Leadership, The Oxford English Dictionary defines leadership as;

The action of leading a group of people or an organization. The state or position of being a leader.

Got it. That’s a simple one. Next important lesson please…

Not so fast.

Leadership has to be one of the most vexing skills to learn in our profession. First of all, it’s critically important. It’s important for the officer working the beat who must deal with the public every day. They must lead on scenes and at calls for service, they must show leadership for the community and the people they serve.

It’s important for the line supervisor. They must show leadership to not only that same public as the officer, but also to the officers themselves as well as peers and members of other government agencies.

It’s important to the administrators whose management positions can at times exacerbate the divide between the working officer and the organization, who’s goals should be aligned, but rarely are.

And of course it’s important to the police leaders, who by their very title should be experts in a field that quite frankly, you can’t be an expert in.

“But Steve,” you say, “I know a lot of expert leaders, masters of the craft.”

Bullshit.

They are faking it.

On this season of Blue Canary, we are going to focus on Leadership. We are going to talk about what it means to be a leader, how to learn leadership skills and why leadership is abnormal behavior. I am going to talk about my personal leadership journey as well as interview Chief’s and Sheriffs about their leadership journeys and struggles. We will also hear from leadership experts about the challenges modern police leaders face.

Finally, we will mix in a few of our listeners favorite topics just for fun.

Our first episode of the season will drop on June 5th so make sure you like and subscribe so you don’t miss anything, because this is the story we have to tell.