Tag Archives: Culture

The Mission, Vision, Core Values Project

Leadership, Squad Culture, , , ,

The Mission, Vision, and Core Values of my police department have been out-of-date, full of clichés, and completely unused for years. In their 20+ years of existence, they have become posters on the wall that we walk by every day, but serve no purpose other than to go on the department webpage and in the annual report.

So, I decided to submit the following project suggestion through my chain of command up to the Chief of Police. AND GUESS WHAT . . . He agreed, loved it, and has approved it to move forward as soon as possible.

I am currently in the process of carrying out the below plan, so I thought I would share it with all of those that read the Thin Blue Line of Leadership Blog. Enjoy and let me know if you have any thoughts or questions.

MISSION, VISION, CORE VALUES PROJECT

PURPOSE: The purpose of this project is to create a new mission, vision, and set of core values for the XXXXXXX Police Department by utilizing a collaborative process involving the entire organization. The goal is to create discussion, build buy-in, and generate acceptance of our new mission, vision, and set of core values.

PROCESS: To accomplish this project, it will be spread out over a four-month period. Each unit, both sworn and professional staff, will view an introductory video on the definition, purpose, and value of a good mission, vision, and set of core values. Each month following, they will receive a more specific video to discuss, within their group, the given topic and submit their unit’s suggestion for what our department’s mission, vision, or set of core values should be. The Training Section will receive each unit’s submission and filter them down. Those will then be presented to Chief XXXXXXX for approval. The ones that obtain the Chief’s approval will be put out to vote by units to the entire department.

MONTH #1 – INTRODUCTION TO THE MISSION, VISION, AND CORE VALUES PROJECT

  • Define mission, vision, and core values and why they are important to an organization.
  • Where we learned/failed with our current mission, vision, and core values.
  • Discuss Peel’s 9 Law Enforcement Principles and their application to current policing.
  • Discuss the following questions to start the conversations within the units.
    • What is policing?
    • What is good policing?
    • Why do we police?
    • How do we police?
    • Who do we serve?
    • How could we serve them better?

MONTH #2 – CORE VALUES

  • Define core values and why they are important to an organization.
    • Identifies the fundamental beliefs of the organization.
    • These beliefs dictate how we treat those we serve, those we work with, and how we solve problems.
    • Core values require a commitment to living and working them.
  • Examples of corporate and law enforcement core values.
  • What should our core values be? (3 to 4 only)
    • Unit discussion and core value development.
    • Submit core value suggestions to Training Section.
    • Training section filters.
    • Chief approves of finalists.
    • Units vote to choose our core values.

MONTH #3 – MISSION STATEMENT

  • Define a mission statement and why it is important to an organization.
  • A mission statement defines…
    • What we do – our purpose?
    • What problem are we trying to solve for the greater good?
    • What we get out of doing what we do properly – the value?
    • How we do it? (This ties back into our core values.)
  • Examples of corporate and law enforcement mission statements.
  • What should our mission statement be?
    • Unit discussion and mission statement development.
    • Submit mission statement suggestions to Training Section.
    • Training section filters.
    • Chief approves of finalists.
    • Units vote to choose our mission statement.

MONTH #4 – VISION STATEMENT

  • Define a vision statement and why it is important to an organization.
  • A vision statement defines…
    • Why we do what we do? Why do we police?
    • What is the result of a future where we are meeting our core values?
    • What is the result of a future where we are meeting our mission statement?
  • Examples of corporate and law enforcement vision statements.
  • What should our vision statement be?
    • Unit discussion and mission statement development.
    • Submit mission statement suggestions to Training Section.
    • Training section filters.
    • Chief approves of finalists.
    • Units vote to choose our vision statement.

ROLLOUT OUR DEPARTMENT’S NEW MISSION, VISION, AND CORE VALUES.

Once this project is completed, I will be creating and instructing training to our Field Training Officers, Sergeants, and other supervisors on how to best utilize our new mission, vision, and core values and get the most out of them.

The mission at Thin Blue Line of Leadership is to inspire law enforcement leaders to be better than they were yesterday. Positive leadership and creating a positive squad culture are on-going commitments that must be nurtured and developed over time. By discussing topics like this, law enforcement leaders are tending to the welfare of the “whole” officer, not just the one in uniform.

Share your thoughts or comments with us below or on our Facebook page. Continue saving the world one call at a time and as always, LEAD ON!

Support TBLL Expansion

Introduction, , ,

Hi All,

Thin Blue Line of Leadership is looking to expand its capabilities and the content that it brings to law enforcement leaders everywhere. TBLL has been actively writing this blog, posting on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube since June 13, 2014 sharing positive law enforcement leadership ideas. To date, this has all been at my own time and expense.

So, now I am asking for your help and support. If you have found any of the free content TBLL has provided over the last 7 years useful, please consider donating to help support content expansion into video production and podcasting. To help this along, I’m offering the following…

$250 Donation – I’ll write a leadership blog on a topic of your choice.

$500 Donation – I’ll create a Briefing Training video on an LE incident of your choice.

TBLL is looking to raise approximately $3500 in order to buy the equipment necessary to create interactive professional law enforcement content and bring it to the TBLL platforms without the need to utilize advertising or subscriptions to pay for it. Even if it is only $5 or $10, between all of the TBLL followers out there we can make this expansion happen.

Donations can be made by either Venmo or Paypal.

PAYPAL = tblleadership@gmail.com
VENMO = @tbl_leadership

Thank you very much for all of your support in this endeavor.

Respectfully,

Jason @ TBLL

Protests and Smile Buttons

Leadership, , , , ,

A little over a week ago, an affluent shopping mall in the City where I work was overrun by looters and rioters using the peaceful George Floyd Protests as a smoke screen for their lawless activities. I was off that night, but was called in the next evening to supervise a Rapid Response Squad to handle additional threats that were being posted over social media for other parts of the City.

I spoke that night with some of the newer officers, mostly with less than two years on, about what they had experienced. As they spoke, their eyes would open wide and they all said they had never seen or expected to be in the middle of anything like that – even as a police officers.  There was fear behind those eyes and at the same time a twinge of anger for having been made to feel that fear. It was in that moment that I became truly worried about how things would play out if another similar incident took place and these officers had to respond. Are they professional? YES. Are they well trained? YES. Is fear an incredibly destructive force to professionalism and training? YES!

Smile ButtonThe next day I was home for a few hours before needing to return to work as the police department was being mobilized in a way that I had never seen before. While working on some things in my home office, I opened a drawer and found a plastic bag full of almost 200 smile buttons that one of my daughters had given to me. They were leftover from a school project she had done a little over a year ago and she had given them to me assuming I would find a use for them someday. I immediately took them out and put them in my duffel bag to take to work. I did not know how they would be used, but in these unprecedented times I knew that they may be useful because as human beings a legitimate smile goes a long way and when I saw these in the drawer, they made me smile.

As part of my duties with the Training Unit, I have been studying Mirror Neurons and their affect on communication. These are the neurons in our brains that are responsible for helping with empathy, understanding context, imitation learning, and more. They also are the same neurons that fire off positive feelings when we observe someone do something nice for another person. Yes, just watching another person buy someone a coffee or pick up some items they dropped on the floor gives third party observers a little jolt of positive feelings. This is the internal mechanism that tries to connect us as human beings and positively support our further existence through helping one another. Mirror Neurons are also the reason when some looks at you and gives you a genuine smile you cannot help but to smile back – they are connection builders.

Fast forward a week to present day. The department has been mobilized and some officers are going on working straight 10 days with at least another four to go. Tension is high, nerves are fraying, and we are in a state of constant concern that the looters and rioters will return based upon continuing social media posts threatening to do so.

Then we get word of a planned protest for Sunday in our City with an expected turnout of approximately 1500 people. When the Ops Plan came out, I scrolled through to see what my assignment would be. I found that myself and my fellow Training Unit supervisor were assigned to be parking lot security for the three main parking lots being provided for the arriving protesters. It was in this moment that I immediately knew how we could use the smile buttons that I was still carrying around with me.

Uniform Smile
My uniform shirt.

As myself and my fellow sergeant arrived at the all supervisors meeting, we both attached yellow smile buttons to the pockets of our uniform shirts. While at the meeting there were a couple of eye rolls and snickers, but there were also more than a few smiles with comments back that they liked the buttons. Some even asked for their own. The tension in the meeting was thick and it was clear that assisting this protest to go off peacefully was the goal of the day.

While driving from the meeting to our designated parking lot security spot, we started discussing our role for the day. We came to the conclusion that to be “standoff-ish tactical security” was not the way we wanted our first interactions with the arriving protesters to be. For lack of a better term, we decided to become the “Wal-Mart Greeters” of the protest. Our role was going to be to say “Hi” to everyone we see, explain why we were there, and offer them a smile button as a sign of peace and solidarity with the message they were there to share. The Message . . . Bad cops make the job of every good cop that much more dangerous and give the entire profession a black eye. We wanted them to know that we agreed.

We began approaching arriving protesters as they were filtering from their vehicles to the staging area to await the start of the march. Everyone was greeted with the biggest smiles we could give them (without looking too awkward, I hope) and then we would ask if they would like a smile button as a sign of solidarity and hope for a peaceful protest. Unlike the tweet below states, this was not a PR effort on behalf of the department, it was just two cops trying to build connections.

tweet
Tweet from a protester.

The responses were overwhelmingly positive. It was amazing how a smile button could break the tension of the moment and tear down the barriers to allow positive communication to happen. People gave us handshakes, returned smiles, thanked us for being there, asked questions, and immediately put on the buttons. Multiple people explained to us that they support our specific police department, but were there to support the bigger message across the nation and we shared our agreement. The immediate connections that occurred in those brief encounters were undeniable. This was quite honestly one of the coolest moments of my entire policing career and I will never forget it.

The protest march lasted for nearly two and a half hours and could not have run any smoother. As they were leaving the area, my partner and I got about our duties of traffic control and assisting pedestrians across the street, it was awesome to see people still wearing the smile buttons. Even the ones that did not have a button had a real smile on because they felt like they had been able to voice their concerns about law enforcement and been heard. We made sure to smile back and ask how the march was activating those amazing little mirror neurons and building even more connections.

It is not going to be huge sweeping changes or reforms to the law enforcement profession that are going to make the difference. It is going to be continuous small acts of positivity and discussion that officers do every day to build positive connections that will make the difference.

I challenge other officers to break through the fear that may come from these challenging and changing times and find ways to build positive connections. Get a smile button, put it on your uniform, and then have a few extra in your pocket to share with someone to start a discussion. Even if they do not stop to talk, I guarantee they will at least smile at the attempt. Smile buttons can be found here….AMAZON LINK.

A genuine smile will get us a long way.

Performance vs. Trust in Field Training

Leadership, Training, , , , , , ,

What is more important when it comes to being a good field trainer – Performance or Trust?

Before you answer that, let’s explore why I’m asking the question. Author and speaker Simon Sinek works regularly with the Navy Seals. During one conversation he asked them how they select who gets to go to the elite Seal Team 6 or promoted since they are all considered to be the best of the best. To answer that question, they drew a graph like the one below. (Simon Sinek Performance vs. Trust Video)

Slide1On the vertical axis they wrote “performance” and on the horizontal axis they wrote “trust.” Performance was defined as their skills and knowledge on the battlefield – shooting, tactics, orienteering, planning, endurance, etc. Trust was defined as how they are off of the battlefield – teamwork, integrity, respect, humble, etc. The Seals explained that they take each candidate and rank them on both of these criteria to see how they compare. Over time, they discovered the following…

There were two candidates that were obvious. If the person was a Low Performer/Low Trust (LP/LT) they didn’t want them and if the person was a High Performer/High Trust (HP/HT) they absolutely wanted them. But, there were only so many candidates that were that clear and obvious.

Slide2It was the next choice were the Seals discovered they were initially making mistakes in their selection process. Their next choice initially was the High Performer/Low Trust (HP/LT). The person who was a “rock star” in training and on the battlefield, but outside of that they weren’t really liked or trusted. The quote the Seals used was, “I would trust them with my life, but NOT my money or my wife.” This caused many, many issues within the ranks of one of the most elite special forces units in the world.

What was their fix?

After analyzing where the mistakes were occurring, they reorganized the hierarchy of their entire selection process. Instead of taking the High Performer/Low Trust Seals, they prioritized taking the Moderate Performer/High Trust (MP/HP) individuals. They then would equally consider even a Low Performer/High Trust (LP/HT) candidate in comparison to a High Performer/Low Trust one. This was done because after years of various difficulties and failures, the Navy Seals discovered that Performance can be taught, learned, and improved. Trust can only be earned and is a much more valuable commodity when making such decisions of significance.

How does this relate to Field Training?

First, no one that works with you is going to care if you have the most tickets, most arrests, find the most drugs, take the most calls for service, or get the coolest assignment; if they don’t trust you. Do things often that build trust – back up other officers, help with impounds, take paper when you know they are down a lot . . . in other words, help other people out sometimes. That not only will help those around you, but will also make a huge difference when it comes to testing for special assignments or promotion.

Secondly, the same concept applies to the OITs (Officer-in-Training) you are training. It is great if they are a natural cop and are kicking butt through FTO (Field Training Officer), but if they are showing behaviors that make your level of trust in them diminish, then you should be cautious. Would you trust your money and spouse around them? If not, try to articulate why and document it. The FTO Program would rather remove a low trust OIT than have them make it through and be a pain for the next 25 years or until they cause a significant integrity issue of some kind.

Lastly, as a Field Training Officer, you will find that your ability to train and the success of your OITs is directly related to the level of trust you build with them during the short time you have them for training. Here are 3 tips for quickly building trust with OITs…

  1. When you first meet them, introduce yourself and explain that everything you from here on out is for their benefit to make them a successful solo capable officer. If you say it with conviction, they will believe you and you will immediately be establishing a rapport built on trust; even if you have to get on them about something.
  2. Be up front about the expectation for them to make mistakes. Explain that you would rather see them take initiative on a call for service and make a mistake; rather than, hang back waiting watching other officers do the work and not make a mistake. If you are going to be upset and/or frustrated with an OIT, be upset/frustrated at the lack of initiative, not the mistake. Training can fix the mistake. Initiative is built on trust.
  3. Take the time to introduce yourself. Tell them about your family, life outside the PD, struggles you’ve experienced, and successes you’ve had. Then ask them about who they are. What is their family situation, what did they do before coming to SPD, why do they want to be a cop, what has been the hardest for them in FTO so far, how are they adjusting to shift work, etc. You never know where those conversation will go. OITs have to know you care about them before they will ever care about what you have to teach them. TRUST > PERFORMANCE

The mission at Thin Blue Line of Leadership is to inspire law enforcement supervisors to be the best leaders they can be by providing positive leadership tactics and ideas. Positive leadership and creating a positive squad culture are on-going commitments that must be nurtured and developed over time. Thin Blue Line of Leadership is here to help.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have ideas to share or suggestions for improvement. Your thoughts or comments on this blog are always appreciated either below or on our Facebook page. You can also follow us on Twitter at @tbl_leadership.

Continue saving the world one call at a time and as always, LEAD ON!

 

 

 

3 Simple Field Training Ideas

Decision-Making, Training, , , , , , ,

One of the greatest misconceptions about training is that it must be complex or difficult to have value. This is typically one of the largest hurdles for trainers to overcome because the training ideas they have don’t seem “cool” enough. This perceived lack of coolness then prevents them from doing any additional training outside of what they have been doing.

Simple training repeated regularly has the greatest positive impact on adult learning and performance success. It is the deep understanding of simple training basics that allow the learner to be creative and adaptive in their problem solving. Please do not confuse the word “simple” with being synonymous for “easy.” Easy implies that the task does not require effort to be done; simple means that it is merely not complex. Therefore, simple training ideas can have an extremely positive impact on learning.

If you have an OIT that is struggling with any concept like orientation, report writing, officer safety, handcuffing, interviewing, etc., then be sure to first be utilizing the 3 R’s to make the information you are trying to teach stickier…

 REPEAT

  • It is silly to expect an OIT to learn something just because you said it once.
  • It is also silly to expect them to learn it if you only say it the same way every time.
  • The more important a concept is, the more times you should expect to say it and the more of a variety of ways you should have to teach it.

RECOGNIZE

  • When the OIT does what you have been teaching, recognize it.
  • Point it out to them so they realize they have done what you have been repeating.
  • This builds the importance of what you are teaching because now they know you are looking for it and pointing out their usage of the concept.

 REINFORCE

  • Everybody loves a little positive reinforcement.
  • When you recognize the OIT has done what you have been training, always following it up with a statement like, “I saw how you did ___________. Great job! That is exactly what we have been talking about regarding your officer safety.”
  • The key is to make the reinforcement specific to the behavior you want. “Good job” by itself does NOT cut it because the OIT may have no idea what exactly was good.
  • It would be silly to assume that because you repeat, recognize, and reinforce once that the OIT has mastered the concept. Keep repeating the 3 R’s about the major concepts you want the OIT to learn throughout the time they are with you.

 

Here are 3 simple ideas for repeating concepts you want an OIT to learn. . .

NO COST QUIZ – Develop 3 to 5 questions to ask your OIT about key concepts/situations you have been discussing over the last couple of shifts. Write them down and give them to the OIT before briefing, just after briefing, during a break, or at the end of your shift to write out their answers. These questions can be about any concept you want to reinforce. This is a simple training idea that you could use each shift or a couple of times each week to reinforce your point(s). There is no cost to an incorrect answer, but it gives you the opportunity for a conversation.

OIT LEARNING JOURNAL – Ask your OIT to obtain a notebook specifically for the purpose of being their OIT Learning Journal. (I know . . . it is a stupid name, but the concept is sound.) Either just after briefing or at the end of the shift, ask the OIT to think back to what they did the previous shift. Have them write down the 3 to 5 most important things they learned during that shift from memory.

IMAGINE PERFECTION – FTO asks the OIT to imagine the perfect traffic stop, shoplifting call, domestic violence investigation, DUI investigation, etc. Then have the OIT write out the process for handling that situation perfectly in 10 to 15 steps. Limit the number of steps so that the OIT is focusing on only the most important aspects of handling the situation they are considering. Once complete, FTO debriefs OIT’s steps with them and draws comparisons to OIT’s performance on previous similar calls for service. FTO should also play the IF/WHEN/THEN Game with the OIT and ask if different variables change, how the OIT would respond. This technique is especially useful for OITs that are having difficulty remembering repeatable processes or forgetting key steps when under stress of real-world situations. This helps them to adjust from standard linear thinking to more adaptive thinking as they respond to your variables.

Each time you make the OIT remember back to something they did over 24 hours ago, you are repeating that information and utilizing the instructional concepts of spacing, interleaving, effortful retrieval, and desirable difficulties. Training effectively can sometimes be both simple and easy. Now, just be sure to recognize and reinforce each time the OIT exhibits the desired learning in the field.

The mission at Thin Blue Line of Leadership is to share positive leadership tactics with the field of law enforcement. Positive leadership and creating a positive squad culture are on-going commitments that must be nurtured and developed over time.

Share your thoughts or comments with us below or on our Facebook page. Continue saving the world one call at a time and as always, LEAD ON!

5 Simple Leadership Lessons

Leadership, Squad Culture, , , , , ,

Columnist Ann Landers once wrote, “Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them.” These 5 leadership lessons are nothing fancy or complicated. Years of research and development have not been done to come up with them. But, to successfully implement these leadership lessons in your daily routine as a supervisor it will take effort, time, dedication, and desire. As a supervisor, it is your job to recognize the opportunity. The minute an officer decides to promote to a supervisor position within a law enforcement organization, they have chosen to take on the great responsibility of being a leader, coach, caretaker, psychologist, teacher, and many more.

Here are 5 basic leadership lessons for new law enforcement supervisors.

  1. Know the mission! As a leader in a law enforcement organization, it is your responsibility to know your department’s mission statement and goals. When guiding officers through calls, handling complaints, or evaluating a situation; the department’s mission is the guide. It should be more than just a few sentences in a general orders book of a framed picture on the wall; make it real by speaking of it regularly in briefing. Give examples of what it looks like on the road.
  2. Set clear expectations! This lesson is not referring to setting quotas or other quantitative measures. It is about clearly defining a path to success for your officers’ careers. It means defining how to treat people, use force appropriately, conduct thorough investigations, think critically under stress, and remembering that this is a career of service. The culture, your squad’s actions and attitudes, will be a reflection of the expectations you establish. (More on expectations.)
  3. Set goals! As a leader, you should obviously have your own goals, but this is specifically referring to assisting your officers in developing their own short and long term goals. Your own personal success will be derived from helping your officers reach their goals. Goals should be forward thinking and in agreement with department/district goals. In the short term, have your officers establishing goals they would like to accomplish in the next year that correspond to beat issues, crime trends, or other defined problems within their areas of responsibility. They should also consider trainings they would like to attend or other personnel development toward future assignments they would like to obtain. For the long term, discuss where they see their career in 5 years or 10 years; what specialty assignments they are interesting in, are they interesting in promoting, etc. Then you must assist them by providing training opportunities, helping them develop their strengths, and make connections with people that work in the officer’s area of interest. Use their goals as a springboard for having consistent, on-going evaluation conversations.
  4. Set the example! As a supervisor, it is vital that you are out with your officers on the road as much as possible. Not only does this show your willingness to be involved and “get your hands dirty,” but it also gives them the perfect opportunity to observe you in action setting the example of how they should be – representing your own expectations. Your officers will be watching closely to see how you treat people and make decisions; especially in the tough situation where they may not be sure how to act or react. When you come across a situation where your officers are unsure of a solution to their call, it provides you the perfect opportunity to teach them your decision-making process. Ask a standard set of questions to walk them through problems: What do you know? What do you think? Have you considered this? Then let them make the ultimate decision . . . example set!
  5. Recognize, reward, promote! As a supervisor, it is easy to see all of the things going wrong because typically you have just finished studying every nook and cranny of department policy to pass your supervisor test. The challenge is in stepping back and recognizing the good. Purposely train yourself to identify not only things that need fixing or reeducating, but those things that are being done above and beyond what you would expect normally from an officer. Once you begin recognizing the good, it is imperative that you find ways to reward those behaviors. (An idea on rewarding officers.) It does not have to be anything fancy or of monetary value, but simply telling an officer that they did a good job and specifically defining what they did good can go a long way. After recognizing and rewarding, it is just as important that you promote them. In terms of promote, that means to mention them to upper staff, bring it up in briefing, etc. Bringing these positive behaviors to light, will not only help the officer’s career, but will give other officers something to strive for.

The mission at Thin Blue Line of Leadership is to share positive leadership tactics with the field of law enforcement. Positive leadership and creating a positive squad culture are on-going commitments that must be nurtured and developed over time.

Share your thoughts or comments with us below or on our Facebook page. Continue saving the world one call at a time and as always, LEAD ON!

Praising Properly: Intelligence vs. Effort

Leadership, Training, , , , , ,

In a controlled study, a group of fifth grade students were each given a puzzle to solve. Half of the students who solved the puzzle were praised for being smart. The other half who solved the puzzle were praised for the high level of effort they gave. The students were then given the option to select another puzzle of their choice. One puzzle was similar in difficulty to the one they had completed successfully and the other one was significantly more difficult. The students were told they probably would not solve the more difficult puzzle, but would learn more from trying to solve it.

What puzzle do you think the “smart” kids chose?

What puzzle do you think the “effort” kids chose?

A majority of the students who were praised for being smart picked the easier puzzle. 90% of the students praised for their effort picked the difficult puzzle. Why do you think that is?

The study concluded that when we praise strictly for intelligence or correctness, the students got the message that being “smart” or “correct” is the key to winning the game. Therefore, they choose easier tasks to complete to keep the praise coming while avoiding new or difficult tasks. This is common because intelligence is typically perceived to be out of our control. Since it is outside our control, being viewed as “not smart” or “incorrect” gives the student no way to respond to potential failure because they see themselves as a victim of their supposed limited intelligence.

When praise for intelligence/correctness has been the primary method of praise, you will hear excuses like “I haven’t been taught that,” “That isn’t the way I was shown before,” and “That isn’t how I learn.” All of these excuses are made from a victim mentality and are a self-preservation technique to keep from feeling dumb/embarrassed for being incorrect. Notice how each of the statements point the blame for the failure away from the student.

However, when we emphasize praise primarily for effort, the students see learning as a variable they can control. They may have been incorrect in the knowledge or action, but praising them for taking on the task and putting forward their best effort leads to more learning. This also gives them a simple solution for responding to failure – PUT IN MORE EFFORT!

When we routinely praise for effort, you will hear student questions like, “How can I do better?,” “Could we try this next?,” and “Can we do that again?” All of these questions show the student taking responsibility for learning and having a willingness to put in more effort.

Success at learning is less dependent on intelligence than it is on grit, curiosity, and effort. The essential ingredients to creating great police officers during training are providing them with challenges, praising their effort while handling them, and then teaching them how to overcome those challenges. The rest is up to the learner and their EFFORT.

The mission at Thin Blue Line of Leadership is to inspire law enforcement supervisors to be the best leaders they can be by providing positive leadership tactics and ideas. Positive leadership and creating a positive squad culture are on-going commitments that must be nurtured and developed over time. Thin Blue Line of Leadership is here to help.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have ideas to share or suggestions for improvement. Your thoughts or comments on this blog are always appreciated either below or on our Facebook page. You can also follow us on Twitter at @tbl_leadership.

Continue saving the world one call at a time and as always, LEAD ON!

*** Parts of this blog were paraphrased from the excellent book “Make it Stick” by Peter C. Brown with some of my own additional thoughts. I highly recommend this book to all trainers. ***

What Will Your Verse Be?

Leadership, , , , , , ,

My police department has had its ups and downs. At this time, we happen to be in a down. Below is a note I sent to Field Training Officers because my gut told me it was needed…

 

“The powerful play goes on and you can contribute a verse…

What will your verse be?”   ~Dead Poets Society

THE POWERFUL PLAY GOES ON: The powerful play called life goes on and on and on. Regardless of all the “stuff” that happens within an organization, things always continue moving forward. You know the “stuff” I’m referring to, it gets talked about in-between calls, while writing paper in a beat office, or shows up on the 10 o’clock news. We have zero control over those things. What I do know is that we have an incredible team of people that have taken on the responsibility of being Field Training Officers and that team is actively creating our next generation law enforcement officers.

YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE A VERSE: With every trainee you are assigned, you have the opportunity to contribute a verse which may last over the next 5, 10, 15, or 25 years. The value of that verse cannot be overstated. Look around you and decide right now what kind of officers you want to work with on your squad. Do you want to work with mopey, victims of circumstance that HAVE TO be here or do you want to work with positive, solution-focused officers that WANT TO be here? That is the verse that you, more than anyone else in this department, gets to contribute. If not for the organization, then for your squad, your team, your family.

WHAT WILL YOUR VERSE BE?: In this entire world there are only three things you truly control. Your actions. Your attitude. Your effort. Every challenge we face at work, at home, or in life can be made simpler by attacking it head-on with those three things. What are the actions I need to take? What is the attitude I need to have? How much effort am I willing to expend to be successful? I challenge you to consider these aspects as you decide what your verse will be. What are you willing to contribute to the success of another person? What are you willing to contribute to the success of your next backup officer?

As Field Training Officers, you have a tremendous amount of influence by contributing a verse to the organization one trainee at a time. They look up to you, they envy you, they want to be just like you because you make this very complex profession look easy.

Thank you for everything you do and everything you are going to do!

 

As leaders, I encourage you to follow your leadership instincts. When you feel that things are off and something encouraging needs to be said, follow that instinct. You never know who you may inspire during that tough time…

The mission at Thin Blue Line of Leadership is to inspire law enforcement supervisors to be the best leaders they can be by providing positive leadership tactics and ideas. Positive leadership and creating a positive squad culture are on-going commitments that must be nurtured and developed over time. Thin Blue Line of Leadership is here to help.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have ideas to share or suggestions for improvement. Your thoughts or comments on this blog are always appreciated either below or on our Facebook page. You can also follow us on Twitter at @tbl_leadership.

Continue saving the world one call at a time and as always, LEAD ON!

 

 

Defining the TBL Leader

Leadership, Squad Culture, , , , , , , , ,

The mission at Thin Blue Line of Leadership is to share positive leadership tactics with the field of law enforcement. It is undeniable that law enforcement is a unique working environment and one in which the word positive is not always easily associated. Law enforcement is not just about laws and policies. It is about the community – victims, civilians, officers, and even the criminals. So, bringing the word “positive” more frequently into law enforcement is a necessity because policing is about people. This belief must be a core value of any Thin Blue Line Leader before delving into a deeper list of qualities.

Leadership comes in many different styles. When it comes to developing one’s own style of leadership, it is most common to emulate leaders that had a significant influence on you either personally or professionally. These role-models of leadership won your heart and then were able to influence your mind.

Here are 10 qualities that define a Thin Blue Line Leader . . .

WINNING RESPECT  – Getting people to listen.

1. Competence – Being competent should be a given. Knowing basic and advanced techniques along with any specialty knowledge/skills you possess starts building your officers’ views of your competency. Do not assume that reputation alone will carry you. Accurately recognizing your own strengths and weaknesses will assist you in developing your competency across the board. A TBL Leader proves their competency from call to call and shift to shift.

2. Integrity and Honesty – Most people would say that integrity and honesty are the same thing, but let’s define it more specifically. Integrity is when your actions match your words. Honesty is when your words match your actions.  Law enforcement officers are constantly in situations and circumstances that test their integrity and honesty. A TBL Leader exemplifies this by holding themselves and their officers to a standard that is above reproach.

3. Initiative – Do not stand still. Leaders with initiative constantly ask why something is the way it is, can it be improved, and what can I do to help. Just assuming that things are fine because “that’s how we’ve always done it” leads to stagnation and mediocrity. Regardless of the time and effort required, the TBL Leader is always looking for innovative ways to improve themselves, their officers, their department, and their community.

WINNING HEARTS – Getting people to believe.

4. Servant – This is not to be confused with subservient. A servant leader recognizes that as a leader they have taken on the responsibility of being selfless for the good of their officers. It is no longer just about your career, but lifting up your officers in their careers. TBL Leaders find ways to make their officers’ jobs easier by providing them with resources, training, and guidance.

5. Authentic – Be yourself. Arrogance and false bravado will build a wall between you and your officers that will make leading effectively much more difficult. Share your experience openly from both law enforcement and your personal life. Talking about things like your marriage, children, hobbies, or pets allows those you lead to gain insight into your belief structure. If you make a mistake, own up to it and set the example by seeking to improve. You are still human and no one, regardless of your rank, expects you to be perfect at all times. TBL Leaders recognize that when it comes to being authentic, you get what you give.

6. Supportive – Being supportive starts by opening your ears. As a leader, you have to listen, recognize, validate, and only then act. Clear communication with your officers will give you all the information you need to proceed with a course of action. Standing up for your officers, when in the right, is a must because TBL Leaders are the glue that holds a team together.

7. Passionate – Passion should be encourage and never discouraged as long as it is appropriately directed. By setting a clear vision and mission for your squad, the leader creates focus and defines what winning looks like. Police officers like to win and the more they win, the more passion that is generated. TBL Leaders do not fear passion; they work tirelessly to create an environment that generates and feeds off of it.

8. Rewarding – Catching your officers doing something right should be an on-going goal of a leader. Too often, excessive amounts of time and energy are wasted searching for things that are done wrong and rewarding what gets done right gets overlooked. Obviously, serious malfunctions in officer safety or investigations need to be addressed, but there is always a way to address this so it does not destroy the officer’s morale or belief in the mission. TBL Leaders realize that rewarding officers positively reinforces and defines the behaviors that you, the leader, want to promote.

WINNING MINDS – Getting people to change.

9. Learner/Educator – Learner and educator go hand in hand. A leader must be a life-long learner. Personal experience will only hold out so long before you are just repeating yourself over and over. Taking the initiative to seek out new information and experiences will allow you to continue growing. Then, as the leader, you must be willing to share and teach what you have learned so the development of those you are responsible for can continue. No one is an expert in everything. Use your network of resources within the department to find experts in areas where you are weak. The TBL Leader recognizes the great value of learning, but realizes that it is most valuable only when it is disseminated.

10. Translator – As a leader, being a good communicator is vital, but more important than communication is the ability to receive information and translate it into support for the vision and mission of your team. As a first-line supervisor, you are the translation conduit between information coming from upper staff and those on your team. The way in which you respond to and present the information you are given will dictate your officers’ response to it. TBL Leaders recognize the power of translation and are clear and direct in their messages.

These 10 qualities define a Thin Blue Line Leader. Thin Blue Line of Leadership can be reached at tblleadership@gmail.com for any questions, comments, or suggestions. You can Like us on Facebook now, as well.

LEAD ON!

Control vs. Influence

Leadership, Squad Culture, Training, , , , , , ,

KEY POINTS PREVIOUSLY DISCUSSED ABOUT LEADERSHIP ACCOUNTABILITY

Accountability is the actions, attitude, and effort necessary to merge expectations with performance.

Understanding who controls the expectations and who controls the performance is key to understanding leadership accountability.

Leadership accountability is all about ME. It start with ME. It sustains with ME. It grows with ME. It can be ended by ME. My ACTIONS, ATTITUDE, and EFFORT.

Before I can even begin to discuss control versus influence, we must be on the same page regarding the Dynamics of Human Interactions. Whether we are discussing leadership accountability, use of force situations, handling a “routine” call for service, or any other leadership situation, the same three components always come into play.

As a leader, I must understand these dynamics in order to truly comprehend what I control and what I influence in the world around me. The most significant mistakes ever made in leadership commonly originate from a leader attempting to control something they do not truly have control over. If they had merely asked themself, “How can I influence this?” interaction with this other person or circumstance, the situation may have turned out much differently.

Slide9

In every interaction we have as human beings, there are three basic components: ME, the OTHER PEOPLE involved, and the CIRCUMSTANCES that bring us together.

Slide10

Of these three components, it is vital that I recognize and understand there is only one of these that I have true control over – MYSELF. I cannot control the other people that are involved and I cannot control the circumstances that brought everything together. So, within myself, the things I truly have control over are my actions, my attitude, and my effort.

  • What actions do I have the ability to take? Options?
  • What attitude is the best approach for the situation? Mindset? Role?
  • How much effort is necessary to properly handle this situation successfully?

Slide11

If I take responsibility for and own my actions, attitude, and effort, then I also have to accept that I control my Reactions to the external components of these Dynamics of Human Interactions. As information comes in from Other People, Circumstances, and their Interactions, I must accept that I have NO control over them at all. I can only control my reactions to the information coming in through the actions, attitude, and effort I CHOOSE to respond with.

But, this is not easy. I, as a human being, am an emotional and reactionary creature by nature. It has been programmed into me over thousands of years to survive. Sometimes those survival instincts are beneficial and sometimes they are not. When my survival instincts tell me to strike back quickly, act in a manner that is solely based upon self-preservation, and is the path of least resistance, then I must find a way to freeze the moment and remember what I control. This is especially true in leadership situations.

Slide12

I must accept I cannot CONTROL Other People, Circumstances, and their Interactions. As a leader, I must also accept I can INFLUENCE them. By recognizing that my actions, my attitude, and my effort are the tools I possess to positively influence them, I can begin to see leadership situations in a much different light. The greater my influence, the greater my leadership. The greater my leadership, the more vital it becomes for me to act consistently to maximize my influence.

Slide13

How do I maximize my influence in regards to leadership accountability? Practice personal accountability day in and day out by controlling that which I can control. I can set clear expectations that provide a vision of the future, not just repeat rules and policies. I can provide training, instruction, coaching, counselling, and mentoring. I discipline when necessary to educate, not punish. Finally, I recognize good work and positively reinforce it every chance I get. All of these are methods are ways for me to influence those I lead and the circumstances I am a part of through my actions, my attitude, and my effort.

Whenever I find myself feeling stressed while handling a leadership situation, I hit my mental pause button and change the internal question I am asking myself from “How can I control this?” to “How can I influence this?” Suddenly, the feelings of stress and anxiety begin to dissipate and I begin working the problem using what I can control – MYSELF.

The mission at Thin Blue Line of Leadership is to inspire law enforcement supervisors to be the best leaders they can be by providing positive leadership tactics and ideas. Positive leadership and creating a positive squad culture are on-going commitments that must be nurtured and developed over time. Thin Blue Line of Leadership is here to help.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have ideas to share or suggestions for improvement. Your thoughts or comments on this blog are always appreciated either below or on our Facebook page. You can also follow us on Twitter at @tbl_leadership.

Continue saving the world one call at a time and as always, LEAD ON!