Chapter 9.txt

climbing the promotion mountain; if it feels lonely at the top, you’re doing it wrong “Succession is one of the key responsibilities of leadership.” — Max Dupree D       etective Sergeant Frank Stevenson was a seasoned veteran. He was the       supervisor of the Central Anti-Crime Task Unit (CAT). H...

climbing the promotion mountain; if it feels lonely at the top, you’re doing it wrong “Succession is one of the key responsibilities of leadership.” — Max Dupree D       etective Sergeant Frank Stevenson was a seasoned veteran. He was the       supervisor of the Central Anti-Crime Task Unit (CAT). His team of six       detectives operated in plain clothes and liked to lock up bad guys. The problem was that Sergeant Stevenson was a micromanager. He was excellent at his job. He had a particular way of doing things but didn’t trust anyone to do them as well as he did. I ran into one of his detectives in the hallway of headquarters one day. We started chatting, and I asked him what his team was up to. “You guys working any good cases today?” “Not today, Sarge is off.” I, jokingly, asked, “So when Stevenson is off, you guys can’t do any police work?” “Yup.” “Seriously? I was just kidding. What do you mean?” Leader Armor for Law Enforcement 150 “I mean that when Frank is off, we aren’t allowed to leave the office. We can’t do any fieldwork. We can’t lock up any bad guys.” “You’re kidding me, right?” “Nope. That’s his rule. If he is not here to supervise, we can’t do anything but paperwork.” Wow, a group of detectives sitting in their office, like children sent to their room. All because their boss didn’t trust them to do their jobs without him being there to supervise their every move? I remember walking away from that conversation feeling so thankful for the leaders I had worked for. They had been willing to mentor and teach me and others so we’d be prepared to lead when they were not there. Throughout my career, I had several people guide me, push me, and sometimes pull me up my own leadership mountain. The Mountain Think of leadership like climbing a mountain. There are many mountains to climb, just as there are many leadership goals. Since this book is written for current and future first-line supervisors, think of your mountain as Mt. FLS (First-Line Supervisor). You are somewhere on your journey. Maybe you are simply considering studying for the upcoming promotion exam; you’re at base camp. You might already be a supervisor but are struggling in your role. Perhaps you don’t want to come back down, but you are stalled at the halfway point. Wherever you are on your climb, have you thought about what happens once you get to the top? If you haven’t arrived at the top of Mt. FLS yet, think about what the view should look like. Is anyone there with you? Do you feel alone? What if you have already made it to the top? Do you feel like nobody else understands what it’s like? If you feel lonely at the top, I’m going to suggest you took the wrong path up the promotion mountain. Just like there are many ways to climb a mountain, there are many paths to promotion. Are you a solo climber? Have you ever looked around to see if anyone else was trying to make their way to the top? Have you ever considered helping others get to the top with you? The Climbing the Promotion Mountain 151 reality is, nobody makes it to the top of Mt. FLS alone. Other people helped you get there. They either willingly supported you during your climb, or you stepped on them to make your ascent easier. Don’t worry; you don’t have to be lonely for very long. There is always an opportunity to take someone up with you. Make the Climb with a Team? If you’re actively studying for a promotion exam or thinking about studying for an upcoming exam, regardless of rank, this section is for you. Too many people see their climb up Mt. FLS as a competition or a race. In this view, there can only be one winner. In any competition where there is one clear winner, the rest must be losers. If this describes your mindset, I encourage you to reconsider your view on leadership and promotion. The best climbers don’t do it alone; they do it with others. Yes, when you’re in a promotion process, you’re competing against other candidates. After all, in any organization, there are a limited number of first-line supervisor positions. It sounds counterintuitive, but to be successful at competing for a leadership role, you should consider your competitors as teammates and not opponents. Consider forming a team to make the climb together. Before you dismiss the idea of studying with someone else, consider the benefits of studying with a partner or in a small group. Here are just a few of them: 1. Perspectives. You will gain a better understanding of the subject material. We all have different experiences and areas of knowledge. Sometimes you look at something and just don’t understand it. Maybe it is a policy that doesn’t make sense to you, or you don’t see how it would be applied. As a member of a study group, you can ask other members what their views are. Chances are, someone in the group will be able to help you understand and clarify the issue. You, in turn, will be able to do the same thing with other areas of the test material. Leader Armor for Law Enforcement 152 2. Procrastination Protection. Do you put off studying until the last minute? Create a study group and plan out a schedule for regular study meetings. Then hold each other accountable to show up to and be prepared for the meetings. You will eliminate your procrastination problem. 3. New Study Skills. Everyone learns differently. Some people read and highlight, use flashcards, or write notes. Spend some time and learn how others in your group study. Try different techniques. I had three people in my sergeant process study group. We met every day for two weeks before the exam. One of the members, Dan Clements, would continue studying when he got home by reading policies, laws, and procedures while he recorded himself. He also had a few adult beverages while he did so. Dan was kind enough to share these recordings with the rest of the group. I would spend any driving time listening to the Drunk Dan Study Show. The longer he studied and drank, the more hilarious he became. Not only was it entertaining to listen to, I know I got several test questions correct simply because I remembered Dan’s voice bringing humor to the dry material. 4. Presentation skills. Many first-line supervisor promotion processes involve some sort of oral component. This can take the form of situational questions such as, “As a sergeant, how would you handle an employee who is chronically late?” The promotion candidates could also be given a set of four or five PowerPoint slides and be required to use them to give a ten-minute presentation. No matter what the oral component, a study group allows you to practice in front of other people, just like you will have to present in front of the assessment board. Do you make eye contact when you speak in front of a group? How is your posture? Do you sound confident? Are you aware of any disfluencies in your speech (the numbers of times you say “umm” or “aah”)? Don’t wait until you’re standing before the assessment panel to find out the answers to these questions. By then, it’s too late. Set up a Climbing the Promotion Mountain 153 mock assessment center, create realistic practice questions, and practice in front of each other. Critically evaluate each other. If you do this consistently, your presentation skills will improve and will stand out from the rest of the candidates. With the right mindset, persistence, and burning desire, anyone can get to the top of Mt. FLS. Some need more help than others. Some will make the journey quickly; others will take longer. The question is, who do you want on your study team? How’s It Look up There? If you’re in leadership, you’re in the people business. Your role might be supervising cops, corrections officers, deputies, agents, or civilian members, but you lead people. I’d like you to view leadership as a team activity or a journey where you bring others with you. Taking the responsibility to lead others means choosing to develop them and help them to achieve their goals. Not all of them will want to climb Mt. FLS, but it’s your job to know what their career goals are and to help them achieve them. Some might have a goal to climb Mt. Detective; others might be climbing Mt. SWAT. Choose to bring others with you on your climb or equip them for their journey. Either way, realize your role is to help others on whatever mountain they’re climbing. I can hear some of you saying, “But if I take the time to help everyone else, I’ll never make it to the top of my mountain!” Helping others won’t slow you down. Focusing on others develops your leadership abilities and skills, making your own climb easier. The more you help others, the better leader you become. Your leadership effectiveness is determined by the choices you make and the value you bring to others. When you choose to help others, to put them first, you increase your influence and your effectiveness. Leader Armor for Law Enforcement 154 Selecting the Members of Your Climbing Team In his book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill stated, “No two minds ever come together without, thereby, creating a third, invisible, intangible force which may be likened to a third mind.”53 Hill was referring to the power of a study group or, as he called it, a mastermind group. We’re going to refer to the group as your climbing team, but it is the same concept as the mastermind group. If you’re participating in the promotion exam, you will be a member of the climbing team. Maybe you’re already a supervisor and are guiding others as they climb the promotion mountain. No matter what rank, this is a good technique to become familiar with and use exam preparation. Leadership is about working with and through other people. A study partner or study group will not only help you prepare for the promotion exam, but it will also sharpen your communication and leadership skills while you do it. The most important part of forming a climbing team is to select the right members. Here are a few suggestions to help put together an all-star study team to ensure you REAP the benefits of the mastermind and get the best outcomes. 1. Respected. You must have personal and professional respect for anyone you study with. Why? You have to consider that they could be promoted before you. Will you be okay with that? If not, they’re not the right person for your group. You must also show respect by giving 100% to the group. When it comes to group study, you can’t hold back. You form a bond, and everyone agrees to contribute their best efforts in helping each other succeed. 2. Experience. During our careers, we all tend to develop interests and strengths in certain areas. Maybe you’re familiar with traffic enforcement. If so, choose members of your study group who have experience and strengths in other areas. Do you know someone who is good in administrative areas or has extensive investigative background? Pull them into the group. Make your group as varied as possible to limit groupthink and ensure cognitive diversity is present. Climbing the Promotion Mountain 155 3. All in. All members of the team must be dedicated to the goal of promotion. Achieving this goal will require planning and commitment. Do they believe all members can score high enough to get promoted? Are they willing to put in the effort necessary to accomplish the task? Are they willing to show up, prepared for each study session, and be willing to focus on the test material? People who say, “I’m gonna take the exam just to see what happens,” are not the ones to include in your study group. You only want people who are serious about scoring well and being promoted. 4. Practice. Reality-based training is now standard in most academies. Use the same type of training for your promotion exam. Find out what the promotion process will look like and then set up a system of practice that mimics the real thing. Maybe you will have 20 minutes to stand up and answer five questions in front of a group of three assessors. Set up a table and three chairs. Fill these chairs with group members to represent the assessors. If you will have a five-minute time limit for each question, use a timer. If you will stand up during the real thing, stand up during each practice session. Record and critique each other. It is better to make your mistakes in front of your study team than in front of the assessor team. Once you’ve formed your climbing team, set a schedule. How often will you meet and at what time? Where will you meet? It will need to be a location where your team can engage in reality-based practice and not be disturbed. What topics will be covered for each meeting? Will practice questions need to be created and who will create them? The more time and effort you put into your study preparation, the better chances you have of scoring well on your exam. There will be some of you who get to this point and decide, “Nope, I’m better studying on my own,” and that’s fine. People learn and perform differently, and a few do well preparing for tests by themselves. Once you get that promotion, however, your solo activities should come to an end. No matter how you get to the top of Mt. FLS, it’s time to help others get to the top with you. Leader Armor for Law Enforcement 156 Pulling Others up In your previous role as a front-line worker, your effectiveness was measured by your own performance, or how well you did in your individual duties and tasks. Now, as a first-line leader, your effectiveness is measured by the performance of those you lead. Your new job is to get work done through others, your team, your squad. Your focus must shift from “me” to “we.” As a first-line supervisor, it’s no longer about you; it’s about those you lead. In chapter 1, we defined leadership as the process of influencing human behavior to create engagement, achieve organizational goals, and prepare followers for future leadership roles. It’s time to focus on the last part of that definition: preparing followers for future leadership roles. If you have read this far, congratulations, you’re truly a rare breed; you’re a learning leader. Keep learning! When your learning stops, your leadership stagnates. Often, the learning process will take you out of your comfort zone. I say this because I believe you have an obligation to create a growth-minded environment for those you lead so they may learn and reach their full potential. This means part of your leadership role is to become a mentor and teacher to those who have the curiosity and desire to grow into leadership roles. When teaching leadership classes, one of the first questions I ask the students is “Who is your Number 2? Who is running the show now? Who is leading your team while you’re in this classroom?” I get some good Your focus must shift from “me” to “we.” When your learning stops, your leadership stagnates. Climbing the Promotion Mountain 157 answers about other supervisors covering for them. Sometimes I get blank stares and confused looks. I also get some honest answers such as, “I’ve never really thought about that before.” I’m now asking you, my dear reader, do you have someone who can step into your role and lead? What happens when you have to take a sick day or go on vacation? Do you make everyone stay in the office because no one else can lead your people like you do? What happens when you get promoted? Is there a succession plan when you start climbing Mt. Lieutenant, Mt. Manager, or Mt. Retirement? We all leave our current role sometime. Who is going to take your place? Don’t wait until you’re gone to figure it out. Start teaching, training, coaching, and mentoring now. The best way to help yourself grow as a leader is to help others grow. The best leaders help others develop and reach their full potential. Why then, do we not see more leaders working to help others develop? My experience leads me to believe there are two reasons leaders don’t help others grow. The first is one of priority. Some leaders are too busy climbing their own mountain to make time to help others. These leaders pass others and even step on them on the way up. They’re so focused on their own career path that other people are just a means to an end. They have their earbuds in, are listening to WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) radio, and getting their climb on. It’s their world, and anyone else is merely part of the scenery. The second reason for leaders not helping others develop is insecurity. These leaders have stopped learning and growing themselves, so they’re afraid that if they help others grow then the others might become better and surpass them. They’re afraid that if they give up any power, any authority, they will lose it. They are The best leaders help others develop and reach their full potential. Leader Armor for Law Enforcement 158 too blind to realize that one of the best ways to increase knowledge and abilities in any area is to teach it. By becoming a teacher or a mentor, you will be forced to grow and learn while helping others do the same. Teaching and mentoring will help raise your leadership to a new level. Leadership is not about rank, position, or title. Leadership is about relationships. Who do you positively impact and add value to on the journey up the mountain? Who will you provide guidance to while they’re climbing their own mountains? If the answer is nobody, you will find it quite lonely at the top. Once you move on to the next rank, the next unit, or the next stage of your life—you will retire one day, won’t you?—you will be forgotten. If, on the other hand, you help others, you add value to them and help them achieve their goals, you will find yourself at the top with plenty of company. It’s not the cases you make, the policy you write, or the rank you achieve for which you will be remembered. It’s the people you help and add value to who become your legacy. Your leadership legacy will live on through them. I Got One…Now What? I was a new member of the Special Assignment Team. I was not very good at SAT work yet. Truthfully, on my best days I was average. Every once in a while, I would get lucky. This turned out to be a lucky night because I got my first spot. It was almost midnight and had been a slow night. I was outside of my car, perched on the top level of the Wheaton Plaza parking garage. I had a commanding view of the downtown area, looking for any criminal activity. I also looked directly down over the pay telephone of the Shell gas station. At the Leadership is not about rank, position, or title. Leadership is about relationships. Climbing the Promotion Mountain 159 time, payphones were still used to set up drug deals. A lone black Nissan pulled into the Shell station lot and right up to the payphone. The driver got out and made a quick call. He then got back into the driver’s seat and waited. Bingo. I got excited and called my sergeant. “Hey, Sarge, I’ve got a guy over at the Plaza Shell station, and I think he’s about to hook up. What do you want me to do?” “We’re all in the area. Get on the radio, let everyone know what you’ve got. It’s your case; tell us what you want to do.” Sure enough, a second car, red car, pulled in, right next to the black one. The driver of the red Ford got out and entered the front passenger seat of the black Nissan. I then looked down, through my binoculars, directly into the front seat of a black Nissan. Using binoculars, it was like I was right there with them. Like most bad guys, most people, they never looked up. I watched as the driver of the Nissan counted out nine rocks of crack cocaine and handed them to the passenger. The passenger then handed some cash to the driver, exited, and got back into the red Ford. “I’m sticking with the dealer. Can a few go with me and the rest stop the buyer?” I asked. Lucky for me, the rest of the team had handled situations like this many times before. We ended up stopping both cars. We found the nine rocks of crack on the buyer. We found the cash and more crack on the dealer. The dealer, who had a long criminal history, surprisingly confessed. It was my first SAT case, and I was hooked. I later talked to the sergeant about the case. Since this was my first spot, I wanted to know if I handled it correctly. Did I wait too long to call out on the radio? Should I have waited for him to take over the surveillance? “Look”, he said, “when you get a spot, it is your case. I’m here to help if you need it, but you become the boss. You make the decisions; you make the calls. The rest of the team is here to support you.” This was the complete opposite of the Sergeant Frank Stevenson model. What it did was teach every member of the team to step up and lead whenever they made a spot. The sergeant was never going to let us fail. He was our safety net. We could call him for advice. He would step in if we made a bad or unsafe call, but he would not let us fail. He had the rank; he had the legitimate power Leader Armor for Law Enforcement 160 and authority to make all the decisions if he wanted to. Instead, he gave away that power to whoever had a spot or whoever’s case we were working. By doing it that way, each member of the team developed and grew their leadership abilities. He was a great leader, in part, because he developed those who worked for him. That sergeant retired. His legacy lives on through the many members of his team who are now well-respected sergeants and informal leaders in our agency. They are now leading by example—teaching and mentoring to develop those who work for them. If you’re leading by example, you will leave a leadership legacy. This means doing what you know you should do. For many leaders, there is a large gap between what they know and what they do. That gap is what we will discuss in the final chapter. Climbing the Promotion Mountain 161 Chapter 9: Lessons Learned Think of your next promotion like climbing a mountain. It’s safer and more effective to take a few people with you on your climb. The benefits of forming a study group include gaining different perspectives, protection against procrastination, developing new study skills, and realistic presentation practice. When selecting study group members, use the REAP criteria. If you are a leader, you are in the people business. You are also responsible for helping others grow and develop.