3P Leadership

I loved being a detective. Of all the positions I have held in law enforcement, being Detective Robison has always been my favorite.  Looking back, I am not even sure I was that good at it, but I loved immersing myself into the investigative process. There was a great deal of satisfaction associated with being able to bring a case to fruition. As a detective that was often assigned child cases, I especially enjoyed locking up people that hurt children.  As far as I was concerned, I had found my niche and wanted to spend the rest of my career being Detective Robison.

All of this changed when my Chief called me into his office and told me I was next on the promotional list, and he needed me to go back to the road as a front-line supervisor.  That past year, I had done what “I was supposed to do” by going through the promotional process.  Honestly, I never really imagined there would be any chance of me getting promoted, and I was just fine with that.  However, I all of a sudden found myself torn between staying where I was or accepting a promotion to a position I was not overly excited about taking.  After seeking some wise counsel and realizing it could be a career limiting move to turn down a promotion, I found myself back in a patrol car supervising a uniform shift. 

Like many of you reading this can appreciate, I all of a sudden found myself in charge with absolutely no clue what I was doing.  I looked at some of the people I was now supervising, thinking I had no business telling these great officers what to do.  I had no awareness related to the differences between having rank and being a leader.  Ultimately, I did not feel I had the credibility to lead, and I was not sure how to change that.

So, I did the best I could and focused on trying to take care of my officers.  I had been fortunate enough to work for some supervisors that took good care of me, and I figured it made sense to try to do the same in my new position.  It was here that I began a new chapter in my career.

And……….It was here that I truly fell in love with leadership.

Over a decade later, I have come to appreciate the privilege, and responsibility, of leading others, especially those that have chosen a career that exists to serve people.  In a nutshell, I have learned that leadership is all about people, and those people are most effectively led by leaders that lead with purpose and passion. That’s it………….leadership is ultimately about leading  people with purpose and passion. This 3P Leadership approach will be the foundation of my monthly blogs moving forward.  The next three blogs will break down the three P’s of leadership, and then we will cover a variety of leadership topics that will hopefully benefit us all as we all continue to grow and develop.

Thanks for reading this, and thanks for joining me in this leadership journey!

If you have any questions, comments or ideas, please email me at ThreePleadership@gmail.com