Firehouse Culture, Complacency & Leadership Clarity | Corley Moore (Firehouse Vigilance / The Weekly Scrap) on All Clear

Travis interviews Corley Moore, founder of Firehouse Vigilance and host of The Weekly Scrap podcast, about leadership and firehouse culture. Moore shares his background after 28 years with the Moore Fire Department and explains Firehouse Vigilance’s mission: the never-ending fight against complacency. He describes a key cultural red flag—when high performers go silent and stop giving feedback—and defines high performers as those who hold themselves to standards above the organizational baseline and need to feel valued, heard, and understood. As a positive indicator, he points to empowered crews acting autonomously and accomplishing tasks without being explicitly directed. Moore emphasizes that effective leadership starts with “clarity”: defining what success and excellence look like, using that as a measuring stick for priorities, and communicating shared values so teams buy in; he notes there is no universal formula because context and people differ. The conversation also covers stress, burnout, and mental health, with Moore arguing that toxic leadership and lack of psychological safety often worsen outcomes more than the inherent trauma and workload; he notes many struggles after tough calls stem from guilt about feeling unprepared. They discuss how weak culture leads to multiplying rules (“when culture is weak, rules multiply”), using uniform and appearance issues as common symptom-level fixes instead of addressing shared purpose. Moore talks about generational challenges, saying newer firefighters are shaped by instant feedback loops and delayed gratification is harder, and stresses building relationships and learning to connect without coddling. Moore shares where to find his work (firehousevigilance.com, The Weekly Scrap on YouTube and podcast platforms) and mentions the free Book of Search and Work of Search PDFs (with physical copies on Amazon supporting Firefighter Rescue Survey and Firefighter Mayday Survey), plus The Vigilantes community via Patreon and a Discord server.

00:00 Meet Corley Moore & Firehouse Vigilance Origin Story

01:45 Firehouse Culture Red Flags: When High Performers Go Silent

03:01 Defining “High Performers” & Why Their Feedback Matters

04:59 Green Flags: Autonomy, Empowerment, and Real Leadership

06:13 Day-to-Day Leadership That Works: Clarity, Values, and Priorities

12:16 Stress, Burnout & Psychological Safety in a High-Tempo Job

19:28 Fixing Cultural Pockets Without Alienating People (Rules vs Culture)

23:26 Next-Gen Leadership: Feedback Loops, Resilience, and Relationships

29:21 Where to Find Corley: Weekly Scrap, FirehouseVigilance.com & The Vigilantes

31:37 Long-Form Conversations vs Instant Gratification + Final Wrap

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