Archive for the ‘Supervision’ Category

Looking For A Few Good Men Or Women – Part III

Friday, March 9th, 2012

Do you ever ask yourself, “Why the hell would anyone want to work at this place?” If not, you should, especially if your job is to recruit or retain employees. What is it that makes your agency a unique and desirable place to work? In marketing lingo, ...

Looking For A Few Good Men Or Women – Part II

Friday, March 9th, 2012

In The Art of War, a Chinese military treatise that was written during the 6th century BC, Sun Tzu points out the importance of knowing yourself and your enemy. So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will fight without danger in battles. If you only ...

Looking For A Few Good Men Or Women – Part I

Friday, March 9th, 2012

NEWS FLASH! Law enforcement agencies are experiencing difficulty recruiting qualified applicants. Any experienced law enforcement recruiter knows that the faucet of qualified applicants is not flowing as freely as it once did. Gone are the days when a law enforcement agency could simply place a help wanted ...

Discipline #4 – Deciding When To Discipline

Thursday, March 8th, 2012

As we have previously discussed, the purpose of discipline is not to punish - it's to change unacceptable behavior into acceptable behavior and help get a good performer back on track. Another critical factor to consider is when to discipline. One of the worst mistakes you can make is to ...

Discipline #3 – Hitting A Moving Target

Wednesday, March 7th, 2012

When an employee violates department rules and regulations or personnel policies, you may need to enforce them by disciplining the employee. In order to get the maximum effectiveness from a disciplinary action, it is important to do so as close to the incident as practicable. It's also essential that the ...

Discipline #2 – Color Me Blue

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

Years ago, I worked for a very safety conscious outfit that was seeking national accreditation. A coworker of mine was entering his final year of employment before retirement so he was assigned the task of putting together the department’s first comprehensive safety manual. He worked very diligently on ...

Discipline #1 – Before You Drop The Hammer

Monday, March 5th, 2012

One of the most difficult tasks that a supervisor must perform is the disciplining of employees. Some supervisors are afraid of coming down too hard and coming off as the bad guy. Others try too hard to show that they are “the boss" and wind up alienating employees ...

Preparing Better Police Supervisors

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

If you get a group of cops together, sooner or later the conversation will turn to supervisors and quite often the stories usually aren't pretty. Why is it that there seems to be a disproportionate number of bad supervisors in law enforcement? Impact of the Police Personality Is it because of ...

Stop The Time Thieves

Friday, May 9th, 2008

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Guard you own spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds.” Are you frustrated by constant interruptions that steal your time when you are trying to get something done? Well there are a few of minor adjustments that you can make to help ...

Pick The Hill You Want To Die On Carefully

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

I was reading the newspaper last Sunday when I came across a story that was picked up by the Associated Press about a 70-year-old Utah woman who was arrested for not watering her lawn. Over the years, I have learned to take the accuracy of newspaper articles with a ...

Managing Younger Employees

Saturday, January 19th, 2008

With the oldest baby boomers entering into the retirement zone, progressive agencies are focusing on developing their young employees through extensive leadership development and mentoring programs. Hopefully, the next generation of prospective leaders will have the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to assume helm of leadership when the time comes. ...

A Steady Diet Of Roll Call Training

Sunday, December 2nd, 2007

Years ago when I was a fairly new officer, one of my sergeants had a great idea - he wanted to start doing roll call training. Actually, he was really only responsible for resurrecting the idea. The practice of conducting mini-training sessions during roll call had come and ...

Why Aren’t We Hiring The Best Candidates

Friday, September 7th, 2007

Cops must learn to "size people up" very quickly if they hope to survive on the street. Unfortunately, as officers move into administrative and management positions, they oftentimes attempt to transfer their street assessment skills to the office. This can be a formula for disaster in most personnel management situations. ...

Communication – Saying You Are Sorry

Thursday, September 6th, 2007

There was a popular movie that came out in 1970 entitled "Love Story." The film, which starred Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal, was based on a best selling novel written by Erich Segal. If you have some gray in your hair, you probably remember it as the top ...