Stop Firefighting: How New Tech Managers Create Space to Lead
If your day starts with a flood of Slack messages and ends with the feeling you’ve survived rather than led - you’re not alone.
The good news? Firefighting isn’t inevitable.
You can create space to think strategically, support your team, and actually lead.
The Problem With Firefighting
When I first stepped into engineering management, I felt like a firefighter-in-chief.
Urgent pings, last-minute requests, production bugs - everything came to me.
I thought fixing problems fast was leadership.
But it wasn’t.
My team stopped solving problems on their own.
I was constantly exhausted.
And the long-term improvements never happened because I was trapped in short-term chaos.
This is common for first-time leaders - especially when you’ve been promoted from an individual contributor role.
You know how to fix things technically, so stepping in feels natural.
But it keeps you stuck in reaction mode rather than system design mode.
Lessons From The Phoenix Project
Gene Kim’s The Phoenix Project describes four types of work:
- Business Projects – planned, visible value.
- Internal Projects – automation, refactoring, upgrades.
- Changes – frequent standard work.
- Unplanned Work – firefighting.
“Unplanned work is the silent killer of productivity.”
When unplanned work dominates, you:
- Miss delivery commitments.
- Neglect improvement work that prevents future fires.
- Burn out high performers who are always “on call.”
Every team has a “Brent” - that go-to expert who fixes everything.
Unless you protect their time, they become a bottleneck and morale sinks.
How I Applied It in Practice
When I managed squads, firefighting was our default.
Our “Brent” was overwhelmed, and the system revolved around them.
Here’s what turned things around:
1. Visualise Unplanned Work
We added a dedicated Unplanned Work column to our board.
After two sprints, the data showed 40 % of time going into reactive tasks.
That visibility gave us the leverage to push back, prioritise, and plan better.
2. Protect Key People
We introduced rotating triage duty so no one was constantly interrupted.
Each day, one person handled urgent issues; everyone else focused.
Context-switching plummeted, and coaching time increased.
3. Clarify Priorities
If everything feels urgent, nothing is.
We agreed that if a new request interrupted planned work, it needed three answers:
- What’s the impact?
- What’s the deadline?
- What’s the trade-off?
It reframed “Can you just…” into a clear business decision.
4. Create Agreements in Calm Moments
We wrote a short Working Agreement after a retro on interruptions:
- Slack after hours only for Sev-1.
- No drive-by requests - everything through the board.
- Every meeting needs an owner and purpose.
These weren’t rules for the sake of it; they were safety nets for focus.
The Identity Shift: From Fixer to Designer
The hardest change wasn’t the process - it was me.
I had to move from “I’m valuable when I fix things”
to “I’m valuable when I design a system where others fix things.”
That mindset shift created space to coach instead of constantly rescue.
It’s what turned me from a problem-solver into a system-builder.
A 7-Day Starter Plan
- Day 1: Add a visible column for unplanned work.
- Day 2: Identify your “Brent” and discuss rotation.
- Day 3: Block two 90-minute focus sessions for yourself.
- Day 4: Agree intake questions for new requests.
- Day 5: Run a short retro on interruptions.
- Day 6: Draft a one-page Working Agreement.
- Day 7: Reflect - what changed? What stays?
Final Thought
Firefighting feels heroic in the moment, but it drains teams and hides the real work of leadership.
By making the invisible visible, protecting people, and reframing urgency, you shift from reaction to intention.
Less firefighting.
More leadership.
A calmer, more resilient team.
Want to Reduce Firefighting in Your Team?
I coach tech managers to build systems and mindsets that prevent chaos instead of reacting to it.
Book a free 15-minute chemistry call
Supporting tech managers to lead better teams.