Blue Canary: For Cops By a Cop - Challenging Leadership with Dr. Jack Enter

Challenging Leadership with Dr. Jack Enter

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06/19/24 • 53 min

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Blue Canary: For Cops By a Cop

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I had been a sergeant for about 6 years before my agency sent me to my very first leadership class. I didn’t know what to expect and honestly, I thought it was going to be a waste of time. I mean I had been an informal leader on night shift for years as the old guy and the FTO. When they promoted me to sergeant, they obviously didn’t think leadership was important because they didn’t bother to send me to any training. So, I wasn’t very interested.

This story could have had a very different ending, but the leadership training they did send me to was put on by Bill Westfall.

Bill Westfall is an amazing instructor and one that really lit the fire under me to be an effective leader.

Since then, I began reading every leadership book I could get my hands on, from historical works to books by business leaders. I also took as many leadership classes as I could find, a few of them I took on my own dime and my own time.

So, when I tell you my guest on this episode is one of the very best teachers in leadership,

I’m not kidding.

Jack Enter has been associated with the field of criminal justice since 1972 when he began his career as a law enforcement officer. Since that time, he has worked as a street police officer, detective, vice/narcotics investigator, manager, and as the administrator of a law enforcement agency in the suburbs of Atlanta. Jack obtained his Ph.D. in 1984 and has served as a professor and administrator in the university setting and served as one of the planners of the security component of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. He has lectured throughout the United States and abroad on Leadership as well as Profiling Interpersonal Violence and The Future of Crime and Policing. He has authored two books Challenging the Law Enforcement Organization (2006; Revised 2022) and Law Enforcement Leadership in the Midst of Change (2022).

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This story could have had a very different ending, but the leadership training they did send me to was put on by Bill Westfall.

Bill Westfall is an amazing instructor and one that really lit the fire under me to be an effective leader.

So, when I tell you my guest on this episode is one of the very best teachers in leadership,

I’m not kidding.

Previous Episode

School of Hard Knocks

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Leadership Journeys.

You are going to hear me talk a lot about leadership journeys this season.

What do I mean about leadership journeys? It’s how I describe the process of growing as a leader, of taking on formal and informal responsibilities and about not only learning the process of leadership, but embracing it as well.

I decided the best way to start this season off was to talk you through my leadership journey, and no it wasn’t very pretty.

Many of you out there have had the pleasure of having a mentor or role model for your leadership journey. I had none.

Ok, so that isn’t entirely true, I have found out while preparing for this season that we all have guides on our leadership journey, they just might not be formal ones and maybe we didn’t recognize them for what they were.

You see in my law enforcement career I had very few, and I mean very few positive formal role models. The supervisors and leaders that I had throughout my 30-year career in law enforcement were terrible. But I learned from them. I mostly learned what not to do.

What not to do.

That can be a powerful teacher.

Next Episode

Fear is the Mind Killer

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Fear is the Mind Killer,

That statement is as relevant today as it was in 1965 when Frank Hubert published his novel Dune.

Paul Atraides, the main character in Dune, quotes from the Litany of Fear in the first chapter of the book. The entire quote is;

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

The quote is designed to help you focus through your fear. It recognizes that fear will happen, that you will be scared, but you must not let that fear define you, or rule you. You must concentrate through the fear and let your reason win. It also acknowledges that fear will pass and you will have to live with the actions and consequences of your decisions once it is gone.

The number one enemy to effective leadership is fear.

Fear is why we fail

Fear is why our people fail

Fear is why or organizations fails

We let fear guide our decisions, we let fear dictate our responses and we let fear paralyze us from taking action.