Being a People-First Leader

I recently found myself in conversation with a man who was a retired police officer. As a retired officer myself, and a military veteran, it was an interesting conversation for me as we discussed what “good leadership,” meant to us individually. We had both worked for different Chiefs of Police through our careers. We had experienced good (and bad) first line supervisors. We had both experienced good (and bad) middle management and we both had a good idea of what we thought good leadership was. What was interesting was that through the course of the conversation, when we discussed a specific Chief or Sheriff, it became obvious that sometimes we disagreed on whether or not that specific leader was a “good” one. We’ll address that farther down, but for now, let’s talk about what we both agreed helped a leader demonstrate “good leadership.”

We agreed that a good leader builds trust both up and down the chain of command. What does that mean? It means, as possible, transparency and good communication. It meant, for us, that the Chief or Sheriff didn’t hide behind, “Because I said so,” or “Because I’m the boss.” He (or she) was willing, when circumstances permitted, to explain the WHY behind a given policy or order. We also both recognized that sometimes there is no time for such explanations in the moment. Sometimes you just have to accept what your told, act on faith and then respectfully request that explanation when the crisis is past. The willingness to do that - to obey in the moment and ask questions later - increases as more trust is built. When enough trust is built, you find that leader that you’ll storm the gates of hell with, sure that they’ll do all they can to take care of you; as loyal to you as you are to them.

We agreed that part of building trust involved the leader doing three very important things:

It involved the leader giving credit where it is due. We’ve all experienced the “leader” who took credit for an accomplished goal, successful mission, etc. when all they did was say, “This needs to be done.” A good leader recognizes and passes on the credit to those who actually do the work to accomplish the mission.
It involved the leader defending his/her team. If the team does something wrong or makes a mistake, then a good leader doesn’t throw them under the bus. We agreed that a good leader wouldn’t try to defend the mistakes but also would just accept criticism of team members who had done nothing wrong simply because the end result was someone unhappy. Let’s be realistic: Criminals are never happy when they’re arrested, and quite often their friends and/or family are just as upset. When complaints come from such folks, it may or may not be justified and a good leader doesn’t confirm either way without knowing 100% of the facts and identifying what was (or wasn’t) done wrong. If the team did nothing wrong, the good leader defends the team’s actions.
It involved making time to listen to the team members, as a group or individually, not only to get “their side” when complaints are received, but also to get information on how things might be done better for a given task. A good leader knows that they don’t know everything and that someone else, even junior ranking, might have a good (or great) idea on how to do things better. A good leader listens.

That willingness to listen is a sign of another good leadership trait: being confident but with a touch of humbleness. The arrogantly confident leader is a turn off. Sure, arrogance can be justified but it never comes across well when it’s rolling downhill. If that confidence is demonstrated but not flaunted… not arrogant… the sense of humility comes with it. That in turn creates an image of humanity that some in leadership positions try to avoid.

We agreed that the good leader did two things that relate to an individual under their command: They demonstrated the belief that you have potential to grow and, to follow on that, they support you in your attempts to grow and improve. Many people in leadership roles never grow past being managers. The manager may not want to support you in your growth because you might surpass them one day. Their ego can’t accept that so they do nothing to support you as you pursue improvement, and in fact may actively try to hinder your growth. That’s not leadership. The good leader believes in you and demonstrates it by supporting you toward improvement.

Finally, we agreed that while the law enforcement profession has both good and bad days, the good leader does what they can to make the work enjoyable. They do their best to make sure you have functioning equipment, decent work schedules, time for your off-duty life, stress management support available and so on. The good leader knows that the job can be burdensome and does what they can to reduce that.

So, between the two of us in the discussion, with roughly 70 years of uniformed experience between us, that’s what we came up with. What are your thoughts?