As law enforcement and public safety officials, we are often called upon to mediate conflicts.

These conflicts can be internal between officers, or external between members of the public, or a combination of the two where an officer has a conflict with a citizen. By applying the character quality of forgiveness to a conflict resolution strategy, many conflicts can be resolved effectively. When I was first exposed to this technique, I was skeptical, and even thought it was a bit hokey. But after using it several times, and NEVER having it fail, I became convinced of its power as a conflict mediation technique.

Unforgiveness results in many of the internal conflicts, relationship issues, grudges, and job-related stress that plague our law enforcement and public safety agencies. Join me for a thought experiment that shows the power of forgiveness.

FORGIVENESS
Clearing the record of wrongs and refusing to hold a grudge

Level 1 Forgiveness is hard enough. But can you make it to Level 2? Or would you rather keep drinking the “cup of bitterness?” And don’t confuse forgiveness with pardon. Let me know what you think.

I recently received this endorsement from a sergeant working for a Sheriff’s Office in Wisconsin.  I think it’s the best endorsement Police Dynamics has ever received.

“I have attended two Leadership seminars in which Ray Nash was the primary speaker. The first time I heard him speak was at the Badger Sheriff’s Association Conference. After that first event, I immediately recognized that this guy gets it. Ray is a cop’s cop and he understands the cop mindset. As an instructor myself, I can honestly tell you that Ray knows his stuff and he is a very “dynamic” instructor. I kind of laugh when I say that word, because I remember Ray defining the word “dynamic” for us in class and giving us the Latin breakdown (What a geek! ….just kidding of course).

“As far as how Ray’s training has impacted my agency, here’s what I can tell you. I have seen a marked difference in the individuals who attended the Police Dynamics Leadership training. My agency (more…)

In a nutshell, the Police Dynamics program is a character-based approach to dealing with the challenges facing law enforcement officers and their agencies. Over 10,000 law enforcement officers and government leaders from around the world have benefited from the training. In light of recent events and the new challenges being presented to our law enforcement officers, the principles of Police Dynamics are needed now more than ever.

I am putting together my training calendar for 2016-2017. So if you or your agency would like to host a Police Dynamics seminar, please contact me right away and I will send you a training proposal.

Police Dynamics teaches officers how to:

• Keep their egos in check when their authority is challenged
• Re-build trust-based relationships even in the most troubled and crime-ridden neighborhoods
• Generate voluntary compliance by relying on positional authority instead of ego-power
  
• Stabilize and strengthen internal relationships that generate stress and conflict
  
• Develop leadership capacity throughout the agency
• Encourage and motivate each other to the highest levels of morale and performance
• Practice ethical decision-making when under stress or facing temptation
• Faithfully represent the principles and standards of the agency and profession
• Exercise discretion in a just and legally defensible manner
• Respectfully make appeals when an authority is in the wrong or faced with conflicting instructions
• Use tactical communications to overcome resistance and de-escalate tension without resorting to physical force
• Implement proven crime-fighting strategies that reduce the fear, apathy, tolerance for crime, and mistrust of the police that fuel criminal activity
• Exceed citizen expectations to build confidence and support
• Successfully navigate the complexities of building trust-based relationships among diverse groups
• Establish, Embrace, Encourage, Embody, and Enforce the highest standards of professional excellence

Seasoned law enforcement leaders recognize that there is an intricate link between officer morale and performance. Consequently, the morale of any law enforcement agency impacts the crime rate.

Those of us in police leadership must be actively engaged in showing our police officers, deputy sheriffs, and correctional officers that they are appreciated, encouraged, and motivated to fight crime and maintain the law, order, health, safety, and morals of their communities, whether on the streets or inside the detention facility. Making the Character Connection by praising them for the character quality that produced outstanding achievement is an excellent way of improving morale and fighting crime. Remember,

“Failure to Motivate Is Failure to Lead.”

Enjoy this short video produced by the International Academy of Public Safety. We are putting the entire Police Dynamics curriculum into an online format, so stay tuned…

Since founding the Police Dynamics Institute in 1998, I have often been asked for a simple description of the training, and found it very difficult to come up with one. Essentially, a dynamic is a principle. And the best I can do is compare the character-based principles of Police Dynamics to some of the physical principles of the universe.

For example, the Law of Gravity impacts our relationships with the things that are around us. And a physical principle like gravity can’t be violated like you can violate a man-made law. And the Law of Gravity could care less whether you believe in it or not. It’s all about cause and effect. It’s the same reason I wear a seatbelt in my car. I know that if I am in a collision, the Law of Linear Motion, Newton’s First Law, will cause my body to continue going forward, at whatever speed I happen to be traveling. Since that would not be a pleasurable experience, I choose to buckle up to bring my body into harmony with that principle.

The principles of Police Dynamics are similar, but they differ on two important points. They do not deal with our relationships with things, but our relationships with people. And the causes and effects attached to these principles are much more difficult to discern. So we must dig deep and go below the surface to enhance our understanding. Then we can make good choices to bring our lives, our agencies, and our communities into harmony with these principles.

In this short video recorded at a recent Police Dynamics conference hosted by the Brownsburg, IN Police Department, I emphasize that fact that failure to clearly articulate a standard is a leadership failure. Then explore the definition of the character-based standard of Obedience.

OBEDIENCE:
Quickly fulfilling the expectations of my authorities while guarding my attitude.

The first part of E5 Leadership is to Establish the Standard. Standards in the law enforcement profession tend to be performance, behavior, or achievement-based standards. But Credible Leadership requires that we establish character-based standards. The second step in E5 Leadership is to Embrace the Standard. This has to do with communicating the standard at every level. The character-based standard should be reinforced through selection, training, officer recognition, promotion, discipline, terminations, critical incident debriefings and every other aspect you can think of.

To learn more about the character quality of Obedience as it applies to a law enforcement agency, click on the pdf below…

Source: Character First, Oklahoma City, OK

Sheriff Greco Addresses his Frontline Supervisors

The Plaquemines Parish Sheriff’s Office, under the leadership of Sheriff Lonnie Greco, is setting  a high standard in support of ethical leadership. One of the first law enforcement agencies in the State of Louisiana to adopt the Sheriff’s Institute for Credible Leadership Development, PPSO takes its commitment that “Every Officer Is a Leader” very seriously.

Sheriff Ray Nash

I recently had the opportunity to provide Police Dynamics training to first-line supervisors and spend some quality time with Sheriff Greco. He is to be commended for his commitment to promoting good character and ethical leadership throughout his organization and for setting a good example for other law enforcement agencies to follow.

Interestingly, the venue for the training was a local library which featured a “superhero” theme for its summer reading program as you can see from the posters on the walls. I was grateful for the opportunity to interact with some REAL superheroes, the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff’s Deputies…!

In conjunction with the International Academy of Public Safety and the National Sheriff’s Association, we are embarking on a new leadership development program called E⁵ Leadership. This training video was filmed at the George Washington House on the island of Barbados.

Let us raise up a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The results are in the hands of God. ~ George Washington

When you boil down most of the leadership principles that we teach through Police Dynamics or the Institute for Credible Leadership Development, they center around the Standards of an organization. We often think of a standard as a flag or banner being carried into battle. When the standard-bearer goes down, another soldier will immediately pick up the flag. Why? The flag itself is just a piece of material. It’s not what the flag IS that is so meaningful. But what the flag REPRESENTS that makes it so important. The same is true of our badge, our patch, our uniform and the other symbols attached to the law enforcement profession.

It also applies to the standards of our profession and our agency. A standard is a measure of quality, a model or ideal of what is true, right, and just. So E⁵ Leadership focuses on the standard or identity of your agency from 5 different perspectives:

• E¹ – Establish the Standard

• E² – Embrace the Standard

• E³ – Embody the Standard

• E⁴ – Encourage the Standard

• E⁵ – Enforce the Standard

In coming posts, we will look at each of these elements in more detail…

Enjoy this video from Watts Bar Lake in Tennessee…

The  Dynamic of Expectations gives us a framework for understanding community expectations. By viewing citizen expectations as a continuum with “exceeding expectations” on the positive end and “failing to meet expectations” on the negative, the zero point becomes “meeting expectations.” When we meet expectations, it means we have done our job, nothing more and nothing less. This means we are getting no complaints. We have a tendency to think that as long as we are not getting any complaints, things must be going OK. But Zero Complaints is a very poor standard of excellence for a law enforcement agency.

Police officers must learn to exceed citizen expectations by giving them a WOW experience. The problem is that we don’t really know where their expectations are. So, as a professional police officer, you must ground their expectations in reality by telling them what you are going to do, and then doing it. In this way, you control their expectations. In fact we have a term to describe someone who does what they say they are going to do. We say that person has a lot of Integrity, which is the first step in forming trust-based relationships as we outlined in the Relationship Diamond.

And remember the Expectations Maxim:

Unfulfilled Expectations Damage Relationships

But after meeting their expectations, you job is not yet done. Very methodically and systematically, you must go just a little beyond and exceed their expectations. By doing this you will generate a Grateful Spirit which translates into community support for your law enforcement efforts. Failing to meet their expectations, however, gives them an OW Experience. Those hurt and can lead to a Wounded or Bitter Spirit that translates into public criticism and lack of trust. Don’t believe me? Take a look at what is going on in Ferguson and many other places around America. The citizens we are sworn to protect are doubting us, losing faith in us, and worse…

Sheriff Ray Nash
Police Dynamics Institute