The NJ Police Chief Magazine Volume 23, Number 5 | Page 30
The New Jersey Police Chief Magazine | May 2017
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Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu.
How do we do that then? How are our teams led to believe they did it themselves? Through pure coaching, that is, don’t give
them the answers! Sounds harsh, but listen, all coaching needs to do is to remove the “critical internal dialogue” that is going on
inside everyone’s head (W. Timothy Gallwey calls this the Self 1 in his book The Inner Game of Tennis), and so maximise the
natural potential inherent in them (Gallwey calls this the Self 2) by removing interference from Self 1.
During this session, participants had the opportunity to try pure coaching skills through q uestions only. We even tried coaching
“blind” to great effect, revealing that you do not really need to know the subject matter to coach properly. You can see this
reflected in many sporting coaches who have never played the game to a high level. Some commented that they quickly realised
through coaching that the subject matter wasn’t as important as they thought it was, and others quickly designed an action plan
on the back of the session.
One observation that struck me, though, was that some participants were concerned about some things they could not
“‘control” (does this sound familiar?). Here we go again, back to the 5 strings. I think it is prudent to remind people what Dr
Stephen Covey says in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective Leaders. If it is outside of your “control,” don’t worry about it, and
concentrate solely on areas within your circle of influence. No amount of worrying ever changed anything.
Pure coaching, if carried out within certain guidelines, can be very powerful, and always remember to have a “contract” with your
coachee, and ensure you both understand what level of confidentiality you are going to adhere to. To ask the right questions
during coaching, you could do worse than refer to Max Landsbergs book, The Tao of Coaching.
That was the end of Day One of the Executive Institute. I am sure everyone was still reeling from the sucker punch delivered by
Chief Williams, but hopefully they had some tools in their tool box now to address those issues.
Day Two, and delegates were introduced to issues around substance
abuse by our friend Doug Collier, formerly a Special Agent with the US
Drug Enforcement Administration, now with the NJ Division of Criminal
Justice. Doug showed us some stark figures – certain drugs, heroin
and prescription opioids in particular, were causing overdose deaths
escalating at a critical rate. Mirroring these figures, Doug explained
that teenage attitudes towards those drugs is a troubling trend.
What’s more, heroin has been replaced by an even deadlier drug,
where just 2 milligrams (about the size of a pinch of salt) may kill
those who dabble. The replacement drug is cheap, it’s synthetic, and
so technically there could be a never ending supply. The drug name?
Fentanyl. Not something I had come across in England, but no doubt
our National Crime Agency have it high on their radar. But if NJ law
enforcement are exposed to this on a daily basis, is it any wonder
officers are becoming more cynical and less trusting – and here we go
again.
Fortunately for law enforcement in NJ there are 17 regional coalitions targeting prevention under the New Jersey Prevention
Network (njpn.org). This is ‘partnership engagement’ along the same lines of employee engagement, and benefits can be realised
across the board. Good leaders foster good partnerships.
Doug also told us about the CLEAR (Community-Law Enforcement Affirmative Relations) Continuing Education Institute. Created
by AG Directive 2016 -5, it requires every sworn officer employed on a full or part-time basis law enforcement agency to take
continuing education courses (over and above mandatory training that is already in existence.)
Please bear with me a minute whilst I jump to Day Three of the course, when Gordon Graham spoke about Risk Management
Rule No. 5: training has to be continuous. This rule nicely meets the need and Gordon Graham is convinced that lifelong learning
is something that should be done each and every day otherwise you are going to have “problems lying in wait” – more on that
later.
On the subject of training, we were then given an overview of Leadership Principles from the US Military Academy at West Point.
Their mission: ‘to educate, train, and inspire the corps of cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character,
committed to the values of duty, honor and country, and committed to professional growth throughout a career as an officer in
the US Army and a lifetime of selfless service to the nation’.
This all sounds very familiar territory. Let me take you back to our own law enforcement recruits again. This is probably how they
start in the department, but Chief Williams says it doesn’t take long for them to change.
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