Tag Archives: leadership

Trickle-Down Leadership

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In the 1980’s, the term “trickle-down economics” was coined to describe the economic policies of President Ronald Reagan. To completely over simplify, these policies favored the wealthy with the thought being that the wealthy’s financial success would trickle-down to those lower on the socio-economic food chain by way of more jobs, better advancement opportunities, and higher wages. Translation – Having it better at the top would make it better on those towards the bottom.

When it comes to the paramilitary model that law enforcement agencies are built upon, a similar “trickle-down” concept applies to leadership. There will not be a “flattening” of this model anytime soon; therefore, it is vital that leaders within law enforcement agencies recognize the role they play in this “trickle-down” leadership model. Unlike the economics concept which was based upon having it “better” at the top, the law enforcement version must be built upon leaders demonstrating such high levels of values-based, servant leadership that those positive leadership qualities “trickle-down” onto each tier of leadership below it.

wineframe

When there is a dedicated, consistent flow of positive leadership from the top, over time it will fill its own vessel and trickle over the edges. If the vessel below is in position to catch it, then it too will begin to fill and subsequently trickle over its edges into the vessel below that. This will continue until eventually positive leadership will fill the lowest level of the structure and begin to overflow onto its base.

While the structure mentioned above is obviously a metaphor for the paramilitary model, the base is typically not considered to be part of the structure, but it most definitely is. The base in this example is representative of the community the department serves. Just as a structure cannot stand without a base, without the community, the existence of law enforcement to protect it is futile. The other key component to this metaphor is that what begins at the top has a direct correlation to the bottom of the structure and what happens to its base. One misguided or negative leader, at any point in the structure, can derail the messages and gains of positive leadership from above and prevent them from ever reaching the lower levels of the chain. This ultimately effects the community.

8 Trickle-Down Leadership Thoughts:

  • A law enforcement agency’s leadership style starts at the top, flows through the organization, and has a direct impact on the community it serves – positive or negative.
  • Leaders throughout the agency, not through carrots and sticks, but by example teach officers how to act, how to treat, and how much effort to give the community it serves.
  • The strength of the paramilitary model of leadership is also its greatest weakness if its values are not clearly defined and communicated through all levels. Create a written document of positive core leadership expectations that every officer is raised on from their first days in patrol.
  • Develop a testing process that promotes leaders within the organization who best represent the positive core leadership expectations of the organization; not just statistical producers or those with good managerial skills.
  • Successful law enforcement agencies that spend more time defining and reinforcing their mission, purpose, culture, and values spend less time creating policies, handling complaints, and dealing with discipline.
  • There is a direct connection between patrol officers and the community. Therefore, it is vital that law enforcement leaders treat their patrol officers with the same trust, dignity, and respect that the agency wants them to treat the community with.
  • Positive leadership is infectious (likely to be spread through the environment) and has long-term effectiveness on those around it. Negative, fear-based leadership is contagious (likely to be spread through direct contact) and has short-term effectiveness on those around it, but creates many long-term, negative consequences for both the people under that leadership and the agency.
  • At every level of the organization, each individual person has total control over the actions they take, the attitude they have, and the effort they give. True leaders provide the direction and an environment for them to succeed.

The concept is simple – Inspired leadership, improved policing, better communities. It all trickles down.

Serve

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!

A Simple Gesture

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I am a police officer that just happens to have the rank of sergeant. I have 8 police officers that work with me to keep the community we serve safe on one of the toughest work schedules and largest districts in the department.

One week a few months ago, due to scheduling issues out of my control, my squad of 8 officers was reduced to just 4. I knew that we were going to be slammed handling the same amount of calls for service that usually come in, but with half the number of officers.

At the beginning of each shift that week, I walked into the briefing room and extended my hand to my 4 officers for a handshake. I told them that I appreciated them being there and for all of the hard work that we knew was ahead of us.

What I found was that the simple action of shaking their hands in advance of what was before us served two purposes:

  1. The handshakes demonstrated respect for them by showing appreciation for their presence in the face of a tough situation.
  2. The handshakes also negated the negativity of the situation and turned it into a positive to be fought through as a team, not to be complained about.

In recognizing the power of this simple action, I felt compelled to find a way to continue building the same connection with my officers that started with this simple gesture. With the busy week over, I had the weekend to consider how I was going to use it going forward.

I walked into our squad briefing the next Wednesday and looked around at my 8 young officers ready to hit the road. Without thinking about it for a second, I extended my hand and began walking around the room shaking each of their hands and saying, “Thanks for being here.”

To this day, I start every Wednesday briefing just like that. Do not underestimate the power of a simple gesture and the positive effect it can have on your officers.

UPDATE: Since writing this, I have move from being the patrol supervisor of this amazing squad to being a supervisor in my department’s training unit. Every time I cross paths with one of these 8 officers that were on that patrol squad, they all seek me out and come looking for that handshake.

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 and 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!

Culture in Just 4 Words

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THE SETUP: Another sergeant asked how my squad of mostly brand new police officers was having such great success on the road and in the community. I attributed it to the culture that we had created as a squad in the briefing room and then worked hard to exemplify each shift on the road. When he asked what my squad’s culture was, I quickly rattled off just 4 words – Positivity, Activity, Teamwork, and Humility. As I said these 4 words aloud, the other sergeant looked at me like I was holding out on him and I replied, “No really . . . that is our culture in just 4 words and it works.”

THEN IT HITS ME: The realization that came to me as we continued this conversation was that a strong, sustainable culture should be just that easy to define, explain, understand, and apply. Culture has to be tangible and not just something that is said or posted on a wall. It also has to be easily articulated and reproducible by all involved with it.

THE HOW: I pulled out a piece of paper and divided it into 4 boxes. At the top of each box I wrote one of the words that I had told the other sergeant about – Positivity, Activity, Teamwork, and Humility. Knowing that culture is defined by our actions and attitudes, I made sure that I could define each of the words in terms of both; specifically actions and attitudes that I had seen these officers previously demonstrate. This would give me an easy way to talk about the culture with specific examples. Here is what I came up with . . .

POSITIVITY

  • Know your “why.”
  • Community service – treat everyone with dignity and respect.
  • Do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reasons.
  • Recognize each other for good police work.

ACTIVITY

  • Strive to be the most active squad in the city.
  • Calls for service are our priority, but initiative fills the gaps.
  • Take pride in your beat, know your beat, and work it as such.
  • Be a leader on calls – step up when others hesitate.

TEAMWORK

  • We before I.
  • Many hands make light work – have a “how can I help” mentality.
  • Back each other up – stay safe.
  • No gossip, no complaining – develop solutions.

HUMILITY

  • Get involved – policing is experiential learning.
  • Don’t fear mistakes, learn from them.
  • Remain humble and continue learning.
  • Take training seriously; continue growing throughout your career.

The above 4 words and defining bullet points are what best describe the actions and attitudes of our squad and what we want to project to everyone we interact with in the department and the community. The next step was presenting it to the squad.

THE PRESENTATION: On the presentation day, I explained to my 7 officers the conversation I had with that other sergeant and how this all got started. As I spoke about each of the 4 words and the corresponding bullet points, I used specific examples of times when I had seen these actions and attitudes displayed previously by them. I wrote each of the words on the outside of a box that I had drawn on the whiteboard. The conversation was amazing. Based on their comments the bullet points were altered to reflect their input.

When everything was said and done, I explained that if everything they said or did on this job could fall into the confines of this box then they would know they were doing policing the right way. It is only when actions and/or attitudes don’t fit into that box that problems occur and build distrust between the squad, police department, and their community.

REINFORCEMENT: Whenever a new officer comes to the squad, I go over these same 4 words in the same way as described above. The only thing that changes are newer, better examples. This serves two purposes. First, it reinforces the importance of our culture to the officers that have heard it before and keeps it fresh in their memory. Secondly, by going over this on the new officer’s very first day of joining the squad it solidifies how important we take our culture and begins to quickly assimilate them into the fold. If there are no new officers coming to the squad, then I make sure it gets repeated and discussed at least once every couple of months.

Between squad expectation presentations, it is vital to positively reinforce the desired culture. Whenever a member of the squad handles a difficult call, solves a problem, or demonstrates a great attitude about a tough situation; I make sure to mention it in briefing the next day and thank them for their outstanding service and commitment to our squad expectations. I make sure to specifically attribute whatever they did to the word(s) it best corresponds to. Culture in 4 words has gone over even better than I expected. In fact, they now recognize each other in briefing when they see something on a call that I was not able to get to. This reinforcement creates a positive cycle that just continues building and building and building.

THE CHALLENGE: Obviously, if you are still reading this far into the blog I have peaked your interest. Answer the following questions to get you started . . .

  1. If your squad was running exactly the way you wanted it to, what 4 words would you chose to describe your squad’s culture?
  2. Once you know your 4 words, list 3 – 5 specific actions or attitudes for each word that exemplify specifically how you would like to see that word expressed by your officers.
  3. Present your 4 words to your squad and have a discussion.
  4. Take the time and make opportunities to positively reinforce the 4 words of your culture.

Squad expectations need to be about establishing culture; not rules. Police departments have plenty of rules, laws, and policies to follow; that’s what those big books of general orders and revised statutes are for. If you get the culture right; the rules will take care of themselves. So, I challenge you to discover your 4 words and get them out there to your squad.

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 and 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!

HELP WANTED: Police Officers

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In August of 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton led the Endurance Expedition on a voyage to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent. Prior to the expedition, Shackleton needed to raise a crew and posted the following help wanted advertisement:

“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in event of success.”

Even after posting such an unflattering advertisement of the trip ahead, sailor’s responded. In the book, “Quit You Like Men” by Carl Hopkins Elmore, Shackleton said that the response to the advertisement was so overwhelming that “it seemed as though all the men of Great Britain were determined to accompany him.”

By January 1915, the Endurance had become trapped in the thick Antarctic ice and began to break apart forcing Shackleton and the crew to abandon it. They had to set out on foot dragging lifeboats and supplies across the ice for any chance of survival. Eventually they located a suitable place to establish a camp. Shackleton realized that in order to survive they were going to need to take matters into their own hands; so they developed a rescue plan to seek out help.

Prior to Shackleton leaving on the rescue mission, a crew leader told Shackleton, “Whatever happens, we all know that you have worked superhumanly to look after us.”  Shackleton replied, “My job is to get my men through all right. Superhuman effort isn’t worth a damn unless it achieves results.” To make a great, long story short, it was only through the crew’s dedication and Shackleton’s leadership that they were eventually rescued over a year after the ship had become trapped. This is a fabulous story of leadership, sacrifice, and survival, but what really caught my attention was still the unflattering help wanted advertisement that attracted such a positive response from prospective sailors.

With the current climate surrounding law enforcement, how would a help wanted advertisement have to read in order to be just as truthful and unflattering, yet attract exactly the type of people we want in policing? Maybe it would read something like this…

HELP WANTED: Men and women wanted for hazardous 20 – 25 year career. Long hours during all times of day and night enforcing laws created by politicians you don’t necessarily agree with. Low to moderate wages protecting and serving a community that you may not even live in. Solve problems and risk life regularly for people that you don’t know and possibly don’t even like you while constantly transitioning between the roles of counselor, guardian, enforcer, educator, warrior, caretaker, and community representative. All interactions with the community must be recorded on video. Actions, especially mistakes, will be highly critiqued, criticized, and possibly penalized. Honor and recognition in event of success.

Honor and recognition in event of success . . . is that all it takes? Yep – Along with being part of something greater than yourself and believing that on each call you have the ability to make a difference in another person’s life. Those are the results that we, those that call ourselves police officers, are looking for when we chose this career. As Shackleton stated, “Superhuman effort isn’t worth a damn unless it achieves results.” That is why we make the “superhuman effort” for a job that has this kind of description.

So, how do we maintain this level of effort? We remember our “why” . . .

Why did I chose to be a police officer?

Why did I chose to be a leader of police officers?

If you read those questions and cannot articulate an answer, or worse don’t remember, then I challenge you to sit down, brainstorm some ideas, and seek the words that describe why you were inspired to choose a career with this type of help wanted advertisement.

As soon as the right words come together and you can clearly articulate them, put them somewhere very safe where they cannot be forgotten. Your “why” will get you through that 20 – 25 years career just as it got Shackleton and his men through their expedition without a single life lost. If you get the privilege to lead officers through their policing careers, share your “why” often to motivate and inspire greatness in them so that they too may receive “honor and recognition in event of success.”

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 and 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. Share your thoughts or comments on this blog 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 Components to Law Enforcement Leadership

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There is a simple formula for effective law enforcement leadership and it’s made up of just 3 components. First, build positivity within your officers. Next, make your officers feel like they belong. Lastly, give your officers direction. Below are the 3 components to law enforcement leadership and a few examples of how leaders can apply each of them to their team, squad, district, precinct, or department.

  1. Build positivity within your officers.

People are instinctively drawn to things that make them feel positive about themselves. As a leader it is imperative to consider how your actions and attitude make others feel about themselves. After someone is done talking to you or after you finish conducting a briefing, what is the general feeling when it is over – do they feel positive or negative? Here are 3 ways to make officers feel positive about themselves when you are around . . .

  • Help officers identify and remember their “why.”
  • Recognize and reward good police work routinely.
  • Find ways to serve those you wish to lead.
  1. Make your officers feel like they belong.

As police officers, there is already a jump start on this component due to the natural brother/sisterhood created just by putting on the badge. But, it is vital to maintain that feeling throughout the entirety of a 20 – 30 year career and to do that it must be a major component of your leadership. Develop a team within your realm of leadership and bring the officers that work with you into the fold as quickly as possible.

  • Build a team atmosphere where everyone works together to create success.
  • Create a positive environment that focuses on solutions to problems as opposed to mindlessly complaining.
  • Develop a “what can I do” mentality among your officers.
  1. Give your officers a direction.

Some call it a vision, some call it a mission; whatever term is used officers need to know the direction they are expected to go and the plan to get there. Therefore, it is incumbent on the leader to define the officers’ roles with clear expectations about every aspect of policing: how to treat people, production, attitude, etc.

  • Build culture with clear squad expectations that address both actions and attitudes.
  • Develop informal leaders within the squad to assist in perpetuating the squad culture.
  • Be out on the road with your officers demonstrating your expectations.

What’s challenging about these components is that they require working with both people and their feelings. Those are not simple challenges to address in the law enforcement world; especially feelings. Not many supervisors are willing to venture into that realm, but those that strive to be the best leaders will because they recognize the benefits that can be had.

What’s rewarding about these components is that when they all come together, it creates an environment that is just incredible to work in for both the supervisor and the officers. It allows the spirit of leadership to thrive and the officers within that environment to be both inspired and motivated to do policing and serve their communities.

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 and 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. Share your thoughts or comments on this blog 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!

Staying on P-A-T-H

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Who are you as a leader? How do you know if the decisions you are making are meeting your personal expectations? Do you take the time to weigh your actions, attitudes, and effort against a personal mission and set of core values? Have you taken the time to define your own mission and core values? How do you know if you are staying on path?

The other day, I was instructing a class on Leadership Accountability to a group of 20 officers, sergeants, and civilian staff that are currently in my department’s leadership development program. On the whiteboard, I put up the following quote to generate discussion…

IMG_4665

We began discussing the importance of a leader controlling their actions, attitude, and effort when looking for solutions to challenging leadership dilemmas. Then one of the officers asked the following question, “I get that the leader must adjust their sails to control what they can control, but how do they know the direction to adjust them? What is the ‘right’ thing to do?” This was a phenomenal question for an officer that is just beginning to explore their own leadership potential.

The discussion continued among the group and the consensus was that a leader has to know, believe, and exemplify their personal mission and core values when choosing their direction. That was when another student asked me, “Sarge, do you have a mission and core values?” Due to my personal interest in leadership and the passion that keeps Thin Blue Line of Leadership going, I have spent more time than most thinking through and articulating answers to questions just like this. I looked at the group and stated, “I do and that is exactly how I know when I’m staying on P-A-T-H.”

I first addressed my personal mission – “Wherever I go and whatever I do, my mission is to leave it better than I found it.” It is from this personal mission statement that I developed my set of four core values. This mission and these core values lead every decision I make in my effort to leave whatever I am a part of better than I found it. To put it simply, it is my P-A-T-H.

P-A-T-H is an acronym for Positivity, Activity, Teamability, and Humility. I approach everything with this set of core values and that is exactly how I know how to control my actions, attitude, and effort. Not just when things are going good, but also went they aren’t. Here is how I explained my P-A-T-H to the group.

POSITIVITY

Positivity is NOT about walking around with a shit-eating grin on my face saying everything is wonderful, even when it isn’t. It is about having appreciation and gratitude for the good things in my life no matter how large or small they may be. Positivity is about having a “get to” attitude, not a “have to” one. I get to go to work, I get to spend time with my family, I get to do a lot of things that I appreciate more when I don’t consider them as things I have to do. It is about seeing the difficult things in life as challenges and not threats. Finally, positivity is about being solution-oriented and controlling the things I can control, my actions, attitude, and effort, in order to solve those challenges before me.

ACTIVITY

Activity is about doing the things I place value in and committing the necessary amount of effort to being successful in those activities. If the activity I am about to do will make my family, career, personal health, work environment, or marriage better than I found it that day, then I know I am doing an activity that has value. This is what leads me in understanding where to spend my time since the one things we all have equally is 24 hours in a day. While we all have the same amount of time in a day, we do not have the same amount overall in our lives; so activity is one of my core values so I remember to commit my time to those things that matter to me.

TEAMABILITY

Teamability is about looking at the groups I am a part of, such as my family, my friends, and my work group, and thinking of each of them as a team I am a member of. As a team, we value our strengths, help to overcome weaknesses, and make sure everyone’s voice is included in decision-making that affects the team. Teamability is about being inclusive and by being an inclusive team we build influence with one another. That influence is built by spending time together, communicating openly and honestly, and then building connections with each other. Once those three things are occurring throughout the team, the bi-product is shared contribution to the team as a whole. Teamability, put simply, is about putting we before me.

HUMILITY

Humility is about having a growth mindset and keeping my pride and ego in check. I’ll be honest, of these 4 core values this is the one I struggle with the most which is exactly why I included it as a core value. My worst decisions ever made in my personal life and in my law enforcement career have come when I let my pride and/or ego dictate my direction. Humility focuses me on consistently recognizing that I always have room for improvement as a husband, father, brother, son, friend, instructor, sergeant, leader, and person. Humility is about asking the right questions – What can I do? How can I make this better? What can I learn here? How can I share this lesson with others? As C.S. Lewis said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.”

That is my personal mission and core values. They are how I know the exact direction to adjust my sails. I’ll end this blog with the same questions I started it with and challenge you to spend the time answering them…

  • Who are you as a leader?
  • How do you know if the decisions you are making are meeting your personal expectations?
  • Do you take the time to weigh your actions, attitudes, and effort against a personal mission and set of core values?
  • Have you taken the time to define your own mission and core values?
  • How do you know if you are staying on path?

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!

Loeb’s Rules of Medicine Applied to Law Enforcement

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

I came across an interesting retweet this week from a friend that happens to be an emergency room doctor. This is where I read Loeb’s Rules of Medicine for the first time and immediately felt they had multiple connections to law enforcement and leadership.

Robert F. Loeb (1895 – 1973) was a well-respected physician and professor at Columbia University Medical School. Dr. Loeb offered a simple set of four rules to cut through the complicated nature of being a physician. Here they are…

Loeb’s Rules of Medicine

  1. If what you are doing is working, keep doing it.
  2. If what you are doing isn’t working, stop doing it.
  3. If you don’t know what you are doing, do nothing.
  4. Never make the treatment worse than the disease.

As I read these rules, they got me thinking of their applications to policing of which I could think of many. But the most appropriate application that struck me was how we, as law enforcement leaders, should be handling critical incidents. Critical incidents are complex situations involving witnesses, victims, suspects, and officers all experiencing various overlapping states of volatility, uncertainty, chaos, and anxiety. All of these individuals have been brought together by the one thing they have in common, the circumstances of the particular situation.

How the law enforcement leader leads these situations not only influences and affects the officers that work with them, but also leaves a lasting impact on the witnesses, victims, and suspects involved. That impact can be a positive one in which those involved feel like the situation was made better by the presence of law enforcement. Or it can be a negative one in which the presence of law enforcement only served to make the situation worse.

So, as we head into these critical incidents, it is vital to understand what the appropriate role is for law enforcement to play, what our priorities are, and what our range of acceptable outcomes is for the particular situation. Knowing and having an understanding of these three things emphasizes good practice and process while also taking into account the range of acceptable outcomes. As we begin to apply what we believe to be the correct role and priorities for those responding, that is where the connections to Loeb’s Rules of Medicine really start to come into play.  They help create a mindset of adaptability in the leader’s actions, attitude, and effort regarding the handling of the critical incident and steer them away from the perspective that there is only a single solution to these complex events.

Loeb’s Rules of Medicine Applied to Law Enforcement

RULE# 1: If what you are doing is working, keep doing it. Consistently assessing the impact of our decisions as we lead critical incidents is vital. If we are going in a certain direction and it is working toward the already identified acceptable range of solutions, then keep pushing forward so long as appropriate practices and processes are being applied. This can be accomplished by understanding the hierarchy of life and applying it correctly for the benefit of all involved. Then looking to stabilize the situation as much as possible while continuing to work towards a solution to the issue at hand. The key is continuous evaluation. Just because something is working now, does not guarantee it will still be working 5 minutes from now. That is the very nature of a complex critical incident.

RULE# 2: If what you are doing isn’t working, stop doing it. In contrast to Rule #1, the minute we identify what we are doing is not working, then we must be willing to stop…and adjust. Law enforcement does not have the luxury to just stop, so adapting is key. We know when our actions in a critical incident are not working because we start to internalize the building stress and pressure of the situation. We begin to think in terms of control when we should be thinking in terms of influence. We focus more on trying to control the other people involved and/or the circumstances of the situation rather than the things we truly have control over. So, when we begin to feel overwhelmed by the demands of the situation, we need to stop and adapt by asking what are the actions I can adjust, what is a better attitude to approach this situation with, and what is the effort level needed for success. Obviously, something is not working, so control what you can control and influence all of the rest.

RULE# 3: If you don’t know what you are doing, do nothing. No law enforcement leader ever wants to admit they do not know what they are doing – there is just too much pride, ego, and reputation on the line for that to happen, right? But this is exactly what we need to be able to do, especially if we want to call ourselves leaders. We need to be able to admit to and identify our areas for improvement, especially in regards to handling critical incidents, prior to finding ourselves in the moment of running one. This is the only way we can work towards minimizing the likelihood of the “I don’t know what I’m doing” moment. The world of handling critical incidents is unpredictable and complex. If we find ourselves in a moment when we do not know what we are doing, then we must know the resources that are available and how to best utilize their strengths to accomplish what we cannot because in these critical incidents we cannot just do nothing.

 RULE #4 (Adapted): Never make the situation worse by our presence. Law enforcement was called to the critical incident for a reason, it is already a bad day for those involved. We must account for our actions, attitude, and effort with every decision we make to continually be moving towards both solving and stabilizing the situation. To stabilize the situation means to prevent it from getting worse and make it as safe as possible to work in for all involved. This could be setting containment, evacuations, road closures, calling in additional resources, and many other available options. If we find it necessary to momentarily de-stabilize a situation, then it must be done deliberately and with an intentional purpose. A momentary destabilization could be the use of a flashbang, deploying gas/smoke, breaking out a window, breaching a door, or making a crisis entry. These are all momentary de-stabilizations of the incident that must be justified by a priority higher than stabilization such as saving life.

Where else do you see Loeb’s Rules of Medicine applying to law enforcement?

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!

10 Law Enforcement Leadership Commandments

Leadership, Squad Culture, , , , , ,

The mission at Thin Blue Line of Leadership is to simply inspire law enforcement leaders to be better than they were yesterday. Sharing positive leadership tactics and creating a positive law enforcement culture are on-going commitments that must be nurtured and developed over time by anyone in a law enforcement leadership position.

The ideas below are simple, but not easy. They take both effort and time. These are all things that are within your control by making the most of your actions, your attitude, and your effort as a leader. Current research is showing that it is not about the big grandiose gestures, but the consistent small actions that those you are leading come to trust about you.

Here are 10 Law Enforcement Leadership Commandments . . .

  1. Emphasize good culture over rules. Good culture within the organization or squad will take care of the rules. Be intentional about what you are creating.
  2. Create and train your officers to be the next leaders of the organization. Develop them through your mentorship. Leadership development starts the moment they are hired.
  3. Remember your “why” and share it often. Know your officers’ “why” and don’t let them forget it. This is the fuel that will get them through a 20+ year career.
  4. Your officers will only be as good as they are trained to be. Work to create a culture of humility and learning.
  5. Emphasize the value in doing the right thing at the right time for the right reasons.
  6. Teach your officers not to operate in fear when their intent is pure.
  7. Recognize, reward, and promote good police work as a matter of routine. Remember, your officers long for attention, appreciation, and acceptance.
  8. Be purposeful in your briefings. Don’t let the little time you have with the whole squad go to waste.
  9. Create influence through contact, communication, and connection. Then you will get their contribution. Get out from behind the desk and handle some calls with them.
  10. You will succeed the most through your officers succeeding. Don’t put personal gain above their needs.

Have something that you would have added to this list? 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!

 

Commandments

Change and Reputation

Decision-Making, Leadership, , , , , , , , ,

Reputation1

As a police sergeant, I have 2 primary goals regarding the officers on my squad: 1. Keep them safe. 2. Assist them in being successful at reaching their goals. To assist them in being successful with their goals, I find it is necessary to help give them perspective on the “big picture.” In law enforcement, it is easy to get caught up in short-sighted issues that demoralize a squad like staffing, compensation, negative public perceptions, etc. With that being said, I wrote this and read it in one of my recent briefings.

Change and your reputation go hand in hand in any organization, but in a mid-sized police department it is even truer – there is nowhere to hide within a 400 person department. We all know the phenomenal street cop whose career was or is being derailed by their poor attitude and/or reputation. More times than not, their poor attitude and/or reputation is related to their inability to deal with change effectively.

Change is inevitable. The only thing that stays constant is that circumstances and situations are always changing. How you deal with change comes down to your own personal responsibility and accountability – What do you expect of yourself? This defines not only your ability to deal with change, but also develops your reputation within the organization. Are you a whiny victim of change or are you someone who can deal and work within the system that is present?

The sooner it is accepted that the system is what it is and will always be slow to respond, the easier it becomes to deal with organizational lapses. Organizations, like people, are inherently flawed – no organization is perfect because they are run by human beings who are made up of attitudes, egos, and emotions. To move beyond the lapses, though, you have to take the long view and not be focused on just the short-term. So, the question becomes, how do you react to change to get the best outcome and solidify a reputation as a positive, forward thinker?

First, when change is approaching, ask this question of yourself, “What can I do?” This is the most direct and proactive response you can have. Sometimes you’ll have the ability to affect change before it is upon you and sometimes you won’t. The key is to remember that working within yourself is the only thing you actually have true control over – your actions, your attitude, and your effort.. By taking initiative and working from the front, you can often help direct change in a more palatable direction.

But, what if there is nothing you can do to directly affect the change that is coming? I answer that question with a quote from Maya Angelou, “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”

If you can’t affect the situation directly, then whining, complaining, or having beat office bitch sessions will do nothing but hurt YOUR reputation. The perceived “problem” will rarely be blamed because it is so ambiguous and comes from “they” levels. You know who “they” are, right? I implore you not to see change as something that is out to get you – it is vital to your career success to be a person who can identify the positives and opportunities that come with change.

There are 3 things you are always in control of when it comes to change – your actions, your attitude, and your effort. The common denominator to all 3 of those is YOU – you are in control and no one can take that away unless you let them. It is all about being proactive, not reactive.

Here are 5 steps to help deal with change in a positive, forward-thinking manner. These steps are adapted from the book Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson.

Change Awareness

  1. Accept that change happens.
  2. Anticipate change.
  3. Affect change, if possible.
  4. Adapt to change quickly by adjusting your perspective.
  5. Enjoy change by being in personal control of your response to it.

Ultimately to succeed, not just within an organization, but in life, it is about survival of the fittest – your ability to adapt and overcome to change. Just like responding to a call, the situation is always going to be fluid. How you respond is your choice and builds your reputation either for better or for worse!

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 by anyone in a law enforcement leadership position. 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!

Be Intentional About Culture

Leadership, Squad Culture, , , , , , ,

The mission at Thin Blue Line of Leadership is to share positive leadership tactics and training ideas 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 by anyone in a law enforcement leadership position. Development of a positive culture must be intentional; otherwise, who knows what will develop in its place.

For demonstrative purposes, I am going to discuss culture as it relates to the position of a sergeant with his/her squad, but these concepts are applicable at any level within an organization. When speaking of culture, I am specifically defining it as the prevailing actions and attitudes that a group demonstrates on a consistent basis. Actions and attitudes are the building blocks of culture and both must be guided in a desired direction.

Here are 4 ways to develop an intentional culture . . .

  1. Cultural development begins the minute you assume a leadership position. The minute you walk into your first briefing, you are already beginning to develop the culture of the squad. Were you early, late, or right on time? Officers are watching every step you take and are trying to decipher what you like, what you don’t like, what you expect of them, and what they can get away with. You must already know what direction you want to go or a power vacuum will form. The squad is seeking direction and leadership, either you give it to them or someone else will. There is not a minute to waste.
  2. Your style will teach your officers the culture. To be intentional about your squad’s culture, you must feed them examples of how you picture the culture. This cannot be done from the office. It requires being out on the road with them and demonstrating your style in action so they aren’t having to guess. Contact, communication, and connection between you and your officers is key. While in briefings, encourage your officers to ask “why” so they can better understand your decision-making process. The more they understand, the more the culture will begin to reflect the style you desire.
  3. What you reward will be repeated. You must reward desired actions and attitudes consistently. When you know within yourself the direction you want your squad to go, you will be able to easily recognize behaviors that deserve rewarding. This needs to be done even more blatantly if the desired behavior is a significant change from how things were prior to your arrival. Positive reinforcement is a very powerful tool for a leader, but you must be careful in what you reward because that behavior will be repeated. When giving compliments, specifically define what was good. Instead of just saying something like, “Nice job;” specifically define the action or attitude that you observed. For example, “Nice job, I like the way you kept your cool back there when that guy was yelling at us. You didn’t lose your temper and maintained officer safety without lowering yourself to that level.”
  4. What you ignore, you condone. When taking over a leadership role, such as a sergeant starting with a new squad, there are always going to be things you see that you don’t necessarily agree with and differ from your desired culture. It is incumbent of you to not ignore them. Ultimately, what you don’t address will be assumed to be acceptable. On the flip-side, you must also be careful not to just bark orders about how you want things done or you’ll very quickly take on the persona of a micromanager. To make your redirections acceptable, you must define why it is important to you and why it should be important to that officer.

Before your can have any effect on the culture of a squad, you have to know what the culture is that you would like to have. If you cannot picture in your head what the perfect squad culture would look like, then how can you lead other people in that direction? Take the time to write out your thoughts and think about what has or has not worked in your previous assignments. What qualities made up the best squad/unit you have been a part of? This is your squad’s culture, be intentional about it!

What do you do at your department to be intentional about culture?

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!