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PLR Newsletter - July 2007

This month’s newsletter focuses on the role of respect in your workplace relationships and honors the work of Washington state professionals in law enforcement and corrections. Featured leader Captain Randy Barnes shares his insight into creating a progressive, values-centered workplace.

Have you had an opportunity to take the popular, effective Influencing Skills class within your organization? Know someone who hasn’t had a chance to take it yet? Upcoming events in the Seattle include an open-enrollment Influencing Skills class. Click here (insert link to e-mail) to find out more information. Make sure and check out next month’s newsletter--all about FUN!

Happy Summer!

Libby's Articles

"R-E-S-P-E-C-T . . . find out what it means to me!":

6 Ways to Impact the Respect-Factor at Work

Certainly, Aretha Franklin's song is one of the most recognized in American pop culture. You can hardly resist singing along, no matter who you are. And, like the song, most people will tell you that they value respect, deserve respect, and hold respect as one of their top 5 most important values. Most organizations will list respect as one of their core values or principles, whether it's used as a verb--as in "we respect diversity; we respect our customers"--or whether it’s used as a noun--as in "respect, honor, courage.”

Respect in the workplace is a key component of meeting organizational goals--typically related to customer service, retention, profits, productivity, innovation, morale, creativity, etc. I haven’t met anyone yet who's suggested that working in a respect-free workplace is on their list of priorities for choosing a job. Everybody, I mean everybody, wants respect. And this isn't just about being nice or wearing some politically correct t-shirt--we know that when a work environment has evidence of high levels of respect (along with the rest of the Four Core Dimensions--empathy, specificity and genuineness), chances are good that the environment will support high levels of productivity, trust and morale--all the good stuff we want our organizations to embody for success.

Isn't respect something you have to earn? Shouldn't you have to do something, exhibit consistent behaviors over time, in order to gain my respect? Isn't respect something I choose to give you if I deem you worthy of it?
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Leader Profile: Captain Randy Barnes

If you go just about anywhere in Washington state in law enforcement, people have heard of Randy Barnes from Richland Police Department, located in the Tri-Cities area. Randy, who's spent 25 years in patrol, chose law enforcement as a profession because he wanted to do work that was "meaningful, necessary and exciting." He always thought he'd enjoy a leadership role, so that was a goal from the beginning of his career. He's been a mentor, instructor, and role model for hundreds of officers throughout his career and every time I've been in a conversation with others about him, the general response is, "he's great!" (I really do mean every time!) I could make this profile really short and just say this: if I were to choose a career in law enforcement (and you're happy I don't; trust me!), I would work for Randy Barnes.

Randy possesses qualities and talents of many great leaders with whom I get to work--vision, integrity, humility, self-confidence--and he also stands out among many of the leaders who choose to work in public service. This is not a criticism of public service leaders per se, but because of the nature of public funding, electoral results, and often inefficient bureaucracies, leaders who choose this work face particular challenges to get things done. Randy is the kind of person who refuses to see those elements as insurmountable obstacles and believes that when an organization, any organization, can achieve the sublime state of "organizational alignment"--clear vision/mission/values, high standards for excellence, every person's understanding that every action, reaction and decision needs to line up with the over-arching organizational purpose--just about anything is possible.

And, he's not buying the notion that just because you work for the public or the government that mediocrity is the standard and minimum competency is okay--"when an organization is healthy, people strive for excellence." Richland P.D.'s (Visit Web Site  ) values--teamwork, integrity, excellence--are a living, breathing part of the department’s work. Randy's colleagues--Captains Mike Cobb and Al Wehner and Chief Tony Corsi--strive to embody these values in all of their interactions with their officers, staff, community and clientele. The mission and values are always a "reference point" for everything they do, including interviews, evaluations, decision making and problem solving. This is the antithesis of leaders who labor over the semantic gymnastics often required to develop mission/vision/values only to find themselves exhausted and sick of even talking about it, and then it sits dusty on some shelf or engraved on some plaque in the lobby.

Of leaders, Randy says that most people want to do the right thing, but sometimes they don’t know how. "Remember, it’s not about you--our customers are the recipients of our leadership. We need them to help us meet our mission," he says. Good, effective leaders need to be wiling to have courage, humility and the commitment to self-examination. Often what happens is that leaders at the top will make decisions based on expediency when most decisions need to be made in collaboration. "Leaders should make decisions regarding the concept and empower those who do the work to make the detail decisions."

Leadership is a partnership, too. At Richland PD, Randy says there's "no excuse not to get clarity." All top leaders make themselves available for questions or information and sometimes it takes courage to take the risk to ask, but that's part of the partnership. As well, leaders need to take the first step in gaining trust by giving trust--they need to lead in terms of their behavior and actions, not just words.

It's no wonder that many other leaders in law enforcement seek Randy's advice and expertise. He's given countless volunteer hours to his leadership instruction at the Criminal Justice Training Commission (Visit Web Site  ) and often works one-on-one with departments who are working toward organizational alignment and cultural change. I, for one, am grateful for such an excellent role model for hundreds of officers in whom we place our safety and trust. Thanks, Randy!

Resource Review

Look for a good book on leadership lately?

Frankly, the shelves of my local bookstore and any big chain like Barnes & Noble are pretty daunting. And sometimes it seems like everyone is saying the same thing (they often are). When I'm choosing leadership books to read, I might go on recommendation, I might choose my favorite authors to see if they’ve discovered anything new to share. Recently, I finished Why Leaders Can’t Lead by Warren Bennis, which was a provoking look at how some of our cultural and societal systems actually inhibit smart people with good intentions from leading effectively. Surprisingly, it was both bleak and hopeful--the good paradox. It’s not a "how to" book, and I think it’s worth checking out if you are at all interested in some of the things that can stand in our way. Additionally, if you ask experienced managers and leaders to recommend a "good book on leadership," you may often receive a similar response: "Get Drucker." Recently, a friend sent me a copy of Peter Drucker's The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done. I'm not sure how I had missed reading this book, since he really was the guru of all things management. The slim volume (less than 200 pages) focuses on two primary concepts: 1) the executive's job is to be effective and 2) effectiveness can be learned. The book is part philosophy, part "how to" and I loved his simple, impactful wisdom: "take responsibility for decisions," "take responsibility for communicating," "focus on opportunities," "make meetings productive," etc. Check it out!!

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