Tag Archives: positive

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. ***

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!

Leading with P-R-I-D-E

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

“Leadership is influence; nothing more, nothing less.”  ~ John Maxwell

The most fundamental building block of policing is decision-making.

  • Make contact or leave the person alone?
  • Ask or command?
  • Search or don’t search?
  • Arrest or don’t arrest?
  • Shoot or don’t shoot?

These are just a few examples of major decisions made by officers every day regarding issues of communication, search/seizure, legal authority, and use of force. These decisions, along with a multitude of lesser ones, get them through each shift – most of the time good, sometimes not so good dependent upon their decision-making. Law enforcement leaders must understand how they influence officer decision-making because safety, public trust, and lives are on the line. To put it bluntly, law enforcement leaders must learn to lead with P-R-I-D-E.

Policing is a very complicated profession and inevitably mistakes are going to happen. Therefore, law enforcement leaders must proactively discuss decision-making with their officers in terms of the process, not just in terms of right or wrong after the fact. While officers makes their own individual decisions, it is the leader that creates the environment they work in. That environment can either nurture or devastate good decision-making.

pride

Part of the P-R-I-D-E Adaptive Decision-Making Model is a large blue circle with the following words written around it: Culture, Mission, Goals, and Why. This is the Leadership Circle. All decisions are influenced by this circle because culture, mission, goals, and why create the lens through which officers view their policing world. This is how law enforcement leaders influence and manage officer decision-making in advance of them having to make those critical decisions in the moment.

If there is a squad of lazy, negative officers that are constantly having issues, it is absolutely related to the environment allowed to exist by their “leader.” If there is a squad of hard working, positive officers that are constantly being recognized for their excellent work, it is related to the environment created by their leader.

CULTURE: Culture is simply defined as the prevailing actions and attitudes of a group over time. The leader of a group must play a significant role in setting the culture. The key to setting a culture is that the leader knows what they want their culture to be. Once the desired culture is defined, then the leader must identify ways to repeat, recognize, and then reinforce actions and attitudes that promote that culture. If a leader fails to define and implement their desired culture, then another one will form and the leader is no longer leading. For more on culture development, see our blog “Culture in Just 4 Words.”

MISSION: Mission starts with the department’s mission statement which is usually posted on a wall somewhere. Leaders must find ways to take the words off of the poster and make them part of the culture as defined above. On a smaller scale, each call for service officers respond to has its own more specific mission. Identifying the purpose of a mission is a must for operational success. Many times, the mission can be defined by the role(s) that must be played by the officer in order to achieve a successful outcome. Does this call need a guardian, a warrior, a caretaker, a social worker, or an enforcer? Understanding large scale and small scale missions is important to good decision-making because mission sets the vision. For more on mission, see our blog “Shifting Gears in Policing.”

GOALS: Goals can exist on multiple levels; for example, department goals and personal goals. Many departments set goals for their officers with the intention of creating a method for tracking their officers’ activity or productivity. Where many departments fail with goal setting is that they set arbitrary goals that are not tied to their mission. In other words, there is no understanding as to why the goals exist or the purpose they serve. Department goals must be tightly correlated to the department mission to give them meaning to the officers and to provide meaningful information to upper staff. Personal goals should be set by the officers and related to their desired career path. Their career path sets a long-term vision which enables the officer, hopefully with the assistance of their leader, to determine specific goals that can be worked on each shift. Meeting incremental personal goals are the building blocks to an officer getting where they eventually want to go within the department. Leaders should put this into perspective for their officers so they understand that each shift is essentially part of the interview for their job of the future.

WHY: No one goes into law enforcement because they are going to get rich or be famous. Deep down there is something special in each person that decides to pin on a badge that drives them to run towards conflict, put their lives on the line, and serve a community. Whatever the reason, that is their personal why. The why fuels the fire to continue working when times get hard and empowers officers to go above and beyond when those opportunities exist. Law enforcement leaders must help officers identify their why, be able to articulate it, and help them hold tight to it for the entirety of their career.  For more on why, see our blog “HELP WANTED: Police Officers.”

When a person chooses to promote within a law enforcement organization, they essentially have raised their hand and said, “I’m willing to lead.” It is not permission to do less, but a mandate to do more. Leading takes effort. Leading takes skill. Leading takes caring. Leading takes passion. To build influence in officer decision-making, those that promote must stand up and lead. They must create environments that focus on culture, mission, goals, and why. The leaders that take the time and make the effort to create these positive environments will be rewarded by the outcomes seen in their officers’ decision-making and they will spend less time running around putting out fires created by a bad environment.

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 Tips for New Sergeants

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

For the last 8 years, I have been a Field Training Sergeant. It is truly a pleasure knowing that I am having an impact on the future of my police department by training these new leaders. I see this responsibility as a vital one. If I do not do a good job, I am not just affecting that new sergeant, but every officer that serves on his or her squad.

Just so we are on the same page, here is how my department handles sergeant training. Sergeant field training is a 5 week process – 2 weeks with one training sergeant, 2 weeks with a different training sergeant, and then one final week back with the first training sergeant. At the end of each shift, the Field Training Sergeant completes a daily observation report (similar to FTO) that summarizes and scores everything the prospective new sergeant did throughout that shift. While writing these daily observation reports, I have noticed that there are certain bits of advice that I seem to be repeatedly writing for every sergeant I help train.

So, here are my 10 tips for new sergeants . . .

  1. Successful sergeants spend 80% of their time working with people and 20% doing everything else. Sergeants that fail to inspire, have a poor squad culture, and breed negative officers focus more on everything else rather than people and building relationships.
  2. Successful sergeants find ways to teach their officers to be adaptive decision-makers; not robots that only understand how to solve problems with checklists. When opportunities present themselves, sergeants explain their process for making difficult decisions and everything they took into account. Then, when their officers face similar situations they have been taught to apply their own similar process.
  3. Successful sergeants never waste briefing time. There is always something that could be discussed, debated, trained, or learned in briefing. This is one of the few opportunities when sergeants have their entire squad’s attention at the same time; make the most of it.
  4. Successful sergeants understand that policing is a complicated profession. Both sergeants and their officers are going to make mistakes at some point. Do not hide mistakes, share them openly and turn them into learning opportunities focused on improvement. Mistakes are fine, just don’t make the same one twice.
  5. Successful sergeants recognize, reward, and promote good police work by their officers. They use whatever methods are available at their department to make this happen anytime an officer goes above and beyond. Not only does this create a more positive culture, but it also spurs on more officers to look for opportunities to go above and beyond. What a sergeant rewards will be repeated.
  6. Successful sergeants have a vision of the culture they want to have on their squad. Squad culture is defined as the conglomeration of your officers’ actions, attitude, and effort. If you asked another sergeant to describe your squad in 4 words, what words would they use? That is your culture. If you don’t like those words, do something about it.
  7. Successful sergeants do not lead from their desks. They get out on the road with their officers and find ways to serve them throughout each shift. They never believe themselves to be too good for the “grunt” work of being a patrol officer; they get in there and get their hands dirty occasionally.
  8. Successful sergeants recognize that their actions, attitude, and effort tell their officers what is important to them. If a sergeant speaks negatively about their schedule, some situation at the department, or some aspect of the job, then don’t be surprised when the officers have that same opinion or are representing that opinion openly. Negativity breeds negativity.
  9. Successful sergeants know what they do not know, then they find ways to compensate for those areas. If they are not good at tactical situations, they talk to the department’s SWAT officers about various scenarios and how they would handle them. If they are not good at traffic or investigations, they build relationships with motors or detectives that are respected. The most important aspect of this tip is that a sergeant never fakes knowledge and gives bad advice to an officer. This will kill their credibility. If an officer has a question that the sergeant does not know the answer to, the best thing they can do is say, “That is a great question, I don’t know, but I know someone who will. Standby and I’ll call you right back.”
  10. Successful sergeants never allow themselves or their officers to stop learning. The minute a sergeant thinks they know it all is the moment they begin sliding towards mediocrity. A sergeant values training and realizes that the more training they can get for their officers, the better their officers will be on the road.

Got a tip you would give to a new sergeant?

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 Signs of a Miserable Law Enforcement Job

Leadership, Squad Culture, , , , , , ,

“High school kids at In-N-Out Burger and Chick-fil-A are doing largely the same job that kids at any other fast-food restaurant are doing, and yet there are a lot fewer miserable jobs at In-N-Out and Chick-fil-A. The difference is not the job itself. It is the management. And one of the most important things that managers must do is help employees see why their work matters to someone. Even if this sounds touchy-feely to some, it is a fundamental part of human nature.”     – Patrick Lencioni

3signs

The premise of the book “Three Signs of a Miserable Job” by Patrick Lencioni is simply this – staying in a miserable job can have severely negative consequences on a person mentally, physically, and emotionally. These consequences can affect a person’s life both personally and professionally and it does not have to be that way. The good news is that, as supervisors, we have the ability to combat the 3 signs of a miserable job and it really is not that complicated.

Here are the 3 signs of a miserable job . . .

  1. ANONYMITY

“People cannot be fulfilled in their work if they are not known. All human beings need to be understood and appreciated for their unique qualities by someone in a position of authority. . . . People who see themselves as invisible, generic, or anonymous cannot love their jobs, no matter what they are doing.”

  1. IRRELEVANCE

“Everyone needs to know that their job matters, to someone. Anyone. Without seeing a connection between the work and the satisfaction of another person or group of people, an employee simply will not find lasting fulfillment. Even the most cynical employees need to know that their work matters to someone, even if it’s just the boss.”

  1. IMMEASUREABILITY

“Employees need to be able to gauge their progress and level of contribution for themselves. They cannot be fulfilled in their work if their success depends on the opinions or whims of another person, no matter how benevolent that person may be. Without a tangible means for assessing success or failure, motivation eventually deteriorates as people see themselves as unable to control their own fate.”

In relation to law enforcement, if an officer is miserable in their job due to the factors of anonymity, irrelevance, and immeasurability, then what is the cost to them personally, their squad, their department, and the community they are supposed to be serving? Personally, they carry their misery home which adversely affects their family life. They become the salty grump in the back of the briefing room that complains about everything and sucks the energy out of all around them. To the department they are a liability because of the negative impact on the culture and the unpredictability of their actions on the road. The community suffers because the miserable officer represents the worst of the police department which erodes public trust and makes the job that much more difficult for the officers that are not miserable. How many officers are you picturing in your head right now that match this description of a miserable officer?

Here are 25 ways law enforcement supervisors can combat anonymity, irrelevance, and immeasurability . . .

ANONYMITY

  1. Create a team atmosphere within the squad where it is believed that we is greater than I.
  2. When you get a new officer, meet with them individually and get them on board with the squad culture from day one.
  3. Recognize good police work in briefing. What you reward will be repeated.
  4. Have officers debrief good calls for service and share their expertise and successes with others.
  5. Get out of the office and on the road with your officers. Try to get on a call for service or backup each of your officers during each shift, if time allows.
  6. Rotating having officers conduct briefing training based upon their policing strengths and interests.
  7. Meet with officers regularly to discuss their career goals and seek out opportunities to help them fulfill those goals.
  8. Get to know your officers’ families. Create opportunities for them to all get together with the other families of the squad.
  9. Send handwritten thank you notes to your officers’ spouses or significant others to let them know that you appreciate the commitment that the families make to law enforcement, too.

IRRELEVANCE

  1. Making policing relevant is about getting back to the “why.” Know why you chose to become a police officer. Know why you chose to be a supervisor. Share your why with your officers. Get to know their why, find opportunities to relate their why to calls for service, and discuss the relationship in briefing.
  2. As a supervisor, you set the tone and create value in community service. If it is important to you, it will be important to them.
  3. Promote public commendations in briefing by reading them aloud for all your officers to hear.
  4. Teach your officers to be good beat cops and take pride in their assigned part of the city.
  5. Get away from the term customer service and focus on community service. The term customer service cheapen what we do as police officers and builds irrelevance.
  6. Have discussions in briefing regarding who your officers serve. Point out that they serve not only the community, but they also serve each other. Discuss that you, the supervisor, are there to serve them.
  7. Teach your squad to have a focus on finding solutions while on calls for serve; not on producing statistics, being a band aid, or handling them as quickly as possible.
  8. Exemplify and promote a culture of positivity on your squad through your actions, attitude, and effort.
  9. Provide good feedback and evaluations to your officers. In return, ask for them to do the same for you.

IMMEASUREABILITY

Of the 3 signs of a miserable job, immeasureability is the most difficult for law enforcement supervisors to deal with directly. There is no limit to the number of statistics that can be measured for each officer: calls for service responded to, self-initiated activities, arrests made, tickets written, response times, amount of time spent on each call, number of community policing activities, etc. The question becomes, are we measuring the right things?

  1. Clearly define what the “rock star” police officer would do on a “perfect” shift based upon the mission, vision, and operational goals of the department.
  2. Determine what statistics officers and/or the department have the ability to capture that correspond to the “perfect” shift. If part of the “perfect” shift includes community policing and/or positive interactions with the community, then a way to count those interactions must be determined, as well.
  3. Set specific goals based upon what the “perfect” shift would look like that clearly define what success looks like for officers and provide them with a way to track those numbers.
  4. Ultimately, whatever is chosen to be measured must be supported by the officers’ direct supervisors because the direct supervisors will give the statistics being measure their value.
  5. Supervisors must assist officers in seeing the positive perspective to their seemingly negative activities like making arrests or writing tickets.
  6. The question to be answered is how do you measure community policing activity effectiveness? Do you count the number of positive citizen commendations, the number of people that say “thank you” after being arrested/written a ticket, or the amount of time dedicated to solving beat problems? This is where the difficulty in the measurability of policing comes into play and must be answered by departments everywhere.

There are many more ways to combat anonymity, irrelevance, and immeasurability in policing. If these 3 signs of a miserable job are not addressed by law enforcement supervisors, then they will have to deal with the miserable officers they are allowing to be created.

“If you’re still not convinced that this makes sense or that it applied to you, this would be a good time to consider resigning your position as a manager and finding a role as an individual contributor.”  – Patrick Lencioni

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

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

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!