Tangible Leadership: The Blending of Concept & Action

While attending a leadership conference at a Southern California college, I had high expectations with hopes of being impressed and enlightened by those who develop and teach the foundational aspects of leadership. What I found was groups of highly educated academics who could define, classify, and theorize what leadership is with focus and depth; however, as I studied their lectures and listened to their out-of-classroom conversations, it struck me that these teachers of leadership understood only the conceptual elements of leadership—the what, but not the how. They knew what leadership was by definition but not how to do it through action, demonstration, or through lucid personal examples. Their comprehension of leadership was illustrated in the pages of a thesis, from formulas, through aesthetic flow charts, demonstrated in models or paradigms, described in manuscripts, and in their theories. They had their hearts in the right place but their ideas about leadership were only that, ideas absent a tangible plan of action. Certainly the conceptual aspects of leadership are valuable but they are only partial–lacking–showing that conceptual only leaders can talk the talk but could they walk the walk? 

In the best seller, Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge, authors Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus write there are over 850 definitions for leadership. For law enforcement personnel of every rank who have sought to capture a workable definition of leadership and further, to practice or teach this vast concept in the exemplification of their professional roles, have found these explanations to range from simplistic, even silly, to complex, involving comprehensive models with hundreds of pages of text to illustrate their function. Having a solid definition of leadership is beneficial; however, the concept alone has a sum value of zero if the concept cannot be blended with action and put into real world practice. While leadership is powerful and highly valued, it remains somewhat elusive in terms of finding the definitive “how to” of its concept and more importantly, its practice. Certainly the definition of leadership is of less importance than the undefined, but essential practice of it. While leadership may be difficult to express in absolute terms, those who serve under effective leaders, clearly recognize it when it’s present, and even more so when it’s absent.  

WHAT IS TANGIBLE LEADERSHIP?

Police supervisory and management training and the books and articles we read are often flooded with example after example of what leadership qualities are—a motivator, charismatic, ethical, influential, a good communicator—and this common laundry list is usually infused with famous quotations and exemplified through illustrating great leaders in history like Patton, Lincoln, and Churchill or big business leadership evangelists like Covey, Peters, and Blanchard. This type of training and study has value, but it is cognitive-based—untouchable—offering law enforcement personnel with a conceptual plan (the what to), but lacking in real-life application (the how to).

For example, if a Watch Commander strives to become a better leader through becoming a more effective communicator—a must for police supervision and management and an integral skill of effective leaders—he may learn about how ineffective words alone can be, accounting for a surprisingly low percentage of our communication effectiveness. He would discover that the tone of one’s voice—the message behind the words—has a dramatic impact on our communication effectiveness and that our non-verbal communication (body language) accounts for an extraordinary 50+%. Further study would show the watch commander that a critical and foundational element of communication that must be practiced for communication success is active listening.

Armed with this knowledge (concept), the watch commander has an opportunity to put this knowledge to work. The result of this application—turning concept into action—has the potential to dynamically change the watch commander’s effectiveness and the success of a team. Such successes include new connections—better relationships—being made with officers who were once commanded through management, and now led through influence. Existing relationships can be strengthened; messages are not only delivered better, but also received better; speaking in meetings or in front of groups can become easier and more effective. This improved communication begets motivation and individuals begin to flourish when their opinions, ideas, and feedback are finally outwardly acknowledged and accepted as valid. Through all this, the watch commander seems to walk a little different, talk a little different, and this new physical demeanor denotes a command officer who is more sociable, approachable, convincing, and influential.

If the communication skills that were learned by the watch commander were kept conceptual and never acted upon, the concept would have little benefit and as a result, you might find the watch commander staring at his computer screen while one of his officers is trying to carry on a conversation with the side of the Watch Commander's face. Officer’s ideas—good or bad—will be met with rebuttals that illustrate tonal disassociation instead of interest, disapproval instead of support, or boredom instead of advocacy. Professional relationships would stay the same—unimproved—and the Watch Commander’s posture and physicality might deliver messages that are unintended, even adverse.   Even these subtle forms of poor communication carry heavy consequences in that they decrease motivation, destroy an officer’s incentive to share information or ideas, and can damage any healthy supervisor/subordinate relationship that may have been established or is still developing.

This example, using communication, is only one of many. The consequences of conceptual only leadership can apply to delegation, risk management, discipline, decision-making, ethics, coaching or mentoring, performance evaluation, training, and officer development to name a few.                    

GETTING THERE, FROM HERE         

A good start would be to follow Nike Company’s famous advertising slogan, “Just Do It”. Police supervisors and managers understand what delegation is and what to delegate, but many of them are still overburdened with work because their understanding of delegation is never put into practice, or at least grossly under-applied. Start empowering others; you cannot deliver public service by yourself. We know, in concept that leadership relies on influence, so why do we rely on the old management hammer of telling rather than selling. Start explaining why things are done instead of merely what needs to be done. Talented leaders have great energy, yet many supervisors lead from behind their desks. Leaders show up a lot and lead not only from the front, but also from behind. Leaders are self-confident, yet some of us fail to act when we should because we fear making mistakes, being criticized, creating liability, or…you fill in the blank. Leaders allow themselves to take risks. Leaders are life long learners and developers of people, but many managers miss or fail to recognize all those teachable moments when they or the officers they lead are most receptive to growth through learning. A professional officer who can no longer learn is an officer who has suffered a professional death. Leaders are ethical and understand the importance of integrity, yet how many of us can effectively provide a lucid verbal example—more than a mere dictionary definition—of what integrity means… 

If you filled a balloon with honesty, honor, morals, values, courage, standards, and principles and left that balloon in a room for one year and upon returning to the balloon, if it was smaller than it was when you left it, that balloon has lost its integrity. Some of the ethical standards have slipped away or lessened slowly, even unnoticeably, over time. Some officers, like the balloon, when left alone over a period of time, lower their standards for the ease of taking shortcuts. Their honesty is compromised when rationalizing why it’s okay to call in sick when they are healthy. Principles tend to change or flex to meet the circumstances when principles should be unyielding and used by officers to stand on when practicing their values.           

This example of using a word picture to illustrate integrity shows a certain depth of appreciation and a unique understanding of ethics. This comprehension; however, is only half the battle. An effective leader would utilize this understanding as a springboard to action. What good is the understanding or espousing of ethics if your actions model anything but integrity or ethical behavior? It takes self-discipline for leaders to apply their concepts, especially under adverse conditions or when the application of concept is not the popular or personally rewarding thing to do. Tangible leadership is investment leadership. The more you put into it through application, the better return on your investment. Law enforcement leaders from patrol officers through Chiefs of Police must consider taking idealized law enforcement practices and do everything possible to transform their ideas, beliefs, and core values into tangible, doable, everyday actions.               

THE VALUE AND POWER OF ACTION

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What you do speaks so loud that I can’t hear what you say.” Today, the contemporary term is “Actions speak louder than words.”  The management term for this is called Modeling. Officers will view what a leader does with much more credibility than what a leader says. Leaders, who understand this and can apply their actions with deliberate intent, have a unique appreciation for the value and power of action. All of us have moments in our lives when we wish we had done this instead of that or said one thing instead of another. Such common wishes or regrets are always based on the actions we took or didn’t take, when we should have spoken up, but kept silent, or when we said the wrong thing and regretted it. Few of us ever reflect back on our lives and think: “Boy, when I was twenty, I sure wish I had thought differently.” It’s our actions or lack thereof that stands out in our memory as well as in the memories of followers who are influenced by leaders. Those whose conceptual thoughts and ideas are cast upon others, but directly conflict with their actions are known as hypocrites.   

I often conduct an exercise in the seminars I teach. I direct the class to make a circle with their hands by touching their index finger to their thumb (the hand symbol for A-okay). I physically do the same thing and then tell the class to hold the circle high up in the air over their heads as I model exactly how to do it. I then tell the class to bring the circle down and place it on their chins. As I tell them this (verbally), I bring the circle down (physically) and place it on my upper cheek next to my eye. On average, about 90% of the class places the circle next to their eye as they model my physical movement. What I did spoke much louder than what I said. The class followed what I did and ignored my words and through this simple exercise, the value and power of action is revealed. 

BACK TO THE BASICS

Police personnel attempting to best define and understand their own personal styles of supervision, management, command, or leadership in order to better practice such traits, may find themselves lost in an ocean of commercial and academic theories. While many of these theories are effective and time tested, how can a leader adopt the concepts of so many styles or methods and even more difficult, to put them into practice?

Principle-centered leadership, ethical management, total quality management, management by walking around, autocratic leaders, democratic leaders, participative leaders, free reign leaders, situational leaders, transactional leaders, transformational leaders, charismatic leaders, management by objective, vision-based leadership, goal-oriented leadership, transcendental leadership, success-based leadership, courageous leadership, performance leadership, management by consensus, servant leadership, management by exception, one-minute management, the seven habits, leading by example, path-goal leadership, and the list goes on and on. There are so many paradigms, continuums, models, theories, processes, and methods designed to enhance leadership that the study of leadership and often the attempted applications of it have become needlessly convoluted, even counterproductive.

To be a good leader, police professionals must practice the basics. Excellence in leadership occurs when the basics are perfected. While an all encompassing list describing all the leadership traits available does not exist, officers should make there own personal and professional lists and strive for mastery through action of each chosen quality. Officers, whose list illustrated leaders as learners, would seek out specialized training, involve themselves with self-directed learning, and attend college to achieve higher levels of education. If the list included being influential, officers would learn about rapport and practice their skills at establishing commonality, mutuality, and shared core values. Were the list to include leaders as having high energy, officers might quit smoking, exercise, maintain a better diet, and skillfully manage their time to allow full focus and effort to the task at hand or group to be led. If the list described leaders as emotionally stable, officers would work to maintain an effective balance between family, friends, and work; giving enough time and attention to each to maintain emotional health and mental wellness.               

This list might include confidence and a sense of humor. Strong leaders see the lighter side of adverse situations. They see opportunity where others see failure and they make others feel at ease because they have the confidence in themselves to do so. They do this through humor and their confidence manifests itself in the form of composure and poise or an unyielding sense of calm. For example, minutes before Louis J. Freeh, was nominated to Director of the FBI in the Rose Garden, he was in the Oval Office with the President and was pointing out his family outside. To his horror, what he saw outside the Oval Office, right next to the Rose Garden was, his then four-year-old pushing his seven-year-old into a White house pond just minutes before the ceremony. Director Freeh then assured the President that he could do a better job controlling 10,000-armed agents than two small boys. This type of confidence (poise and composure) blended with humor in response to an adverse or embarrassing situation exemplifies tangible leadership. His response, rather than reaction, was controlled, balanced, and smooth. These are qualities and the benefits of applied leadership.  

The basics of leadership don’t exist only in the highest levels of government, the military, big business, or religion. They can be found in the humble efforts of a little league baseball coach giving meaningful advice to his young players. Most, if not all of our nation’s most treasured heroes were heroes, not because they were rich or achieved fame, but because they were leaders of people and it was the basics of their dynamic leadership—concept and action—that inspired others to follow. Fame, social status, and wealth are not factors of leadership; they are byproducts of leadership that already existed. Leaders are honest mothers and fathers (ethical), the school teacher who stays after school to help her students (committed), an anonymous businessman who gives his money to charity (generous), and the police officer who risks his or her own life to help others (courageous). In the end, it’s their actions that best define their leadership.   

CONCLUSION

Leaders have a bias for action and they live their vision through the practice of it and not the thought of it. Leadership is a magnificent concept, but the act of leadership does not have to be a magnificent act; it can be small—volunteering to be a big brother or sister to an underprivileged child—or it can be significant, even historic—facilitating a team of medical researchers to cure all forms of cancer. Conceptual only leadership is equivalent to a master surgeon who has never operated. Leadership also offers a choice. Police professionals can choose to lead or they can choose not to, but the consequences of inaction may be substantial and lifelong. The blending of concept with action provides potential and possibility and this formula, in the hands of a leader, can accomplish limitless success for individuals, teams, or organizations.