Leadership Musings: Setting the example

As many of you know, the last five years of my police career was as the Executive Officer of my agency.  During that last five years, my agency hired more officers than we did the previous 20 years of my career.  Now we didn't keep all of those officers.  Most of the officers we lost were to other agencies, but we have kept 13 of them as of my retirement date on June 29, 2016.  With that many new officers running around, it became a virtually daily lesson from the top down in our agency in leadership and training.

From our field trainers and senior patrol officers up to the Chief and me, we were all in a mindset of training.  Since I was more administrative, my role was more of setting the example.  I feel this is the FIRST and LOUDEST rule of leadership.  How can we expect subordinates to follow procedures if the we as leaders do not?  When I wore a uniform, I wore my vest and full gun belt.  I have said many times, my pet peeve is a Chief wearing a uniform without a full gun belt.  What is that?  What kind of example does that set?  They have no spare ammo, no handcuffs, no walkie-talkie, and no intermediate weapons like OC or and ASP.  I venture to say these agencies have uniform standards for all other officers assigned to patrol and then they see their Chief basically out of uniform.  I don't care if their agency policy permits a Chief to only wear a sidearm.  IT LOOKS BAD!

Check out this pic of the Chief of Pittsburgh, PA from a recent article on Officer.com

http://www.officer.com/news/12237305/pittsburgh-police-chief-defends-dnc-appearance

In the above story, he was catching heat for his appearance in uniform at the Democrat National Convention.  That didn't offend me as much as his lack of a full gun belt in the picture.  At least he had one spare magazine, but he didn't have any other item likely required of the patrol officer with that agency.  This practice needs to stop.  Set the example, Chiefs!  

Perhaps a more egregious example of "chief privilege" is from the former chief of San Francisco Police Department.  This was a few years ago, but it is still bad when you look back on it.  According to a published article in the San Francisco Gate, Chief Heather Fong went five years without qualifying with her firearm.  Let that sink in.  Five years.  This Chief was in a position of authority to judge the uses of firearms by officers under her command yet she herself hadn't performed the basic requirement of a firearm qualification.  Five years.  Her excuse was she was too busy.  Other officers in her agency would face disciplinary actions for that excuse.  Even when questioned by the Police Commission, she was able to avoid sanction.  This sets such a bad example of failing to follow Rule #1.  Read about it below:

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/S-F-police-chief-OK-on-pistol-tests-3281125.php

It's just logical that if you are in a position to enforce rules, you should obey the rules yourself.  

SET THE EXAMPLE and model the behavior you want to see.  If not, your people will follow the example you set whether it is good or bad.