the two gentlemen conclude that leadership is, at its essence, all about love.