Stepping Out of the Zone of Fire

By Nicki Pozos

Women are punished for being “outspoken” when they step outside of their designated Zone of Fire.

In hierarchal organizations, people are encouraged to have a clear Zone of Fire. Zone of Fire is a concept from the military. If you are in a firing line, you are assigned a defined area, your Zone of Fire. If an enemy enters your Zone, you fire; if an enemy enters somebody else’s area, you don’t fire. Your job is to keep your eye on your own Zone and to ignore the rest.

Zone of Fire is the fundamental basis of hierarchy. Most organizations are divided into divisions and groups within those divisions, each with a defined purpose. Though you would be hard pressed to find an organization that claims they encourage silos in this way, the Zone of Fire is quite strictly enforced.

Here’s an example from many years in my past. I disagreed with the email policy of a former employer. Wanting to be proactive, I found the name of the executive in charge of IT and sent him a polite email expressing why I thought the policy should be changed. I felt good about taking action. Instead of just complaining to my colleagues, I had opened the possibility that the policy could be changed.

Alas, email policy was far outside of my Zone of Fire. The result was a negative mention in my annual review, some six months later. The comment was not that I should stay within my Zone, or mind my own business. The Zone of Fire is seldom acknowledged so transparently. Instead, I was told I should have called instead of emailed. Looking back, I am confident that a phone call would have been met with the same reaction.

I’ve lived in hierarchies for over 20 years, and I only started to understand the Zone of Fire within the past few years. Why has it taken me so long? Because the Zone of Fire is as unnatural for many women as it is presumed by many men. And even now that I understand the Zone of Fire, I find it almost impossible to obey the rules of the Zone.

When women hear about a problem, they tend to speak up, regardless of whether it falls within their Zone of Fire. Why? Because they care about the organization, and they have a sincere belief that management will “want to know.” And if they were in the same situation, they would indeed want to know.

For men, it is more important to respect the Zone of Fire of an adjacent manager. For men, expressing concern would convey a lack of confidence that the adjacent manager is able to effectively control their Zone of Fire.

The Zone of Fire is one reason why female leaders have ubiquitously been told they are too outspoken. It’s not merely a judgment that they are too assertive. They are speaking outside of their Zone of Fire and disobeying the rules of the hierarchy. Rules that they do not instinctually understand.

I’ve written before about my belief that the ability to synthesize diverse perspectives will be the competitive advantage of the future. Loosening the grip of the Zone of Fire within our organizations is one step we can take towards that future.