So You Want to Be a Commander!

You -- yes, you!  So you want to be a commander.  Someone in the lofty ranks above (where the oxygen is thin) has gone on to be chief of another agency.  Perhaps someone with a private office recently resigned shortly after that local news report of sleeping on duty … or was found to be soiling their desk blotter with the chief's secretary on Friday afternoon when everyone else cut out early.  Isn't it great news -- it means a huge opportunity for all you lieutenants out there!  Now it's time to take action to ensure your own promotion.  Here's what's necessary to run an effective campaign for a key (power) position.  (And rest assured -- it is a campaign.  Once you're at the level where you start saying the word "commander" without an expletive in front of it, you're immersed in the world of politics.)

It's all about visibility!
Copyright © 2014 MJ Miller

• Develop a Power Base.
• Let's face it:  there are few people you can trust when it comes to feathering your potential promotional nest.  It's critical, though, to identify key players.  Who plays golf with the chief?  Who owns the restaurant that serves free cocktails and steaks to the top staff? Who writes letters to the local newspaper?  Cultivate these individuals by doing them a great favor, even if it's unethical.  
• Increase Your Visibility
• Distribute department-wide emails clearly demonstrating your leadership skills.  Find a reason to do an email campaign -- think of it as mass-marketing (or, if you prefer, spamming) to your potential customer:  the chief himself, who can't help but be impressed. Make sure your emails reach the city manager, the mayor and council, and key citizens.   Don't hesitate to email often and email aggressively. There's a reason all the pay-day loan guys who run websites hawking their products pay a great deal of money for pop-up ads that annoy you every time you sign onto the local online sports news:  it's called advertising.  Seriously, would all these online entrepreneurs who are much smarter than you (and let's not even think about how much more income they earn) spend so much time spamming if it didn't work?  
• Form a committee (but make sure you call it a task force).  If you can't possibly think of yet one more committee / TF, join an existing committee -- and make sure you have a title, such as "chair," or "lead strategist." 
• Publicly Engage in Random Acts of Mentorship
• This is very rewarding as it involves copious amounts of coffee and many free meals. To be effective, though, it's not enough to just mentor someone for the benefit of developing future leaders, encouraging personal fulfillment, and molding young minds.  If you want to be a commander, your mentorship must be public and must appear to be heartfelt.  This means using that "all personnel" email to invite up-and-coming talent to coffee so they may have the benefit of your wisdom and leadership.  Even if you don't actually schedule any such meetings, the next time the chief asks you where you're headed in such a hurry as you accidentally bump into him in the hallway (plan those accidental meetings well in advance, by the way, and be sure you're wearing an impressive suit and tie), just mention, "Oh, chief, I've got to run.  I've got four mentorship meetings lined up with my sergeants."  Don't worry about the fact you only have three sergeants: the chief hasn't had to do his own math in a very long time, and he doesn't know shift schedules, anyhow.
• Grow Your Audience
• You must be heard if you want to be promoted!  Schedule yourself for the next all-manager's meeting to discuss one of your assigned projects.  Make sure you get the crowd early in the day before they all come up with pre-planned emergencies that require them to leave for the day after lunch.  Once you're in front of staff, take advantage of the chance to make an impression.  First, come well armed with material.  Make sure everyone knows you're in charge of the Department-Wide Technology Initiative, the Citizen's Budget Review Process, the Adjacent-Agencies Liaisonship, and the QE7B Process Improvement Review Task Force.  Make up words if none exist that convey your message. Generously sling buzzwords about.  You get extra points for each use of the following words:
• Critical
• Key
• Leadership
• Leverage
• Stewardship
• Stakeholder
• Strategy
• Summarily
• Transparency
• Value
• Visionary
• In addition, make abundant use of military terminology, warrior references, and body language that portrays you as a great tactician and soldier of the army of the righteous.  This will endear you to the hearts of the line-level officer.  Talk about "kill zone" and "target identification" when discussing budget projections.  Discuss "collateral damage" when addressing the critical issue of diminishing availability of office supplies.
• Ally Yourself with Influential People
• It is important to seem connected to famous or important people.  The authenticity of the connection isn't as important as the perception of the connection.  Drop references to socializing with celebrities, such as "Rush and I were golfing the other day and he mentioned that …" or "Here's an email the gov sent me the other day.  I think it's apropos for the situation we're facing."  
• Make sure you mention "personal friends."  Remember, there are two classes of friends:  just plain friends, who are the ones you actually associate with on and off duty, and "personal" friends, who are people you've met once and now you follow them on Twitter but they're very, very important in their field, or have political clout, or are simply famous for being famous (the very best kind of famous).  Now, normal people might mention, "My friend John," but a future commander must mention, "My personal friend Angus, who invented modern tactics."  
• Devote one shelf of your office book-case to autographed books from influential law-enforcement authors.  Make sure that the autograph is also a dedication to you and your own professionalism, even if you have to forge your own name and the words, "To my dear friend," next to the author's signature. Although you don't actually need to read that book on community policing or the text on issues involving militarization of the civilian police force, you must still flip through the pages so many times that it looks as if you've read and re-read it enough times to commit it to memory.  Caution:  books written by female authors will look out of place, no matter how valuable the content.  Keep those at home.
• Publicly Offer Left-Handed Compliments to the Competition (while Secretly Assassinating Their Reputation)
• This is not only effective, but great fun!  If you enjoy crossword puzzles, you're the right man (or woman) for this tactic.  This is where you publicly acknowledge the efforts of a colleague while summarily dismissing them.  For example, you might stand up in a staff meeting and say, "I first want to acknowledge my peer, Jane Doe, who put forward great effort in working on the Rutledge Community Partnership.  Jane, you made all of our jobs much easier.  It's a shame that the Rutledge Partnership ultimately failed -- it was a visionary project.  Frankly, I had underestimated your abilities and didn't think you were capable of pulling together so many people toward a common goal -- and I apologize for having that impression of you.  Both of the participants came together passionately for the duration of the project!"  Now, this does wonderful things in the minds of the audience:  it establishes you as superior to Jane Doe; it makes you sound gracious for commending her; and it plants doubts about her abilities in the perception of all who hear your words.  What's not to love?
• Meanwhile, you must employ a wink-and-nod campaign to destroy the peer's reputation behind closed doors or in the hallway.  This is easy.  Just act as if the person you're talking to is in on some big scandalous secret about the person you're targeting and say, "Well, you know Jane, her decision making skills …" and then leave the rest of the sentence unfinished as you interrupt yourself, looking at your smart phone screen, and say, "Oh!  Can't be late for that career development session with Lt. Jones.  Can you believe he wants MY help with working on his weaknesses?  Doesn't he know I'm the same rank he is?"  

There you go:  seven proven strategies for getting the commander's position.  You see, there's really no need to worry about preparing for interviews, writing position papers, or other components of the promotion process as they are written in the memorandum announcing the position.  You've certainly heard the adage about "preparation for promotion begins years before the process."  These are sure-fire ways to advertise yourself as the right "fit" for the job.  Obviously, everybody already knows about the requisite up-suckery and fawning over the chief.  Do his taxes, pick his kid up from school, and pick up the tab for lunch once a week, and you'll have that covered.  It's the techniques above that will set you apart from the rest.  

Now, go forth and inspire!

Copyright © 2014 MJ Miller.  All rights reserved.  No part of this article may be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the express permission of the author.  Links to this page, however, may be freely shared.  Thank you for liking, linking, forwarding, tweeting, emailing, +1'ing, pinning and otherwise helping grow my readership.  Most of all, thank you for reading.  If you are reading this anywhere other than RethinkingPolicing.blogspot.com, you are reading stolen content.  Please let me know so I may pursue appropriate legal action.

How to Undermine Your Agency: Implement Unfair, Non-Competitive Promotional Processes

If a solid hiring process is the foundation of your department's workforce, a fair and honest promotional process is the foundation of your department's future.  Sadly, many agencies invest a great deal in their hiring process, recruiting and selecting for top-quality candidates, further investing far more in training those candidates to proficiency -- only to later destroy the hearts and souls of those good people when they are eligible for promotion.  Unfair, unreliable, biased promotional processes do far more than damage the morale and motivation of good employees, though:  they undermine the agency's integrity, professionalism and human resources.   Let's look at the subject in candid detail.

 So, Chief.  Let's assume you do it right when it comes to recruiting and hiring.  When you join your fellow executives at academy graduations, you're proud to say you can quickly pick your recruits out from the rest of the pack:  they're fitter, more professional, and they're already showing the leadership traits you actively select for in oral boards and backgrounds.  You enjoy patting them on the back as you shake their hands and hand them their badges, telling them, "You're going to go far here, officer." You raise these baby cops up to be the best, most capable and competent officers in the region.  If they don't cut it -- suppose they lie about something, or they fail to meet the necessary level of impartiality in enforcement -- you cut them loose.  You terminate them.  You carefully provide the early care and feeding necessary to raise a workforce any sheriff or chief can be proud to have.

Implicit in your relationship with them is that their good efforts, character and competence will open up great opportunities in the future. Perhaps they'll be detectives or motor officers or K9 handlers.  Perhaps they'll handle a variety of special assignments in their career lives.  The best and brightest, though, often eventually want to promote.  They've been spoken to about "leadership" since they were in civilian clothes at the academy.  It isn't just a bold blue word in capital letters painted on your headquarters wall:  it's a carrot held out in front of their shiny noses.  Work hard, keep your nose clean, learn everything you can, and continually challenge yourself to grow:  you, too, can be a leader of leaders.  You can be a sergeant, a lieutenant, and more.  Hell, someday you might even be chief somewhere.

Any contemporary officer can describe the importance of "career development."  It's a path, not a destination.  It means learning new skills, polishing old skills to their shiniest patina, taking classes, attending meetings, trying new things, and becoming a well-rounded officer.  It means continually growing, not stagnating.  It often means taking college courses or completing a master's degree, all while working obscene hours and going to court and attending every mandatory training class. It's often seen as the path to stripes, bars and maybe stars.  It's important to the citizens on the street who deserve (or demand) the best-trained, most professional police department.  It's important to the dialed-in chief who knows that progress doesn't originate in a vacuum.  It's important to officers wishing to become that chief someday themselves.

Preparing for promotion is an enormous commitment and requires a great deal of sacrifice to most officers.  It means stepping up boldly in front of one's peers and saying, "I want to lead you one day."  It means studying, doing role play scenarios, taking tests and completing interviews.  It may mean reorganizing one's life by changing custody agreements, sacrificing personal time and goals, and even damaging or destroying certain relationships.  Arguably, most newly-promoted sergeants and lieutenants will be returning to the dreaded midnight shift after promotion (and after years of getting comfortable and building their personal life around their current shift).

Preparing for promotion is a weird combination of ego, influence, and upheaval.  It's big stuff.  Officers put lives on hold -- not just their own, but their toddler's, their multiple ex-wives, their loyal dogs -- to get ready for the process.  They may take classes, work on weaknesses, develop new strengths.  They put in effort.  They polish their shoes and their badge and they look bright and shiny coming in for their interviews or assessment centers or five minutes with the big guy.

Then it happens:  the chief rolls his eyes at them, furrows his brow and tells them, "You did great on the test.  You aced the assessment center.  Your peers gave you good reviews.  The citizen advisor on the board thinks you're Superman.  But you know, what it all comes down to is a matter of 'fit.'  And you know, I just don't think you're a good 'fit' for management."  Maybe the excuse isn't "fit;" maybe it's "not ready yet," or maybe it's another vague, indefinable way of saying, "I have someone else I like, even if they didn't do as well as you did in the process."

That whooshing sound you just heard was the heart and motivation of one more hard-working employee going out the door and into the microcosm, never to be found again.  That employee operated in good faith.  She did everything she was told to do to prepare herself for the job.  He paid close attention every time the chief gave motivational briefing-room speeches.  They upheld their part of the bargain.  The promotional process let them down.

The fact is, they're perfectly competent and capable officers -- but they don't fit.  No one put "fit" into the promotional requirements memoranda.  No one described it in the official job description issued by Human Resources.  Everyone knows what it is, though:  it's the look.  It's being part of the group.  It's the guy who bought a bicycle so he could bike the greenbelt with the chief every day.  It's the guy who served in a special assignment with the deputy chief for six years.  It's the guy who looks exactly like the last four guys who got promoted.  It's the guy who eats lunch with the commander every day and pimps off his co-workers to get brownie points.  It's one of the six guys who've been groomed every day for a couple of years by chiefs who know that they're building influence by giving out their one-on-one time sparingly to select individuals.

In such agencies, the higher on the food chain an officer is, the more fit comes into the equation.  Lower on the pyramid, competence matters:  it matters when becoming an officer, it matters when becoming a sergeant.  Above that, it becomes more of a unicorn -- a fantasy animal.  The less oxygen available at any given level, the more fit matters.  Best of all, that "fit" isn't on paper anywhere. It can be used to exclude women, a minority group, the candidate who continually questions unethical acts, the person who didn't up-suck enough.

Chief, it isn't just those people behind the shiniest stars that are impacted by the partiality in bestowing bars on new staffers.  It's the people around them.  It's everyone in an organization who has had the dream of working hard and rising to new heights.  It's co-workers and colleagues and yes, it's even officers at nearby agencies.  It's citizens who bear the burden of embittered officers and its family members who watch their committed, dedicated wife or husband eat, breathe and sleep law enforcement only to be told, "You know, it's really a matter of 'fit.'"

Worse than that, perhaps, is the damage done to that organizational intangible called "integrity"  and its handmaiden, "credibility." Many chiefs would promptly point to integrity as one of the important principles of law enforcement; many would count organizational credibility as an asset as valuable as all the line items on the budget spreadsheet.  Damage integrity in the ranks, and you've got morale issues, lack of motivation, and a workforce that follows the same example of wiggly adherence to the truth.  Damage your top-level credibility and you've got officers who fail to take anything you say seriously -- not just about promotional opportunities, but about everything else.  Just try and restore trust.  Perhaps, though, trust just doesn't matter after all.  Perhaps it's just a tired, obsolete value unworthy of the effort.  After all, what will it do for you politically?

Now, let's get back to the future -- the future of your agency.  If you've undermined your workforce by offering unfair promotional processes -- where the truly competent people aren't assured of a fair chance for key positions -- what does the future hold?  Are the less-competent people who are a good "fit" going to fit the future?  Are they going to fit the ever-changing demands and rigors of law enforcement leadership?  Are they going to suddenly, spontaneously fit the need to restore trust, integrity, and credibility?  Despite their lack of seniority, preparation and excellence in diverse past assignments, are they going to be able to suddenly manage and lead a workforce that is turning against them when the troops rebel against the status quo?  Will they effectively lead the new, inexperienced, rookie workforce that comes in to replace the veteran members who leave for those adjacent agencies that offer more fairness and credibility?

Cherish thy promotional process, chiefs.  They are the underpinning of your agency's leadership for now and the future.  Undermine the perception of fairness in those processes and you undermine your agency.  Ask yourself:  "If I took personality out of the equation, would I still be promoting the individual? Or am I doing it because they are just like me?  Is it a matter of fit or is it a matter of competence and ability?"

Finally, if you do already know who you're going to promote, skip the process.  Most people can handle having to eat a turd sandwich every now and then.  Don't call it a filet mignon.  Just tell them you're skipping the process because you've chosen someone without it.  Years ago a chief and I had a debate over the topic.  Once again, he'd involved several hopeful candidates in a very elaborate process only to choose the person everyone knew would get the job anyway.  His point was, "Well, isn't it nicer to give people a chance?"  My contention was that they weren't getting a chance at all; they were getting the illusion of a chance, and it isn't nice at all.  They jump through hoops for nothing.  They don't show themselves to their best advantage because they have no faith in being fairly assessed -- further eliminating their "chance" as well as damaging their own future reputation.  They are misled, because a promotional process implies objectivity.  Just tell them up front there will be no process; a selection has been made.  At least they aren't being lied to.  The example you set for them as an administrator and leader is the example they'll follow in their own actions.  Are you setting the best example of integrity and honor that you can set?

Beyond Ethics: The Case for Compassionate Policing

This is a reprint of an article originally published in The Police Chief Magazine, October, 1999.  It has since been cited in police textbooks, recognized by national criminal justice institutions and has been adopted as reading material in leadership coursework by Arizona POST.  It is my pleasure to reprint it here.

Beyond Ethics:  The Case for Compassionate Policing

Copyright © 2014 MJ Miller

The byword of policing in the '90s has been "ethics."  Departments nationwide have incorporated multi-tiered ethics programs, the best of the country's law enforcement speakers and administrators have delivered speeches relating to every aspect of ethics and top educational institutions have offered courses involving ethical decision making.  It seems readily apparent that, despite the challenges continually faced by American police agencies, the mantra of "ethics in policing" has been eagerly embraced by most officers and administrators.  Who can resist the charm of a word embodying logic, rationality and -- most of all -- "the right thing to do?"

Yet concentrating solely on ethical actions creates a lopsided equation. One can be ethical without being compassionate.

Community policing has laid the groundwork for a generation of officers motivated by compassion as well as ethics -- by a commitment to good works as much as to good work.  Agencies have learned to be truly responsive to communities, to consider the "big picture" and to avoid being statistic-driven in enforcement goals.  The next step in delivering quality service is to put heart back into policing in those places where it currently does not exist.

Few people are so privileged in their jobs as to be able to do a tremendous amount of good with relative ease.  Law enforcement officers often fail to recognize the power they have in this regard.  They often reason they are saving lives or preventing crushing property loss by taking enforcement action, yet don't realize the incredible difference they may make by simply treating people with kindness.  An officer who stops a motorist for an equipment violation, for example, seldom considers that a simple traffic stop is stressful for the average citizen, that a citation is at the very least an inconvenience -- if not a severe burden -- and overall, it is relatively high on the list of negative experiences.  Yet a motorist stopped for the same violation -- who is advised on the practical need for correcting the problem and released with a sincere and courteous warning -- actually comes out of the experience more positively than the first.  An officer who writes numerous citations in one shift can seldom appreciate the impact his actions may have on the individual driver who might be stopped once in five years time.

Similarly, officers often overlook the trauma an arrest causes the average person.  It's reasonable to elect a significant amount of arrestees to act badly during arrests, whether it entails crying and screaming or resisting and assaulting.  Officers are well trained to respond to resistance and assault, but seldom give a thought to the tears, screams or fears of the persons they are arresting.  Occasionally, offenders commit suicide in their jail cells or even after release -- a testament to the serious impact an arrest may have on some individuals.  Ironically, law enforcement makes good-faith efforts at suicide intervention, yet often has only a casual relationship with the concept of suicide prevention.  A measure of simple compassion -- such as validation of emotions or a word of reassurance during the drive to the station -- can make a great difference in an arrestee's emotional state and can often influence their behavioral state as well.

Administrations often describe this as "respecting the dignity of the individual."  It is one of many values that can be lumped together under "compassion."  Officers need not avoid citations or arrests in order to exercise compassion; it is often enough to merely communicate on a personal level or to speak in a soothing tone.  None of these suggestions conflict with the concept of enforcement, but rather supplement it -- just as problem-oriented policing strategies serve as supplements, not substitutes, for traditional enforcement action.

We fail our officers by encouraging them to harden themselves against emotion.  We have a misguided perception that tougher officers survive better emotionally than those who may be troubled by the tragedy of the streets.  I believe officers who can make an emotional connection to citizens and can empathize with rough situations are mentally more durable than those who steel themselves against any hint of emotion.  Repressed emotion -- whether anger or sorrow -- is stressful.

Rather than advise our officers to avoid personal involvement in their cases, we should advise them to get involved.  Once, while a patrol watch commander, I had one of our best officers stop by my office and say, "I think I'm too compassionate to be an officer."  He had dealt with a troubled teenager that day, and wondered if it was "abnormal" that he wanted to call and check on her a few days later.  Patrol officers are so often exposed to citizens in severe crisis, and never get to see the success stories -- or fully contribute to them.  An officer who takes the extra initiative to call a victim weeks later may benefit from hearing that things are working out. He may begin to appreciate that crisis and tragedy are not the only constants in the world.

A friend who retired after 25 years in law enforcement used to bemoan a fundamental dichotomy in policing:  we hire kind young folks, train them to be highly professional, authoritarian machines, and send them out into the world without looking after their idealism.  Supervisors and managers often impatiently think that these attitudes are naive, but we forget the many ways, both small and large, in which we can change a life or a series of lives.

There is a Ray Bradbury story about a time traveler who steps off the authorized path and does nothing more than squash a butterfly.  When he returns to his own world, it has changed dramatically and frighteningly because of this small action.  We may well be the travelers who change the world every day, not through the mass murderer we arrest once in a career, but through the butterflies we thoughtlessly crush during our day-to-day contacts.

I urge police administrators to encourage officers to reach beyond ethics to embrace compassion in their work.  For their own survival, as well as the greater good of the community, we need to watch for the butterflies at our feet.


Copyright © 2014 MJ Miller.  All rights reserved.  No part of this article may be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the express permission of the author.  Links to this page, however, may be freely shared.  Thank you for linking, liking, forwarding, emailing, +1'ing and otherwise helping grow my readership.