Week 2 - Law Enforcement Leaders on Law Enforcement Leadership - Leadership in the Public Sector: Law Enforcement

Law Enforcement Leaders on Law Enforcement Leadership

I have been a law enforcement officer for nearly a quarter of a century.  I have progressed through varying ranks and positions in my career, both in local and state law enforcement agencies.  I have reported to different supervisors, managers, and leaders in my time, where I realized that each one of those leadership roles had a different type of leader holding the position.  My opinion and belief on each of those leaders differ as much as the positions differ themselves.  Some were influential leaders, while others were weak leaders.  Some had no leadership ability at all, while others were some of the best mentors a young law enforcement officer could have ever asked to guide them through a career.  Now looking back over my career as a law enforcement officer, I have held some of those same leadership positions and still do at this point.

The questions I have are…

What do others have to say about my leadership?  Do I exhibit traits that make me an effective leader?  Have I acquired the knowledge, skills, and abilities to lead others effectively, while directing them along the path of their career?  Can I be a mentor to other emerging law enforcement leaders?  Where does other law enforcement leader turn to understand what it takes to be a leader?

One place that other law enforcement officers turn to answer these questions and many more about themselves is the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) National Academy (NA) at the Marine Corps Base at Quantico, Virginia.  These participants are law enforcement officials from across the United States and other countries (approximately 27 to 30 international participants) that come to the FBI Academy to undertake the ten-week training course.  The NA attendees are law enforcement officers that hold leadership positions within a local, state, federal, military, tribal, or international law enforcement agency.  The attendees take part in a rigorous selection process to receive an invitation to program and must demonstrate their leadership ability and capacity to learn to be selected.

JOSEPH A. SCHAFER, Ph.D.

Some NA attendees (approximately 220) participated in a research project on Effective Police Leadership: Experiences and Perspectives of Law Enforcement Leaders (Schafer, 2008) that sought to determine what other law enforcement leaders had to say about effective leadership in this profession.

Law Enforcement Leaders - Born or Made?

During the study, NA participants believe that effective leadership within law enforcement rests on “common leader traits and habits” (Schafer, 2008).  Although the participants hold that law enforcement leaders may have innate traits that support the theories of the trait approach to leadership (Northouse, 2016), the participants are quick to assert that this type of leader looks to education, training, and mentoring to develop their natural skills (innate traits) and abilities, along with the willingness, determination, and desire to seek self-improvement to meet the challenges that their agencies may require of them (Schafer, 2008).

It appears that these law enforcement leaders tend to believe that some are born with leadership traits, yet these traits and natural skills require development and improvement to be effective.  Without a definitive definition of natural skill and even innate trait in the context of the study, it seems difficult to distinguish the two concepts.  I would suggest that the two ideas are somewhat interchangeable in the context of this study.  The law enforcement leader may have been born with those traits or natural skills, but it is the refinement and development of the leader’s knowledge, skills, and abilities that make the leader better.

What traits and skills do effective police leaders exhibit?

Northouse (2016) suggests that the research shows that effective leaders possess many of the following traits: (1) Intelligence, (2) Self-confidence, (3) Determination, (4) Integrity, and (5) Sociability (p. 23).  Schafer (2008) indicates that the NA attendees agree that effective law enforcement leaders demonstrate a personal example of a “high level of honesty and integrity” (p. 17), where trust in the leader builds on the trustworthiness of agency to those in the community. 

The NA attendees agree that an effective leader must communicate effectively.  The question again is whether communication and listening is an innate trait, natural skill, or some other ability that a law enforcement leader can acquire and develop.  I submit that communications may come quickly to some; however, it is still a concept that one must practice to be effective.  Whether you tend to believe that communication is a skill or trait, one can argue that it is a facet of sociability of leadership.

Likewise, an effective law enforcement leader not only exhibits a genuine concern for those under the leader's charge, but for others around the leader.  The NA participants assert that leaders who value the input of followers and others indeed exhibit effective leadership that transcends reporting lines and organizational structures.  This not-so-simple concept allows an effective law enforcement leader to gather ample data to arrive at an informed decision when the time comes to do so.  Followers and colleagues appreciate a leader who values their input in making a decision that may have a tremendous effect on the agency.

Leadership is not only about leadership traits and leadership skills, but it is also about more than just these two concepts.  It is about effectiveness and how to be effective.  It is about how to make others effective in their positions.  The NA attendees agree that effectiveness is not a universal term, but it how an organization defines effectiveness that determines the effectiveness of the leader and effectiveness of those that the leader influences (Schafer, 2008).  Without the knowledge of leadership approaches and theories, law enforcement leaders may resort to trial and error in influencing other, but the NA participants agree that the leader who seeks self-improvement, experience, knowledge, skill and trait development is the leader that will be effective.  

References

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Schafer, J. A. (2008). Effective police leadership: Experiences and perspectives of law enforcement leaders. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 77(7), 13-19.