Sometimes an officer asks a supervisor what to do because he doesn’t know what to do. Sometimes he asks because the decision isn’t his to make. Those aren’t the same thing. I want officers who can think for themselves. If every traffic stop, report question, complaint, or minor problem has to go through a supervisor,…
When a decision affects people, “Because I said so” usually isn’t enough. That doesn’t mean everybody gets a vote, and it doesn’t mean every decision has to be defended forever. Sometimes I’ve listened, made the call, and we’re moving on. I can still tell people what I was trying to accomplish and why I chose…
One of the easiest things to say about a leader is that they need to stand their ground, and sometimes they do. If you’ve made a sound decision for the right reasons, criticism by itself isn’t a reason to abandon it. Leadership would be pretty useless if every decision changed based on who was complaining…
One of the easiest things for a supervisor to say is, “I treat everybody the same.” I understand why that sounds fair. Nobody wants favoritism, special treatment, or a boss who changes the rules depending on who is standing in front of him. But I don’t think fair treatment requires pretending every employee and every…
It’s pretty easy to judge the boss when you’re not the boss. I’ve done plenty of it. I’ve looked at decisions made above me and thought they were slow, unnecessary, poorly timed, or just wrong. Sometimes I was probably right. Becoming the person in the chair didn’t suddenly convince me that bosses know better than…
In a previous life, I delegated a lot more than I do now. I had to. I was responsible for more than 2,300 employees who depended, in one way or another, on the decisions I made, and there was no realistic way I could personally handle everything that came with that. On a normal day,…
Star Wars gives us two leadership extremes that are easy to recognize. The Sith rely on fear, control, ambition, and personal loyalty. The Jedi value discipline, restraint, duty, and service.At first glance, the lesson looks simple: don’t be a Sith. I think the more useful question is what both sides get wrong when otherwise useful…
One thing about working in a small town is that very few decisions stay at the office. The person you dealt with this morning may be standing behind you at the grocery store that afternoon. The person you had to tell no may be sitting a few rows away from you at an event that…
Most of what I call experience started out as questions. I ran into situations I hadn’t seen before, slowed down, listened, asked what happened, and tried to figure out what I was missing. After enough years, some of those questions turn into patterns. I recognize certain problems faster now than I did early on. That’s…
I like the idea behind Cal Newport’s Deep Work. There are certain things I do better when I can shut everything else out and concentrate on one problem long enough to actually think through it. Writing is one of them. So is working through policy, reviewing a complicated issue, or making plans that affect the…