I was amused to learn that a small town Chief of Police – having adorned himself with more stars on his collar than U.S. Grant wore to win the Civil War (yes, I looked at your website) – recently demeaned decades of successful leadership training for more than 15,000 law enforcement professionals by telling a prospective student, “Well, you know, he’s never been a cop.”

One of the most significant limitations plaguing public safety includes what I can only call the “Tribal Validators” … backwards-thinking old-schoolers across the nation who continue to exhume old sergeants, lieutenants, deputies, chiefs, and sheriffs … dust them off … then put them in front of a room at P.O.S.T. or P.O.S.T. equivalents to preach about “leadership” in a world that no longer exists … flawed philosophies that incoming generations are already deeply loathing. It is command-grade conceit, to believe and attempt to convince others that “only cops can teach cops.”

It is so 1950s that it is laughable … except there are still a few folks out there who engage in such job-title-driven tunnel vision.

And, pro tip: they do not last very long because they are not equipped to keep up with a forward-thinking Mayor and City Council.

That said, for him and those who are like him:

1. True Leaders could not conceive of dissuading anyone seeking to learn everything they can about how to make the industry better for 3 to 5 generations from now. I know thousands of true Leaders, and that ain’t leadership.
2. While I respect the craft of policing, true Leaders know that Leadership is Leadership – transcending any narrow range of technical skills, whether those skills be police, fire, dispatch, IT, medicine, law firms … or any other industry.
3. Leadership is about the future. The skills that make people excellent police officers, fire professionals, dispatchers, support staff, IT specialists, doctors, nurses, attorneys, and the like are most often the antithesis of the skills needed to be an effective leader. The industry must learn from people outside its own echo chamber about true, forward-thinking leadership, or it will continue to be plagued by the same negative, short-sighted symptoms found in too many agencies in the United States.

I encourage everyone to learn all you can from people who’ve never been cops or fire professionals or dispatchers or IT specialists or doctors, nurses, attorneys or from any other source. Your industry must change – embracing leadership skills from any source – if it is to ever be a career of choice across our Nation.

So, Chief … I pass along what I told a grizzled old timer in the very first leadership academy I conducted in Washington State nearly 30 years ago – after he said, “How can you teach us anything … you’re not a cop.”

“Sir,” I responded, “one is not required to be dead to be a mortician.”

And, to the rest of you, Lead, er, Adult like you mean it. That is all. For now.

BTW, while you’re here, consider an annual subscription to The Leadership Academy!