The law enforcement profession is unique in regard to leadership, management, and success in that unlike the private industry, failed leadership can often continue and flourish without anyone, besides the employees, noticing. Leadership must rise in the private industry because a failure of leadership means a failure in business and that equals bankruptcy.
If you live in Minneapolis and need the police, you don’t get to choose which police department. In many ways, there are no incentives for the top of a law enforcement agency to actually lead because they are likely never in danger of being exposed.
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If you are in a law enforcement agency, you likely know whether the leadership is failing but long before that failure comes dysfunction and the early days of that dysfunction is where leadership failure begins.
I’ve had hundreds of conversations through the years with peers that went something like this…”I can’t wait until that “chief/major/captain/sergeant” retires so we can make improvements and while that talk can be glamorous, the truth is I rarely saw an improvement in leadership if the person changed in the seat.
Culture
This is an obvious cultural issue that takes extremely strong leadership to overcome but how and why does this happen?
The easy answer is that it’s easy to take it easy. Changing the culture is a bloodsport and I’ve seen my share of well meaning leaders start off like Mike Tyson and finish up like Pee-wee Herman.
Not only does it take a strong leader to stop the cycle of cowardice but there must be a rejection of the institutional mechanisms used by these cowards to continue the agency destruction well long after they are placed in the retirement home called retired police chief and DOJ Consultant.
Tools of Cowards
If citizens knew what often went on behind the doors of their police agency, they wouldn’t believe it. Between the jazzy PIO statements and talk of greatness to come, those outside the profession likely don’t care what the leadership is like but that has just as much to do with the gag orders imposed on pretty much every police officer.
Policy
Agency policies that mandate total silence from employees are a recipe for bad leaders to keep being bad. From official gag orders to policy that threatens termination if anyone says anything deemed negative about their agency are just some of the mechanisms that cowards use to protect themself from scrutiny.
Appointment vs. Merit
Many agencies don’t choose middle and upper management based on merit or ability but rather appointment and that appointment typically eliminates employee protections like civil service. Granted, an agency may be doing this because that’s the way it’s always been done but if speaking can get you fired, we won’t see many managers saying much but “yes sir/mam.”
Communication
Cowards typically consider information power and they are very careful to communicate enough information to appease the masses but fear that over-sharing would cause some to question any decisions made. Every employee should have access to every leader in at least an informal manner. Strong leaders making the right decisions for the right reasons should never be concerned that giving away too much information will hurt them.
Training / Equipment
You can always see the heart of a leader on where they spend their resources and any leader that sends themself to training more than others should be a warning sign. Do the higher ranks have nicer equipment than those tasked to actually use that equipment? Leadership is about self sacrifice and while many talk about it, what really matters is those that actually do it.
Empowerment
Some of the best ideas in any organization reside with not the higher ranks but those doing the job each and every day. Leaders understand that empowerment is their greatest tool to achieve greatness but often times, we attribute rank to expertise and law enforcement is far too diverse for any one person to know it all, everywhere. Great leaders understand that even the first day employee may have something much greater to offer the agency and they make sure to empower others so that creativity, expertise, and passion benefits the organization as a whole.
Dr. Travis Yates retired as a commander with a large municipal police department after 30 years of service. He is the author of “The Courageous Police Leader: A Survival Guide for Combating Cowards, Chaos & Lies.” His risk management and leadership seminars have been taught to thousands of professionals across the world. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy with a Doctorate Degree in Strategic Leadership and the CEO of the Courageous Police Leadership Alliance.
