Courageous Leader BLUEprint® – 24th edition

Welcome back leaders!

This is the 24th edition of our Courageous Leader BLUEprint® newsletter. 

Every three weeks, you’ll get quick, thoughtful leadership insights without the fluff.

Read time: less than 10 minutes

This edition of the Courageous Leader BLUEprint® will focus on authenticity. 

Authenticity has become increasingly important in leadership.

If you missed the first newsletter on authenticity, it’s worth checking out. You can find it here. 

In the first edition, we covered why some leaders struggle to be authentic, why authenticity matters, and how to become a more authentic leader.

In this edition, I’d like to share the story about how I learned the importance of authenticity and give you the keys that helped me as a new leader.

Keep in mind, I did not come up with all this on my own. 

I’m grateful for all the mentors I’ve had who helped me get out of my own way.

This is a story I’ve shared many times with new leaders because of what it taught me about authenticity.

Now I’m sharing it with you.

When I became a formal leader, it was a promotion from police officer to police sergeant.

And I was given a gift.

Shortly after promoting, I was assigned to lead a tenured crew of officers. Each of the officers on the crew had roughly 20-30 years of experience as a police officer.

I had 5 years of experience and only 2 with that agency.

And I was 30 years old, meaning that I was now supervising some people who had as many years of experience in the field as I had in life.

They were skeptical, and rightly so.

Here were several keys to my approach that helped demonstrate authenticity:

Acknowledge their experience

In that first briefing, I asked for their help.

I explained that I realized I was a new sergeant leading a tenured group of people who knew what they were doing, and that I was counting on them to help me become a good leader.

Instead of asserting authority and claiming I knew everything, I asked them to become partners in my growth, while also promising to show up for them.

Show up consistently

Rather than staying in the office (which I could have done most days), I went out and looked for ways to help.

I would find opportunities to take minor tasks off their plate from time to time so they could have a break – we were busy and their break was never guaranteed.

Showing up consistently is different than micromanaging. I was there to help them and learn from them, not interfere or force them to do things my way if their way worked just as well.

Showing up consistently can be tough, especially when you’re having a bad day. People do not want to work for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde because they don’t know what kind of leader they are going to get from day to day. Showing up consistently means giving your best to people every day – even on the hard days.

Care about them as people

I’m admittedly a task-oriented person by nature, so I knew I’d have to be very intentional about cultivating relationships. I scheduled times to have coffee, lunch, or just meet in the field to talk.

In our leadership programs, we preach “you cannot lead a stranger” – so true. I got to know them as people – I learned about their families, what they did in their time off, what career goals they were working on, etc.

Caring about people and getting to know them as individuals builds social capital. It helps humanize each person in the relationship.

Set high standards that help them tap into their potential

For the most part, people genuinely want to do a good job and grow into their potential.

When people know you genuinely care about their individual success, as well as the team’s success, they are more motivated to accomplish goals.

This crew’s productivity skyrocketed, so much so that they received an award from the Chief.

Side note – the awards ceremony was on our day off, and our whole chain of command came to our next briefing at 7 am to give them the award in person. That was pretty cool.

Show genuine appreciation

Aside from the formal recognition they received from the Chief, I regularly looked for opportunities to say thank you for specific contributions.

Many of these officers had worked for leaders who had the belief “If you’re not hearing from me, you’re doing a good job.”

Sound familiar?

We have a different mantra – catch people doing things right and let them know you appreciate it. Don’t just say “Good job.” Be specific about what you saw and explain why what they did matters.

When people know their leader is watching and recognizing their positive contributions, they are more motivated to do more of those positive things.

This is the approach I took with a group of experienced people, but the concepts hold true for any group you lead.

Years later, I received a phone call from one of the officers from that crew.

He had since retired and I had moved on to start Blue Lion Leadership.

He confirmed that the crew was very skeptical about me initially.

He said they weren’t necessarily rooting for me to fail, but essentially told me that the crew would have made my life tougher if I gave them the chance.

Then he said – you never gave us that chance.

He told me that in his 40-year career, I was one of the three best sergeants he ever had.

Now, the competitive part of me wanted to be #1, but I’ll take top 3 out of 40 years.

As leaders, sometimes there is this expectation that you’re supposed to have it all figured out.

Authentic leadership requires that you continuously grow, but to be truly authentic you must acknowledge where you are in your growth journey.

You don’t have to pretend to be something that you’re not.

You don’t have to pretend to know everything.

Instead of manufacturing authority or friendships, make sure your actions match your words, show appreciation for their expertise and contributions, show up consistently, and show them that you care about their success.

Over time, they’ll learn they can trust you.

Authenticity is demonstrated when the leader people experience consistently matches the leader you say you are.

This week’s courageous choice:

Think about the leader you tell people you want to be.

Then ask yourself – does the leader my people experience match that person?