What Can Law Enforcement Leaders Learn From CEOs?

A lot.

You probably knew I was going to say that right?

I guess I need to expand on that thought and explain what law enforcement leaders can learn from CEOs!

Adam Bryant, a writer for the New York Times, interviewed and covered CEOs for a number of years.  He asked them the usual questions you would expect about their companies.  One day, Adam had a radical thought and decided to interview CEOs and ask them a different set of questions.  He focused on success, how they lead their employees and the life advice they give or wish they had received.

Since that idea popped into his head, Adam has interviewed 525 CEOs as part of his Corner Office column.

The CEOs interviewed were from both large and small companies. Some of them came from humble backgrounds while others were born with a silver spoon.

Adam Bryant penned his final column recently titled, “How to Be a C.E.O., From a Decade’s Worth of Them.”

In this column, Adam acknowledged he learned a lot from many of the CEOs about management, leadership, and human behavior.  Adam also acknowledged not all of the leaders were insightful.

Adam identified three reoccurring themes that explain why these CEOs got the top job.  Law Enforcement leaders can learn a great deal from these lessons.

The first theme Adam observed is that CEOs have a habit of questioning everything.  He calls this “applied curiosity.”  They are especially curious about people and their back stories.

We as law enforcement leaders must understand the complexities of our job by continually ask questions to understand how to do it better.  We must invest our time and energy into the people we work with.

Great law enforcement leaders can truly excel if we apply this “applied curiosity” philosophy to our departments and the way we operate them.

The second theme Adam observed is that CEOs seem to love a challenge.

Adam observed, “Discomfort is their comfort zone.”  I love that quote!

In general, law enforcement leaders find comfort in predictability.  Operating in crisis mode is something most leaders try to avoid.  Having said that, the law enforcement leaders of today face challenges and crisis’s on a daily basis.  Rather than ignore these challenges, law enforcement leaders must confront them head on, get as close to the fire as possible and lead the department through it.

When I think about this second point, I can’t help but think about a police chief that gets hired to turn a dysfunctional department around.  He or she focuses on the challenges, puts the fires out and gets the department back on stable ground.  Some police chiefs excel under these conditions.

Chief Bobby Moody was one of those police chiefs.

Chief Moody was appointed as Chief of Police of the Marietta Police Department on July 1, 1996.  Over the course of the next five years, Chief Moody brought the department into the 21^st century by confronting our problems, developing a vision for the future and staying close to the fire.

You might say he spent a lot of time in the discomfort zone but rarely complained.

It was not an easy or pleasant time for him.  In fact, it was pretty difficult.  Yet he continued on the path he knew to be correct and the Marietta Police Department is today considered one of the best and most professional departments in Georgia.

The last theme Adam observed from this group of 525 CEOs was how they managed their own careers as they climbed the corporate ladder to the top rung.  Instead of the focus being on what they could do to be promoted, many of the CEOs Adam interviewed focused on doing their jobs well.  As a result, they were promoted because of this laser focus on excellence.

Law enforcement leaders of today can learn a valuable lesson from this important observation.

Because of the small number of opportunities for promotion in law enforcement, it is easy to get tangled up in departmental politics.  Many leaders focus on making others look bad to make themselves look good.  They also focus on getting ahead instead of just doing a great job.

Unlike the business world, it is next to impossible for aspiring law enforcement leaders to jump from department to department chasing promotions. Of course, once you are promoted to a high enough rank, an opportunity to move to another department for a promotion becomes more viable.

Until then, the best course of action is to do a great job each and every day.

Throughout my career, I focused on being a go-to person to get tasks done and my supervisors recognized my hard work.  Even though I was busy and my plate was full most of the time, my supervisors continually assigned me additional tasks because they knew I would get them done.

My chief rewarded me for my hard work by promoting me time and time again.

As a supervisor and as a police chief, I recognize and reward those go-to officers and supervisors that I can count on to do an excellent job.

You will rarely go wrong by focusing on doing a great job. Share on X

The three main takeaways that Adam Bryant had from interviewing 525 CEOs over the course of 10 years is just as relevant to law enforcement leaders as CEOs.

Be curious about your organization and the people who work there, face challenges head on and focus on doing a great job rather than chasing that promotion and you will surely find success along the way.

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Billy