How Do Your Skills Rate?

DAN WILLIS
La Mesa P.D. Captain (ret.)

Editor’s note: This article is reprinted by permission from the January 2024 issue of American Police Beat.

The law enforcement profession today needs more effective, empowering leadership than at any other time if agencies and officers are going to transcend our current significant challenges. In times when officers find their profession being targeted and often maligned, it is imperative for leaders to understand their current leadership abilities and where there is a need for self-improvement to enhance their positive influence more effectively.

The purpose of this article is for you to take an honest look within yourself — not to use the information to judge ineffective leaders you have known. Critically evaluate yourself on each of the crucial leadership components below using a five-point scale, with one being the lowest score and five the highest, to see where you can proactively develop more proficient leadership ability. Use this as a guide for leadership development and self-improvement. Any score of three or lower indicates an area where improvement is needed.

The Effective Leader’s Purpose

A leader is any influential person with the ability and an intense desire to make a meaningful difference in the capacity of others to constructively contribute to the overall effectiveness, efficiency and positive community impact of the agency.

Leaders are always looking for opportunities to do good and to create opportunities for others. They have a deep connection to the high purpose of public safety and consistently strive to inspire others to understand and embody the noble principles of selfless service to protect life and serve those in need. They have an intense interest in others and want to do everything possible to enable officers to have the most meaningful, fulfilling and successful career doing the most good.

Effective, empowering leaders actively engage their people in positive, constructive ways, and their primary motive is to enable officers to consistently learn, grow, improve and succeed in the pursuit of excellence. They challenge their people and willingly have those difficult conversations to hold them accountable and to encourage greater effort and growth. They find ways to discover what is important to their people and work to channel their interests and growth in expanded experiences.

Effective leaders are deeply concerned for their officers’ health and well-being, how the job might be negatively affecting them, their career goals and their overall development. Leaders realize that the most important thing they do is to take care of their people and to provide the training, support and resources for officers to not only survive, but also thrive throughout their entire career.

Evaluate yourself: On a scale of one to five, rate your willingness and consistency in proactively engaging with your people and having difficult conversations and evaluations with them. How well do you know your people, their interests, career goals, abilities and weaknesses? How well would your people say you do in providing necessary training, resources and positive engagement? Where is there room for improvement?

Every effective, empowering leader is also a good follower who engages in active listening. They realize that they do not have all the answers and that they should be looking for opportunities to learn from others, to solicit others’ input for constructive change, to trust the inherent goodness in their people and to provide mechanisms for positive improvements throughout the agency.

Leaders are always seeking to learn themselves and improve their leadership abilities, particularly through greater self-awareness and personal critique. The most effective and inspiring leaders are the most humble. They exemplify teachableness as well as consistent, personal growth.

Evaluate yourself: Rate your overall teachableness concerning others, your humility and interest in learning and self-improvement. Would others say you are approachable and open to new ideas, welcome opposing views and accept bad news?

Cornerstones of Leadership

Good leaders in the police profession understand that one of their most important roles is to be the primary care provider for their officers and colleagues. As a primary care provider, the leader is not only concerned with how the officer did their job, but is even more concerned with how the job might be affecting them. They strive to develop positive, trusting and supportive relationships so that officers feel valued, appreciated and cared for if they ever need help in dealing with the traumas of the profession.

Effective leaders strive to normalize conversations and treatments for the traumas of work. They encourage others to seek help; to speak with peer support, chaplains and others in wellness units; and to see a trauma professional at least once a year as a form of maintenance and prevention, as well as whenever there is significant distress. Leaders exemplify this themselves and find ways to encourage others to follow their example.

Evaluate yourself: Rate how well you support, encourage and exemplify seeking help — encouraging and supporting those who need help dealing with the traumas of the profession. How well have you contributed to greater organizational wellness?

Leaders are always passing on their own expertise and work experience to mentor others in meaningful ways. The most effective leaders are always asking themselves, “What good can I do here? How can I be more useful and helpful to this person or in this situation? How can we improve the agency?”

Evaluate yourself: Rate yourself on how well you have worked to develop others, mentor others, and teach and train others, generously giving and sharing what you have learned. Do you tend to do this only when approached, or do you actively seek opportunities to reach out and mentor others? Would most people you’ve supervised say you were a significant positive influence on them and their careers?

Effective leaders exemplify nobility of character. They demonstrate genuine caring for the agency and others beyond themselves while keeping everyone’s best interests at heart.

Empowering leaders first and foremost are selfless. They exemplify integrity and high moral character in both their personal and professional
lives. They tend to be forgiving of others. They’re grateful people and they highly value all of their officers and colleagues. Effective leaders are compassionate, are always as helpful as they can be and serve from their heart in trying to do the most good for the agency and others.

One of the hardest characteristics for effective leadership is the need to always put the interests of the agency first — before themselves, any friendships or other interests. Whatever is in the highest and best interest of the agency fulfilling its mission in the most effective, professional manner needs to be paramount.

Evaluate yourself: Rate yourself on the consistency of your personal and professional integrity — your selflessness and compassion. Rate how consistently you put the agency and others before your own self-interests and desires. Where is there room for improvement?

Conclusion

Greater self-awareness and honest, personal critique are essential for continued self-improvement and effective leadership. Use this guide to become the most empowering, influential leader possible in taking the best care of your people, colleagues and the agency in compassionate, meaningful ways.

About the Author

Captain Dan Willis (ret.) served for 30 years with the La Mesa Police Department in California and now travels the country as an international instructor on police trauma and ways to heal. He is the author of the emotional survival and wellness guidebook Bulletproof Spirit: The First Responder’s Essential Resource for Protecting and Healing Mind and Heart, which is required reading at the FBI National Academy. Visit FirstResponderWellness.com for more information.