A lot of police movies make patrol look like one long emergency. A traffic stop becomes a chase, a disturbance turns into a major investigation, and every routine call seems to connect to something bigger. End of Watch does plenty of movie stuff too. I wouldn’t use it as a training film, and I wouldn’t…
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…
I’ve never believed being chief means I owe an officer blind loyalty. If one of mine is wrong, I have to deal with it. That may mean coaching, discipline, termination, or standing in front of the public and saying we got something wrong. What I won’t do is decide he’s wrong because defending him became…
When most people talk about leadership, they start with the leader. Restrepo starts with the team. The documentary follows soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade during a deployment to Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. Nobody stops to explain who has influence and why. You just see it in who people listen to, who they trust, who stays…
Yes, but I’d want to know why the department didn’t want me in the first place. There’s a difference between officers who don’t like the person appointed as chief and officers who have legitimate reasons to question whether that person should be leading them. The Mayor can appoint me, give me the authority to run…
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…
I’ve made enough mistakes in my life to know I’m going to make more. Some have been poor decisions. Others were decisions I thought were right at the time, only to find out later that I was wrong. Either way, once I recognize the mistake, I have a choice. I can spend my time explaining…
Every leader says they don’t care about being liked, and most of them are lying, myself included. But when being liked and being trusted pull in different directions, trust is what I’m protecting. I want the people I work with to like me, and I want them to be comfortable walking into my office and…