Leadership or Management?

During the last year I have had the pleasure of speaking to Law Enforcement leaders from all corners of the state of Colorado on how to become a better leader. I usually start with a discussion of what it means to be a Leader and what it means to be a Manager, and ask is there a difference? The answer in a nut shell is "you lead people and you manage things". Why is it important to understand the difference? The majority of what supervisors deal with in Law Enforcement revolves around people, therefore, our profession needs more leaders than managers.

While speaking to officers of all ranks, I have found that all Law Enforcement agencies struggle with many of the same issues. Law Enforcement as a profession traditionally operates as a para-military organization, typically with autocratic, top-down leadership. This type of leadership is problematic on several levels, particularly when you are supervising people. To illustrate this I will ask officers to think of the behaviors of the worst leader they ever worked for and conversely the behaviors of the best leader. Interestingly no matter where I am at or who I am talking to the behaviors of the two types of leaders are usually the same:

The worst leaders tend to think of themselves as the smartest person in the room, demonstrate a lack of trust, are knee jerk and reactionary (lack a vision), and micro-manage (we will talk more about the behaviors that lead to this analysis in a later blog). I then ask for someone to share an example of the worst leaders behaviors in action. For example, the worst person I ever worked for (I will never call the person a leader) once told me that I needed to know that everyone who I supervised was "lazy" and it was my job to make them work (he then put his thumb on the table to demonstrate what he believed I needed to do with my troops). His statement really showed his view of the world, all people are lazy and it's managements job to make them work. In my mind his statement said more about who he was as a troop than anything else.  

The best leaders tend to know their people, communicate effectively, educate, inspire/motivate, trust, reward publicly and council privately. As an example, the best person I have ever worked for did all of these things and more. He allowed me to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. He trusted my decisions, and once told me that while he might have done something differently, he knew there were a number of ways to get to the same goal and what works for him might not work for me. I operate with that philosophy today. He also helped me understand the greater control you give your people over those things that have a direct impact on them and their work, the better they will perform.

The difference in the level of performance of the personnel assigned to these two people was substantial. The worst person I ever worked for was such a failure that he was isolated by the organization and put in a position where he only supervised things (manager). While the best person left a lasting legacy within the organization (leader). Forty-two of us who had worked for him during his career had promoted to higher ranks. He retired a few years ago and we all thought so highly of him that we wanted to do something special for his retirement. We decided to take a photograph of all the people he had inspired to promote, and have it placed on a plaque to be presented to him at his retirement. In my mind the photograph was a physical representation of the legacy and impact he had not just on us individually but on the organization as a whole.
  

Organizations that want to be successful and better serve the public need to focus and work to develop leaders and not managers. We as individuals can learn from the examples of both the best and worst supervisors and we should constantly be evaluating our behaviors and the messages we are sending our troops (in words and actions). As a leader the better you know your people and work to meet their needs the more they will work to meet the needs of the community and organization. If you treat your people poorly, and like a thing for you to use to accomplish your goals, don't be surprised when the complaints come in from the public about how they are being treated.by your officers. If you want your officers to respect and treat the public in a professional manner make sure you are modeling that behavior in your interactions with your people.

If you focus on communicating, empowering, inspiring and coaching your people, they will amaze you with what they can do!