If you are a new chief or about to become one, there is one reality of life that you must comprehend. That is the debit and credit sides of leadership. This can be difficult to understand but extremely important to grasp. Matter of fact the more rapidly you come to grips with this, the better your future will be. This is not a conversation or contemplation for the weak of heart. I never told you that leadership was a clean, fraught-less occupation. The weight of the office is heavy, the bars or stars on your collar may seem insignificant but they will place an immense weight on your shoulders and spirit, if you let them.
We Do Not Know You, Why Follow You
You carry a burden about you all of the time; it never takes a day off. It is omnipresent and there is no escape from it. As a new chief, especially if you are an outsider who does not know the new staff, you will need to gain their cooperation. Often you will have to entrust your status and future with others. Your successes may be uncertain for the new staffers who do not know you and have no benchmark to trust you. To be honest, most have no reason to support you, nor care about your success. Asking favors and seeking to win staff over to your regime is tricky and dangerous business. How you get them to comply willfully can map your future.
You can be forced to work and entrust your future to some who do not hold your core values, goals or your even best interests. The only thing that most will appreciate is their fee (salary) and/ or their current position in life. The threat of losing their jobs, positions and retirements will keep most in line. However, the overuse of threats is a sure losing situation. Most all of law enforcement is accustomed to idle threats. Since the academy, there has been either an instructor or supervisor offering threats. You will be either sued or worst yet, killed at one time or another. Therefore, you develop a nearly non-stick coating to ward off threats.
One of the worst mistakes you can make is to make promises you cannot keep. Be extremely careful with credit and debit side of the house. You will need a project to be successful so you will give out the “I owe you one for this” remark. The problem is that when the books are balanced, you are in a dangerous predicament. One staffer may hold all of his cards and want to cash them in on a disciplinary issue. Now you must consider cashing in all of the back the favors and abolishing the current sins to zero balance the books. This will reek of favoritism and will set a dangerous past practice for this type of infraction. This one officer gets away with it free on a pay back and the future one you drop the disciplinary hammer on. Get where I am coming from now? The ‘do this and I owe you’ scheme will have to be a very restricted practice, too much and you have dissolved your authority. You then become a promise offeror, not a leader. You deal out promises that may never come to fruition. However, there are some promises you may not be able to keep, so proceed with caution.
Manage and Adapt
It is very extremely difficult to be the new chief in a new land. The only people you may ‘know’ are those that hired you or those who were on the selection committees. Few of these will have anything to do with your internal organization. Therefore, you must adapt and seek compliance with what you have, your wits. I have always said that every good chief would make a great salesperson. You will be selling your new initiatives and programs to the line and staff. The obstacle you must overcome will be if the new staff is ‘buying’ your bill of goods. I have stated that great chiefs were once instructors and will stick to this statement. This is prime evidence since a good instructor can explain a new concept, present all the reasons that this new skill or law is beneficial and the ‘why’ it is important to follow the new concept. Throughout law enforcement, there have been several major changes within its culture. The instructors taught the new concepts that ‘sold’ this new bill of goods. Therefore, new chiefs put your best instructor hat on before you start ordering and demanding compliance. Get your best face on and sell it like an instructor and not the perennial used car salesperson. Bring the facts of why and the benefits of the new to the front. Do not say ‘this is what I want’ or ‘because I said so’; idle threats and intimidation do not gain points. Try this instead that this point is “the best direction for the department in the future”. One thing is not to let your ego get in the way when someone asks you “why”. Some accept or understand quickly and some need more information or selling points. Nobody readily accepted the idea to eat an oyster without a little salesmanship.
Nobody ever said that being a leader is easy work; it is hard and demanding labor. Use your mind and verbal skills to obtain voluntary compliance rather than threats. Always treat your staff with respect, never demean them and you will be surprised.
William L. Harvey | Chief
William L. "Bill" Harvey is a U.S. Army Military Police Corps veteran. He has a BA in criminology from St. Leo University and is a graduate of the Southern Police Institute of the University of Louisville (103rd AOC). Harvey served for over 23 years with the Savannah (GA) Police Department in field operations, investigations and completed his career as the director of training. Served as the chief of police of the Lebanon City Police Dept (PA) for over seven years and then ten years as Chief of Police for the Ephrata Police Dept (PA). In retirement he continues to publish for professional periodicals and train.
