Always firefighting: resourcing or leadership problem?

Always firefighting: is it a resourcing problem or a leadership one?

The short answer: it can be either, and often it's both. A useful test is what happens when you add people. If the pressure eases and stays eased, you had a capacity problem. If it eases for a month and then returns, and the same few people are still pulled into every crisis, the cause is more likely leadership: decisions travelling upwards, unclear ownership and experienced people rescuing problems rather than helping others solve them.

Firefighting is close to normal in our industry

In creative, events and exhibition agencies, deadlines don't move. The show opens when it opens. That creates a culture I know well from my years running 4D: we'll make it work. Somebody stays late, a producer finds a supplier, a director steps in, and the client never sees the strain.

That resourcefulness is one of the best things about agencies. It also hides problems for a long time, because the business keeps delivering.

It isn't only a feeling. Workload was the issue staff raised most often in the Alliance of Independent Agencies' 2026 People Pulse, a survey of 855 people across 61 UK independent agencies. In the meetings and events sector, 53% of businesses reported rising burnout and stress in the Meetings Industry Association's 2025 research, driven by workloads and tight deadlines.

Signs it's mainly a capacity problem

• The workload is high across the whole team, not concentrated in a few people.

• The volume of work has grown faster than the team.

• Good planning still doesn't make the hours fit.

• New hires settle in and the pressure genuinely eases.

Signs it's mainly a leadership problem

• The same few people are pulled into every crisis.

• Problems are discovered late, when they have already become urgent.

• Decisions wait for a director, even ones a manager could make.

• Senior people spend most of their week in delivery.

• New hires are absorbed into the chaos rather than relieving it.

If most of your answers sit in the second list, more people won't solve it. They will be pulled into the same patterns.

How rescuing keeps the fires burning

In my Above the Line work, I draw a distinction between supporting and rescuing. Supporting helps the person who owns a problem to solve it, and leaves the responsibility with them. Rescuing takes the problem away, usually because it's faster in the moment.

Rescuing feels responsible, and sometimes it's exactly right. But when it becomes the habit, the business learns to send its problems upwards. Managers stop anticipating issues because someone more senior will step in. The experienced people spend their days firefighting, and nobody has time to do the planning that would prevent the next fire.

A leader working Above the Line can still roll up their sleeves. The difference is that they choose when to step in and why, rather than being pulled in by habit every time something goes wrong.

Where to start

1.Track the fires for two weeks. Note each urgent problem, where it started and who got pulled in to solve it.

2.Look for the pattern. Are the same people always rescuing? Do problems start in the same places, such as handovers, scoping or client changes?

3.Change one route. Pick one recurring type of problem and agree who now owns it, what they can decide and how the senior person will support rather than take over.

4.Protect some planning time. Even an hour a week for a manager to look ahead reduces the number of surprises.

Frequently asked questions

Will hiring more people fix it? If the problem is capacity, yes. If it's leadership, new people tend to be absorbed into the same patterns. It is worth understanding which you have before recruiting.

Isn't firefighting just part of working in an agency? Some of it is, and good teams handle it well. The warning sign is when it becomes the main way the business operates and the same people carry it every time.

How do I get my managers to plan ahead? Give them the time and the authority to act on what they see coming. If every issue they spot still has to go to a director, planning ahead doesn't feel worthwhile.

If this sounds familiar

If your agency always seems to be in firefighting mode and you'd like to understand why, I'd be glad to talk it through. Get in touch.

Suzy Malhotra is the founder of The Leadership Line, which works with founders, MDs and senior teams in creative, events, experiential and exhibition agencies when responsibility needs to move. She co-founded and ran 4D Design, an exhibition and events agency, for nearly thirty years.