Introduction.txt

I was standing in front of 36 members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I smiled at them and then told them, “Take out a piece of paper. I simply want you to write down a number. No names, just a number. I want honesty, not identity. On a scale of one to te...

I was standing in front of 36 members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I smiled at them and then told them, “Take out a piece of paper. I simply want you to write down a number. No names, just a number. I want honesty, not identity. On a scale of one to ten, with one being the worst leader ever and ten being the best leader ever, what type of leader are you? What is your number?” I had asked the “What’s your number?” question to hundreds of cops in the United States and wanted to see if our Canadian brothers and sisters had a similar pattern in their responses. As it turns out, they did. Wow, I was onto something amazing! I thought I had discovered something to impact the world of human behavioral science, at least as it applied to law enforcement leaders. What was my great discovery? I’m so glad you asked. Through that informal survey of a few hundred police leaders, I discovered that every supervisor thinks he or she is an above-average leader. It didn’t matter if they actually were above average; they all thought they were. I have since asked this same question of thousands of police leaders (cops, sheriffs, corrections officers, federal agents, dispatchers, and civilian managers) and the results are always the same—everyone is above average. Now, I’m not the greatest at math, but I’m pretty sure that all police leaders cannot be above average. If that was the case, wouldn’t they all be…really…just…average? Mathematically, this didn’t make sense to me. Anecdotally, it also didn’t work out. I have traveled and taught leadership to people from across the globe. Everywhere I go, I hear stories about bad leadership. Leader Armor for Law Enforcement 6 But how could that be if all our leaders are above average? Something was fishy. In police work, we call it a clue. I was so excited to have made my discovery. I was then so disappointed when, during the literature review process of my dissertation, I found out other researchers had already made and documented this same discovery, years before I did. The interesting thing was that these academics, these researchers, made their discovery with the help of some cops and a robber. Cops, Robbers, and the “D-K Effect” In 1995, two Pittsburgh banks were robbed in broad daylight. The events in both robberies were captured on bank surveillance cameras. The suspect, clearly seen in the videotapes, apparently made no effort to disguise his identity. The surveillance footage was played on the 11 o’clock news that same evening, and within two hours, the suspect was in police custody. The robber was McArthur Wheeler. During his interrogation, Mr. Wheeler was shown the surveillance of him robbing the bank. The image was clear, leaving no doubt that Wheeler had committed the robbery. Mr. Wheeler was genuinely surprised his image had been captured on tape. Surprise might not be the correct word; he was shocked. “But I used the juice! I used the juice!” he insisted. When the detectives asked about the juice, they found out Mr. Wheeler was under the mistaken impression that rubbing lemon juice on his face had made him invisible to surveillance cameras. The investigators laughed at first, but quickly realized Wheeler was serious. He legitimately believed he was a criminal mastermind, but he wasn’t. The above bank robbery account was used by researchers David Dunning and Justin Kruger in 1999 to illustrate their theory that the unskilled are often unaware that they are unskilled. This is now known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect (I’ll refer to it as the D-K Effect). It was the D-K Effect that I observed when leaders would rate their own competence as above average. The idea is that the worse you are at something, the higher you tend to rate your performance on that very thing. In other Introduction 7 words, the lower your competence, the higher your confidence. They also discovered that those who are truly and objectively highly competent tend to underrate themselves and are more aware that they need to grow and learn. The D-K Effect is part of a group of cognitive biases that fall under the broad term illusory superiority,1 from social psychology. Instead of using that fancy term, I will simply refer to it as the aboveaverage effect2 or D-K Effect. Even though it is statistically impossible for everyone to be above average, human beings see themselves as above average in almost everything! In other words, people are overconfident about their competence. Competence is how good you are at something; it is how well you perform or do something. Confidence, on the other hand, is how well you think you do that something. Competence is physical, measurable. Confidence is mental, a state of mind, but also measurable. The above-average effect occurs when there is a gap between confidence and competence. We think we are better at something than we really are. The above-average effect has been found to occur in how people rate themselves in areas such as sense of humor, proficiency in grammar, attractiveness, intelligence, and driving ability. For example, the American Automobile Association found that 79% of men and 68% of women rated themselves as above-average drivers, based on a survey of 1,000 people. Think you are immune from above-average thinking? Here is a quick example taken from the work of Nobel Prize recipient Dr. Daniel Kahneman. It shows how we tend to overestimate our intelligence and thinking ability. Answer this question: “A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?” Leader Armor for Law Enforcement 8 “A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?” Now, I might be a cop, and, as I said, math was never my strong suit, but it looks pretty simple, right? Did you come up with ten cents for your answer? Me too, duh! Guess what, I was wrong. It turns out I’m not alone. I felt a little better about myself once I read that about half of all students from Princeton, Harvard, and MIT also got it wrong.3 Ready for the correct answer? If the ball costs 10¢, then the total cost will be $1.20 (10¢ for the ball and $1.10 for the bat), not $1.10. The correct answer is 5¢. The main thing to note is we overestimated our ability to solve a simple math problem, and—here is the most important point—we were unaware that we overestimated! In law enforcement, we are plagued by the D-K Effect at all levels of leadership. Guess what? So is the rest of the world. According to the Gallup Organization, a firm that collects information from employees across the globe, 75 percent of people quit their job because of their supervisor. Moreover, 65% of Americans would turn down a pay raise if they could get a new boss instead.4 The difference for those in the law enforcement profession, unlike most other professions, is that your supervisor can get you hurt, killed, or named in a civil suit. Thinking about the Next Test? Have You Been Recently Promoted? If you’re reading this book, chances are you were recently promoted, are about to be promoted, or are considering taking your department’s promotion exam. The exam and/or assessment center for your agency included a list of study materials such as department manuals, procedures, and directives; criminal and traffic law books; a report writing manual; and maybe a leadership book (like this one) or two. The assessment center (a fancy word for the testing process) might consist of any combination of multiple-choice questions, an in-box exercise, oral boards (where you answer scenario-type questions in Introduction 9 front of a panel of ranking officers), and a written assessment (usually a doomsday scenario designed to measure your problem-solving and writing skills). Well done assessment centers also have a role-playing exercise where an “actor” (usually an intern or other such volunteer) plays the role of a troubled employee, and you have to conduct a counseling session with them. For some of you reading this, your reaction was something like, “Wow, that’s what my department does! How did he know that?” Others are thinking, “Assessment center? My department is too small to have any of that. Besides, I was the only one who wanted the job.” Regardless of what process is used in your agency, I have a few questions for you. How do you feel about your new leadership role? Do you feel prepared? Do you feel like you’ve received an adequate level of training for your current or future supervisory role? If you are a sworn law enforcement officer (civilians, please just go with me on this), what if instead of asking about your supervisory skills, I asked about your officer safety skills? Are they adequate? I certainly hope you have had extensive training in the many skills needed for officer safety. Your agency didn’t hand you a gun and badge on day one and say, “Ok, you’ll figure it out, go out there and get ‘em!” How about our call takers and dispatchers? When they report for their first day on the job, do we point to the telephone or communication console and say, “There ya go. Answer it when the call comes in. You get 30 minutes for lunch.” We would never send out untrained officers or have someone answer 911 calls without any guidance. When it comes to promotions, that’s exactly what we do. Let’s turn back the clock for a minute. Think back to the hiring process for your agency. I’m sure there was some basic testing conducted. You had some sort of medical examination, a background check, interview, polygraph, drug testing, and so on. This was the baseline, a minimum standard for you to be hired. After the baseline hiring and testing process, you went through some sort of formal training in a law enforcement academy, right? You have spent hours and hours working on your firearms, defensive-tactics, first-aid, and other safety skills before you Leader Armor for Law Enforcement 10 were sworn in as a law enforcement professional. You had to demonstrate some level of proficiency in those areas before you began working in your current capacity. You even have continuing education every year, based on a minimum in-service standard. Why all this training before you “hit the streets”? Because you have a job that includes enormous responsibility. You are a member of the only profession in this country that is legally allowed to take someone’s freedom and even their life in the performance of your duties. That is why all your training is front-loaded to prepare you for your first day on the job as a solo officer. At a minimum, your first day meant you were the public face of your organization. Anyone you had contact with walked away with some sort of impression about your agency, based on you. That first day could also mean you were in charge of a situation where force was required, and a life-or-death decision had to be made. Now replace “the first day” with “every day,” and you really see why your initial and ongoing training is so important. It is a good model used by law enforcement agencies all over the world. Here is the problem. We don’t follow the same model when it comes to leadership. The assessment center or testing (when there is testing) is like the baseline testing we do when hiring someone. It means they have the raw material, the minimum standards (usually time in grade and sometimes education) for a supervisory role. So, what happens next? The answer, for most law enforcement officers in the United States, is, well…nothing. That’s it; you did well on the test, so you must be leadership material, right?? Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! We are failing our law enforcement leaders by not providing them with adequate training for their new roles. Ideally, this training should come before they sew on their new stripes (or bars). Instead, you receive a telephone call, memo, or email saying, “Congratulations. You’ve been promoted. You will be transferred effective…good luck.” “Congratulations. Good luck.” That’s it? Yes. Introduction 11 This, my fellow brothers and sisters in blue, is what we’re doing to our first-line supervisors. It has to stop. Your new role means you’re now responsible for the lives and careers of those you lead. Let that sink in for a moment. I’m not being melodramatic here; I’m saying you now bear a great responsibility to those individuals you lead and to the organization you serve. If you’re reading this, I applaud you. You are taking your role with the seriousness it requires. This book cannot possibly substitute for a solid leadership and mentoring program that is tailored to the exact needs of your agency, but it’s a good start and great resource for you. Consider this book to be your first step in going beyond the minimum standards for your new leadership role and me to be your “virtual mentor” to help you overcome your leadership challenges. If you’re interested in even more learning and training with me, we’ll talk about that at the end of the book. My Background It is August 14, 2018, and I’m sitting in my hotel room in Dallas, Texas. We are here for a Crimes Against Children Conference. Actually, my wife is here for the conference. She’s also a police officer, a detective who works in our department’s child exploitation unit. She’s been a cop for two years longer than I have. We met on the job in 1996, running calls together, but that’s another story. I tagged along on her trip in order to start writing this book. So why did I feel the need to write a leadership book specifically for law enforcement officers? The idea has been brewing in my mind for quite some time. Your new role means you’re now responsible for the lives and careers of those you lead. Leader Armor for Law Enforcement 12 In 2008, a friend of mine, Darren Francke, served as the sergeant of our Department’s Leadership Development Institute. Darren realized that we, as an agency, needed a formal leadership program. After doing some research, he and Assistant Chief Luther Reynolds5 decided to bring the International Association of Chiefs of Police Leadership in Police Organizations (LPO) course to the Montgomery County, Maryland, Police Department. Thirty-five other attendees and I had been asked to participate in this first of what would eventually be many sessions of this class. The class was based on the West Point model of leadership, taught by the United States Army. The Army’s course was based heavily on behavioral science. The Army lingo and Army case studies had been rewritten and translated into law enforcement speak, but the core course material remained the same. It was a very long course, one week a month for three months. On day one, I sat in the far back corner with my arms folded, shaking my head, and wondering what I had gotten myself into. The instructor, Bill Meeks, was a big guy who resembled Santa Claus, but with a goatee instead of a full beard and mustache. He was a retired assistant chief from a small department out West. What I liked about his teaching style is he was not a “death by PowerPoint” guy. While he did use a PowerPoint presentation, he also used videos and told stories. His stories were not just your typical cop war stories. Each story illustrated a teaching point he was trying to make, and most of the time, they were actually self-deprecating stories about how he failed as a leader and what he should have done if he had the knowledge from the leadership course prior to achieving his position as assistant chief. Through his videos, storytelling, and brutal honesty, he made a connection with me and the majority of the other students in the class. While I still had my doubts during the first week, the second week set the hook in me with all the information on groups versus teams and how to build and maintain a high-performing team. At the time, I was a member of one of our Special Assignment Teams (SAT), a plainclothes/ undercover team. In between the class weeks, I read and applied some of the material. I had a couple of successes, and I was hooked. The material Introduction 13 was a little complicated at first, but it worked. The most important lesson I learned was how little I knew about the study of leadership. After completing the course, I was selected to be one of those that would attend the faculty “train the trainer” class in order to learn how to teach the course to others. This was another two weeks of instruction, but I was all in. I consumed the material from cover to cover. I even read the footnotes and pulled the references and studies they referred to. Soon thereafter, I began teaching the course for my department. In 2009, a member of the IACP staff came out to observe me teach a class. A short time after that, I began mentoring under other instructors and teaching the LPO course all around the country. I consider myself to be blessed and quite lucky to have had such an opportunity. I have had the opportunity to teach leadership and personal growth to thousands of people, both in law enforcement and the private sector, from across the U.S., Canada, Iraq, Armenia, and Saudi Arabia. While I was teaching, I never stopped learning. Each time I taught a course, I would take away new knowledge and collect a few stories. I also sought out formal education in the area of leadership and management. I applied to the Johns Hopkins University for a master’s degree in their applied behavioral science program. I was accepted, but with a catch. You see, my undergraduate career at the University of Maryland was, let’s just say, less than stellar. Based on this prior performance, the decision-makers at Johns Hopkins informed me that I would be on academic probation for my first semester. If my grades were not satisfactory, I would have to leave the program. My undergraduate experience at Maryland occurred 17 years before applying to Hopkins. I had matured and found my passion for learning. The program was like the LPO course on steroids, and I loved it. After graduating from Johns Hopkins, I wanted to keep learning. I wanted to pursue a doctoral degree, but I had so many questions about the process. Bill arranged for me to speak with Dr. Howard T. Prince, a retired brigadier general who earned his doctorate in clinical psychology and was one of the authors of the original Leadership in Police Organizations Leader Armor for Law Enforcement 14 textbook. With the advice of Dr. Prince in my mind, I searched for doctoral programs in leadership. There were plenty of online programs, but I was not an online learner. I needed to be in the classroom, face-toface with an instructor and my fellow students. I found such a program at Wilmington University in Delaware. The problem was it was three hours away from where I lived. Classes were offered on Friday evenings from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. I bit the bullet and drove three hours each way every Friday evening for three years. In hindsight, it was the right decision. While there were two other students with a law enforcement background, the rest consisted of a mix of professionals in both the public and private sectors. I learned from the assignments, class readings, professors, and fellow students. I learned the scientific method. I successfully wrote and defended my thesis. If you ever need help getting to sleep, check it out; it’s titled, The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence, Transformational Leadership Style, and Effectiveness among Police Supervisors, published with ProQuest. I graduated and earned my doctorate of education in organizational leadership and innovation. I took Dr. Prince’s words seriously and continue to be a lifelong learner. While the doctorate is considered a terminal degree, I continue to read, learn, and take more courses. I have earned certifications in the Myers-Briggs type indicator; Emotional Intelligence Quotient; the John Maxwell Method of Leadership, Speaking, and Coaching; and the DISC model of human behavior. I am a certified executive coach, and I read 30 to 40 leadership and personal growth books each year. (Not all of them are good, by the way. If you’d like my latest leadership and personal growth reading recommendations, please check out my website at www. edwardpallas.com.) Many cops have a side hustle or part-time job—I speak, train, and coach on topics such as leadership, communication, personality, and stress. I do this for law enforcement agencies and for private sector companies. Before teaching a one-week class on leadership for first-time supervisors at the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy, I sent out a brief online survey two weeks prior to the class. One of the questions asked “prior to this Introduction 15 course, what leadership/supervision courses have you completed?” Of all the respondents, only five had any type of prior leadership training. Of the five, three mentioned prior military training in the area of leadership. Only one had taken a leadership course specific to law enforcement. There were 33 people in that class; many of them had been supervisors for years. Yet only two had attended a formal leadership class, outside of the military. Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common scenario for those in the law enforcement profession. The Need for Leadership Training In the areas of leadership and management, there is little, if any, ongoing education. Most departments have no time or funds for any education in management or leadership. What little training time gets allocated to the important, and necessary topics, such as firearms and protectiveinstrument qualifications, criminal-law updates, and de-escalation techniques. These areas are certainly important in order to continue doing police work. The funny thing is, the higher in rank you go, the less actual police work you do. Think about it. As soon as you hit the first-line supervisor level, you will be forced to spend less time on traffic stops, proactive patrol, and putting the bad guys in handcuffs because you have to spend more time on staffing levels, performance evaluations, motivational strategies, ensuring training requirements, and the list goes on. So, if you’re spending less time on law enforcement work and more time being a supervisor or a manager, shouldn’t you have more training in the areas that you are doing more work in? Being a firstline supervisor requires a different set of skills than you needed when working on the front lines. As a profession, we need to acknowledge and equip our supervisors with the tools they need to succeed as leaders. Soft skills lead to hard results. Leader Armor for Law Enforcement 16 My goals in writing this book are to increase your self-awareness and then get you to take action on improving your leadership skills. Most people do not understand that leadership is about relationships. To become a better leader, you need to build relationships with those you lead, work with, and report to. Leadership requires soft skills, people skills. I refer to these soft skills as your leader armor. Soft skills, such as empathy, listening, and self-awareness, lead to motivated, engaged, and productive employees who embrace the mission and achieve the goals of their organization. Soft skills lead to hard results. I am proud to be a police officer. I am proud of my career. I’m grateful for the opportunities I have had to learn about leadership from the good and bad leaders I have worked for. I am grateful for the opportunities that I’ve had in the area of formal education on leadership. Now it is my turn to give back. I want to add value to you with this book. I want to equip you with the tools to make you a better leader tomorrow than you are today. If you’re ready to join me, let’s begin our journey and start to put on your leader armor