It was a call from one of our city officials. Yeah, I picked up. After all, I’m an elected LEO labor leader, and officials like him have the power to influence what we used to call “employee satisfaction.” Younger generations call it “work–life balance,” a space-age phrase as mystifying to me as the Bluetooth technology that allowed me to take his call in my decade-plus-old pickup truck outfitted with one of those stereo head units that talks to your cellphone.

OK, so now I’m triggered. I’m getting old. Sorry.

But look, I spent most of my career doing the type of detective work that requires long hours and rapid, after-hours responses. I could tell you that family time always came first. But my wife reads some of my stuff. She would call bullshit. And she would be right. Now, I’m not saying this desire by younger officers for more and better time at home isn’t wrong. I’m just saying that none of those thousands of cases that took me from my family gave a single damn about work–life balance. Or my family. But more power to these young people and their desire for quiet, quality time away from the chaos that pursues our profession like greyhounds on a track rabbit. Truly. I hope it works out for them.

Anyway, back to that call. “Ian, I’m in my truck on speakerphone with our vice president. Are we still OK to talk?” Ian Hugh, at that time one of our councilmembers, is a good dude. We’ve grown to become friends. He was fine with it. The topic wasn’t sensitive, but it was serious and complicated enough for a 20-minute back-and-forth. He wanted my take on a couple of things. I gave it to him, hung up and explained to our VP, my desired successor, how that was pretty typical of the types of calls he’ll be taking when he becomes president of our local FOP lodge. He looked at me and said, “Dave, I don’t think I can do this.” And he wasn’t joking, because he was white as a ghost.

Succession planning

As a LEO labor leader, the time and energy you spend on succession planning is a function of the successes you’ve achieved. The two are directly related. Think about it. You’ve helped build something great. Now, you must be relentless about identifying and preparing future leaders who will not only preserve your legacy but build something even better. This is the essence of succession planning — ensuring that there are solid men and women prepared to lead at a moment’s notice. Here are the basics.

Start now

So, you’ve been elected to lead a LEO labor organization? Great. It’s time to start planning for what happens after you leave. Yes, you should be thinking about this from day one. After all, succession planning takes time, and your efforts in this area should be ongoing. Life, at any moment, can happen. None of us are guaranteed another day, nor are we guaranteed health. In those two realms alone, I can think of about a hundred scenarios where life could take a wrecking ball to your organization’s leadership. A well-developed succession plan, in place now, can help fortify what you’ve helped build.

Identify leadership potential

My executive board and I are intentional about recognizing and cultivating potential leaders. We are constantly asking each other who we see possibly leading our organization in, say, 15 years. Number one, we are looking for good cops. Individuals who have learned to excel in this profession probably possess a set of skills and traits well suited for labor leadership. We also look for officers with some “meat on the bone” in terms of the time they have left before retirement, and the meatier the better. We are also looking for individuals who are generally well respected. These are the cops others look up to.

How do you find them? You have to get out from behind the desk. Attend briefings and be visible at your substations. Suit up and hit the streets every now and again, and don’t forget those swings and graveyard squads. And ask around — your senior members will have important insights into who has potential. Finally, encourage your members to reach out if they want to become more involved in “union business.” Future leaders tend to seek out opportunities to grow. If a member approaches you with a request to get more involved, take it seriously — and find a way to get them plugged in right away.

Cultivate leadership

As you begin to identify potential leaders, you should be having conversations with these folks. Tell them you see in them potential for labor leadership. Tell them you want to find ways to get them more involved. If they are receptive, get them to leadership training pronto! The National Fraternal Order of Police offers leadership training annually. The FOP’s Leadership Matters conferences are an ideal way to develop these individuals. Don’t send your entire board to these conferences, but do consider sending at least one experienced member to mentor and guide those to whom you are introducing this opportunity for growth within your organization.

You should also begin to give those you have identified responsibilities. For example, place them on a committee, or start giving them tasks that will advance your organization. Invite them to sit in on informal meetings with your management team (assuming your management team, like ours, has the capacity to recognize how valuable experiences like this can be to the agency). Get them to other conferences. Perhaps they can represent your organization at Police Week in Washington, D.C. The bottom line is that you need to find ways to activate them.

Look, none of this is science. But with respect to succession planning, I would encourage you to begin identifying potential leaders and getting them engaged — and the sooner the better. As for our vice president and his concerns after that phone call with the councilmember, that was almost a year ago now. He was hung up on the political realities local LEO labor leaders must navigate. But since we prepared early, we had time to sort things out, and he’s now a whiz at politics.

As retirement begins to creep up on me this year, I view it not as a sunset but as the brilliant dawning of new and exciting opportunities — opportunities that will be on the receiving end of my full focus, with no concern about the future of our LEO labor organization (hit me up and I’ll fill you in). You see, we started early and got the right guy identified. He’s ready, and I can’t wait to see what he’s going to build smack dab on top of the foundation I’ve helped set. It’s going to be grand!