Do the right things for the right reasons

Sounds simple doesn’t it. Yet it’s not always easy to do in practice. What’s your definition of right? Legal, ethical, moral, nice, popular? As my lawyer colleagues used to say all the time, it depends. But law enforcement leaders (and leaders in general) are constantly faced with decision points where this comes into play. Have you ever felt this way too?

A Way of Life

As I moved through my leadership career positions I found myself relying on this reasoning more and more as I navigated my way through a myriad of decision points. I quickly learned that no decision makes everyone happy - no matter how hard I tried to make it so. I found the best solution was to follow this mantra when making choices and to follow up with clear communication when appropriate to impacted employees. This is an important step and one you should consider. You don’t have to make excuses - just let people know why you did what you did. It’s your own right reason. It still won’t make everyone happy but many folks like to hear about the why. Over time, I found myself making this my way of doing things. I could articulate to myself or anyone why I went in this direction or that and if I made a mistake, I owned it.

Final Thoughts

Of course not everything is simple and easy to do. Good communication from the top down is one of those things. I relied on good leaders getting good information from me at HQ to pass the messaging down. You’ll find that many an information crisis can be put down by making sure your local leaders know what’s going on so they can answer local questions. And I was able to direct message the organization on a weekly basis to further get out any points I needed to make. Over time and by being consistent your teams and employees will get to know you and your style and they’ll expect to hear from you on important items, good or not so good. And they’ll know that you’re doing the right things for the right reasons.

#WriteChief #LEOCoaching #SimplenotEasy