You don’t need more policies. You need people who can lead through chaos.

I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again louder for the people in the back..

Stop hiring people just because of the letters after their name.

CPP, LPC, CFI, CRSP — great, they passed a test.

But can they lead in chaos? Can they protect your team when shit hits the fan? Can they spot a threat before it becomes a headline?

That’s what actually matters.

Too many safety and security decisions in this industry are being made by people who’ve never once had to act under pressure. They’ve read about emergencies in a PowerPoint. Maybe they sat through a seminar. But when it’s real? When someone’s bleeding out, threatening suicide, or starting a fire behind your loading dock?

They freeze. Or worse, they disappear.

The corporate world is obsessed with policies. I’ve seen entire companies brag about their compliance binder while ignoring the fact that their team wouldn’t know what to do if a real emergency happened. Most of your policies are performative. They exist so you can say, “We have a policy.” They get dusted off once a year during audits. But ask yourself: if something happened right now, are you actually prepared? Or are you just hoping no one ever puts it to the test?

There was a recent study on workplace safety that showed teams with real emergency experience, not just textbook knowledge, performed significantly better under pressure. The same report pointed out that certifications had “no measurable impact on incident outcomes.” You want to know why? Because you don’t rise to the occasion. You fall to your level of training. And if your training stops at a printed manual, you’re already behind.

A fire doesn’t wait for you to check the compliance binder.

A mental health crisis doesn’t pause while you email your supervisor for guidance.

And thieves don’t care how many certificates are framed on the wall.

You need people who’ve been there. Who’ve had to act fast, think straight, and make hard calls when it counted. People who know the streets, not just the standards. And yet, in a national review of workplace safety programs, companies that relied solely on compliance based training had a higher rate of critical incidents than those who incorporated hands on, scenario based drills. That’s the difference between “knowing” and actually doing.

Want to build a safety program that actually protects people and your bottom line? Then it’s time to focus on what matters.

Risk assessments that expose the real blind spots, not just the ones you think you have.

Incident response plans that are tested under pressure, not just signed off by legal.

Practical training that teaches people how to think and act, not memorize and forget.

And hiring people based on how they show up, not just what’s written on a resume.

I’ve seen folks with no letters after their names take charge during full blown emergencies while the “qualified” ones stood frozen or fumbled around looking for the nearest policy binder. This isn’t about alphabet soup. It’s about backbone. Instinct. Experience. That can’t be taught in a classroom. It’s built in the field, in the fire, through hard lessons and real situations.

If you’re hiring for safety or security, you need to be asking better questions.

Have they handled real incidents, not just simulations?

Can they de-escalate a hostile situation without backup?

Do they lead under pressure, or do they wait to be told what to do?

Can they connect with your team, read the room, and move people into action?

If they can’t answer with real stories and hard earned lessons, they’re not the one. Keep looking.

What’s killing businesses today isn’t a lack of policies, it’s a lack of preparedness. It’s leadership making decisions based on aesthetics, not effectiveness. It’s hiring managers choosing people because they look good on paper, not because they’ve proven they can perform under pressure.

Meanwhile, the people who actually get it? The ones who’ve been in the trenches, who’ve responded to incidents, who know how to lead through chaos, they’re being ignored. Or worse, they’re getting burned out and pushed out of the very industry that needs them most.

That’s why I started my consulting firm. To flip that broken system on its head.

We don’t check boxes. We build systems that actually work when it counts.

We expose blind spots.

We train teams that act, not panic.

We help you hire based on substance, not status.

And we get your operation ready for what’s coming, not just what’s in the handbook.

Because when a real incident happens, no one’s going to care about the certifications on someone’s LinkedIn profile.

They’re going to care whether that person can save your ass.