LEADERS CREATE A VISION
By Robert Vernon
© 2008
One day my training officer, Nick Najera, said, “Most of the
burglaries in our district are committed by heroin addicts. If we
could get them in jail, we would reduce burglaries. Wouldn’t it be
great if we could have a month without any home burglaries?”
Without deliberately following the best of leadership tactics, he
had presented a “vision” to me.
Our department had an enforcement tool that empowered us to arrest
narcotic addicts. That same law also mandated a 90-day jail stay for
those addicts. So, during the next several months, we devoted our
discretionary time to looking for “hypes” (heroin addicts).
We succeeded in arresting nearly 100 addicts. Burglaries dropped
dramatically. Then, the burglary detectives in our district prepared
a commendation for our personnel packages. Admittedly, this had not
been a sophisticated or formal vision. This simple “vision,”
however, was a powerful tool that motivated, gave direction and
challenged.
Have a Vision
Soon after being appointed assistant chief of police and director of
operations, I realized the need to update our strategic plan. We
selected a group of officers of various ranks representing the
entities of the organization, as well as the five deputy chiefs. The
planning group identified 13 areas which needed improvement.
For this article, I’ll use one of those deficiencies, response time,
as an example. At that time, we averaged 12 minutes to respond to
911 emergency calls for service—much too long.
Develop the Vision
Over the next several months, our planning team held 13,
single-purpose, all-day meetings, addressing each of our
deficiencies individually. Team members were given research
materials to read in preparation for each meeting. For the session
addressing our poor response time, each team member had been given
articles and other materials describing what other agencies had done
to improve their response times. We were loaded for bear.
The day
was productive. The end plans were good because many minds
collaborated in their development. We developed policies, strategies
and tactics designed to reduce our average response time to seven
minutes. This goal was a consensus reached by the field officers
responsible for achieving this specific goal.
Share the Vision
The next job was to get these plans disseminated throughout the
department. A great plan is worthless if it’s not communicated
effectively. Officers at every level within the organization must
understand the purpose and benefits of achieving each goal. They
must also be equipped to implement the plans through training and
preparation. Simply giving direction without securing commitment to
the vision will not work.
For example, our officers had to have a strong desire, coupled with
the techniques and organization necessary, to achieve our response
time goal. In our case, it took a combination of presentations,
training, discussions and one-on-one meetings. Typically,
insufficient time and effort is devoted to this difficult step in
visionary leadership.
Retain the Focus
Providing timely data on a goal’s progress is a very important
component of this part of visionary leadership. Commanding officers
and supervisors were encouraged to use their creativity.
Keeping with our response time example, the staff at a district
station prepared and placed an innovative poster at the roll call
room’s exit door. The poster had a giant clock with the seven
minutes before midnight shaded in red with the phrase “stop the
clock.” This consistent reminder, along with our newly developed
strategies, helped them reach the response time goal in less than 30
days.
Vision in Motion
Here are some tips that can help you use vision in your leadership.
1. Vision makes the future. It does not predict or anticipate the future, it creates the future. It describes a desirable state of the organization in the not-too-distant future.
2. Vision sets the standard. It presents a high standard of excellence that the organization is committed to achieve. It describes in some detail the actions and quality of behavior that will deliver desirable results.
3. Vision describes uniqueness. It explains how the organization will “stand out” from similar organizations. It illustrates the ways the members will achieve exceptional results and emerge as setting the standard for the industry or profession.
4. Vision is idealistic. It presents a bold goal worthy to achieve. It calls its members to a noble and meaningful purpose or cause. It is inspiring.
5. Vision in clarifying. It presents specific direction to the members. It is a roadmap or blueprint to ensure all members are working as a team to achieve their goals.
6. Vision is challenging. It motivates members to stretch and go beyond their comfort zone. It dares them to achieve higher levels of accomplishment.
7. Vision is not complex. It is simple enough to be communicated, and yet comprehensive enough to give clear direction and guidance.
Authorities on the subject of leadership recognize that “vision” is one of the essential ingredients of being a successful leader—on point.
Bob Vernon retired from the Los Angeles Police Department after 37 years on the force. He earned an MBA at Pepperdine University and is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s Managerial Policy Institute and the FBI’s National Executive Institute. After retirement, Vernon founded The Pointman Leadership Institute (visit http://pointmanleadership.org), which provides principle-based ethics seminars around the world for police agencies, parliament members, military leaders and a variety of other groups.