Do you like fires?  I love fires.

There is something very soothing about basking in the warmth of a fire.  The sound of the crackling wood, the scent of smoke, the power of the fire contained in such a way that it brings life and not destruction…all very compelling.

I’ve noticed something about guys in particular: we can sit for ages in front of a campfire just hanging out, talking about nothing and poking at the fire.  There is something magical about fire.  It’s alive.  It’s hypnotic.

We have an older home so we have the pleasure of having two wood-burning fireplaces: one in the living room and one in our family room.  It’s tough to beat sitting beside the fireplace reading a book on a cold winter’s day while watching snow fall outside.

It’s magical.

This Christmas holiday was perfect for doing just that.  Lots of snow fell and we had lots of down time to enjoy the fireplace.  Chillin’ by the fire – which is a bit of an oxymoron I guess.  But you know what I mean.  It’s just relaxing to sit beside a fire.

But here’s what I think is most compelling about fires: you can interact with them.  You play with them.  You tinker with them.  You build them.  You mess around with them.  The best part about a fire is shifting the wood around to keep it burning; adding wood to ensure the fire keeps going; engineering the fire the way you want it to burn.  That’s what makes for good fire time.

Sure, it’s good just sitting beside a great fire, but you take things to another level when you are the architect of the flame: when you are master of the blaze.  The real fun is stoking the fire.  As I sat by my fire reveling in primal pride, savoring my mastery of the blaze, I learned something simple yet very profound…

Unattended fires go out.

There are 2 critical stages to a good fire:  1. Starting, 2. Stoking.  By “stoking” I mean “keeping it ablaze”.  If you want a fire to keep burning you need to keep feeding it.  You need to keep stoking it.

How do you stoke a fire?

Simple, shift the wood around to ensure the pieces are close enough together to feed on each other’s heat and flame, and put more fuel (wood) on the fire when the burning wood has been mostly consumed by the fire.

Playing with the fire I began to ask myself,

“Am I stoking the fires in my life that need to be stoked?”

How about you?

Years ago I sat with a CEO who was telling me about the key traits he looks for in good people.  One of those traits was what he referred to as “fire in the belly”.  That was the term he used to refer to “passion, motivation, initiative, a sense of urgency, conviction, commitment, vision, direction, engagement, energy, determination, ambition and perseverance”.  For him, “fire in the belly” was everything.  For him, that was a fire he stoked on a regular basis, and he wanted others to do the same.

How about your organization:  How is your ‘vision’ fire burning?  How hot is your ‘strategy’?  Is employee engagement ablaze in your company?  How about sales – is your sales team on fire?

Leaders start and stoke fires.

Bad leadership starts and stokes destructive fires like division, selfishness, arrogance, jealousy, indecisiveness, cowardice, fear, intimidation, complacency, mediocrity and the like.  Good leadership starts and stokes beneficial fires like humility, boldness, collaboration, courage, excellence, respect, relationship, team work, initiative, innovation, creativity, empathy, perseverance and the like.

So what kind of fires are you starting and stoking?

If a primary role of leadership is to start and stoke fires within the people they lead, then leaders need to ensure they have “fire in the belly”.  Our passion, commitment, conviction and courage are like fires, if we don’t stoke them, they will go out.  We must add fuel to our fires to keep them burning brilliantly.

If your fires need stoking, then get around other leaders who are “on fire” and get “fired up”!

Let’s start and stoke some good fires in 2016.