Back in November, I had the pleasure of interviewing Chief Tim Barfield (ret.) from the Wellington, Ohio, Police Department. One of the primary topics we discussed was leadership and how it affected a department and the community. This discussion led to the question of whether culture or leadership is the most important function of a supervisor, leader or instructor. Tim’s response was as true as it was short. He simply said, “Yes.”

Chief Barfield went on to explain that without leadership, a department will struggle to have or maintain a positive culture. He added that without a positive culture, a department will struggle to find and develop strong leaders. Leaders are instrumental in setting the overall culture and expectations of their department. He stressed throughout the interview that leaders aren’t necessarily the people with bars and stripes. Instructors, field training officers, supervisors, captains and sheriffs should all be leaders. More importantly, there should be informal leaders at all ranks and positions.

Top-down leadership

Leadership is most often thought of as flowing from the top down, with command staff leading their departments by making decisions and providing guidance to those of lower rank. Leaders at the command staff level set the tone for the department by establishing standards and expectations. Most importantly, good leaders are role models for those standards and expectations. By “walking the walk,” command staff helps set organizational culture.

Organizational culture includes the values, norms, attitudes and guiding beliefs, as well as how these are taught and passed on to new members. Culture and morale go together like meat and potatoes. You can have a little of one or the other, but it doesn’t leave you satisfied unless they’re together. I have had the distinct pleasure to work for some terrific leaders during my career. Those leaders set the standard, were role models for those expectations and held people accountable for failing to follow those standards. They weren’t always the most popular people at parties, but they were leaders and role models. They weren’t hypocrites and rarely found themselves needing to be cheerleaders.

These leaders set a department standard of excellence that could be found throughout the hiring process, all levels of training, promotional processes and their expectations of work quality. As a result, the department had a reputation for being the number one department in the state where other officers wanted to work. Most new employees were lateral hires because of the department’s reputation. Whether assigned as a detective or patrol officer, investigations were expected to be thorough, and quality report writing was a source of pride. The culture of the department was one of high expectations, satisfaction in our work, good relationships with co-workers and pride in the community.

Unfortunately, I’ve also worked for some truly terrible command staff. I won’t call them leaders, but they occupied positions of command. Common characteristics of these people included making decisions that were based on making their own lives easier and keeping their positions, rarely considering what was best for the department and the people they were supposed to serve. They were disorganized, made emotional and knee-jerk decisions and blamed others for their mistakes. Their idea of improving morale included leaving cold pizza on the break-room tables and buying everyone new jackets for patrol. These motivational jackets were passed out with the message that people should stop complaining because the jackets were “proof” the department cared about us.

The same place that had quality leadership and a positive culture transformed into a department that was losing quality officers and supervisors to neighboring departments. The reaction from command staff was complete apathy. They openly stated that those officers didn’t really want to be there anyway, so losing them to other departments was all right with them. Let me get this straight: they worked hard to get hired by your department, but they didn’t really want to be there? Look in the mirror; you’re the reason. Instead of being known as a great place to work, the department garnered national attention in a series of viral videos and bad publicity.

Without a positive culture, a department will struggle to find and develop strong leaders.

Bottom-up leadership

Officers, detectives and instructors are a big part of the leadership and cultural equation. If you’re constantly looking up the chain of command and complaining about leadership and department morale, look in the mirror and around the briefing room table. The origin of the current problem is the responsibility of every officer, deputy, constable, agent and trooper who served in the past and serves today. Conversely, the solution to a leadership vacuum or negative department culture can be found within those same people.

During an interview with Brian Willis from Winning Mind Training, he put it very plainly, “The majority of law enforcement officers are sergeants on down. When officers, deputies, agents, constables, troopers, corporals and sergeants become the leaders and change agents of the department, it makes bad leadership at the command staff level nearly irrelevant.”

Every law enforcement officer has the responsibility to lead. Our profession puts us at the front and center of society. It is a calling that carries some of the greatest responsibility one can possess, and leadership is a core job function. We need to demand excellent leadership from ourselves and our peers by supporting the expectation of peer leadership as well as leadership up the chain of command. This cultural change must occur at the department level to have a lasting effect, but we can start by demanding this of ourselves and each other.

The reasons some law enforcement officers fail to practice leadership skills is complex, and I believe there are several answers to this question. Lack of training, lack of role models and lack of ability to self-evaluate contribute to this problem. But the single biggest reason we fail as leaders is as simple as this: it’s hard. Leadership and cultural improvement take time, energy and effort. As a result, it is easy to let it slide because leadership and cultural improvement require work.

Call to action

We owe it to those who served before us and those who follow to improve the culture of law enforcement. If we don’t act now to fill the leadership vacuum with strong leaders, we have no one to blame but ourselves. We are the problem, and we can provide the solution.

Be the leader you want to follow. If you conduct yourself in your current position the same way you would want your supervisor to behave, you will be actively engaged in making cultural improvement. Be a mentor for your co-workers and community. Conduct yourself professionally and live by the ethics expected of a leader. Be the example you want to see in others. As this occurs up the chain of command, each position will become stronger, and the leadership and culture of your department will improve at every level.