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Write It Down
I was driving home from work when a retired general on The Art of Manliness podcast described a briefing he sat through in 1991. Mark Hertling was an Army major in Germany with two boys at home, ten and seven, and he was told his cavalry squadron could take casualties...
Side by Side
We were sitting at a fire, and nobody was talking. We both knew there was hardship there, and neither of us was saying anything about it. Then, with tears streaming down his face, all the weight he had been carrying opened up and came out. Nobody had asked him how he...
Skating Isn’t Hockey – Jumping from Officer to Sergeant
There is a particular kind of embarrassment in having a wide open net in front of you and not being able to score. I know it well. I started playing hockey at 43. I never played growing up. I rollerbladed in the nineties, but never hockey, so when I finally stepped on...
Staffing Came Back. Experience Didn’t.
Everyone bracing for a young department to fail is watching the wrong place. They are watching the street, and the street is fine. The failure, when it comes, shows up in a case file somebody else opens about nine days later. Chuck Wexler sent PERF's members their...
Silence is Not Agreement
Watch the room the next time you roll out a decision. If every head is nodding, you have a problem. People who believe in an idea do not nod at it. They speak up, they add to it, they start solving for it before you finish the sentence. Nodding is what a room does...
The Staffing Crisis Is Quietly Promoting People Who Aren’t Ready
The number everyone quotes is one in ten. American policing is running at about 91 percent of authorized staffing, and almost every conversation about that number turns into a recruiting conversation. The conversation nobody schedules is about what the shortage is...
Overtime Is a Bridge. We Made It a Foundation.
In most departments, the worst news in policing is not delivered by the chief. It is delivered by a shift sergeant walking toward an officer who has already worked a full tour, to tell them they are not going home. Ask front line supervisors to name the hardest part...
Who Actually Runs the Police Department? What Does the Charter Say?
In the early months of the pandemic, law enforcement officers around this country were told, in everything but writing, to stop being cops. The order did not come from their chiefs. It came from the politics above their chiefs, and the crime rates that followed told...
A Hiring Bonus Is a Press Release. A Longevity Step Is a Policy.
Just after the pandemic, my agency put up a five thousand dollar hiring bonus. The veterans read that flyer the way veterans read everything, carefully and personally. By the end of the week the hallway question was the same everywhere: where is ours? Nobody was...
You Can’t Hold Someone Accountable. You Can Only Make It Safe Enough for Them to Choose It.
I once took over a unit that was slipping, and I tightened everything. More check-ins, more reporting, more eyes on the numbers, a standard I could measure against, and a way to track it daily. I called it accountability, and for a few weeks it looked like it was...
I am the Fix-It Father
My kid was working on a craft project at the kitchen table the other night. He was struggling with how much glue to use and where to put it. Naturally, seeing his frustration grow and fearing the mess that would likely ensue, I took over. I had the glue placed, the...
Leading the People Who Trained You
You don't earn a veteran's respect by proving you belong. You earn it by proving you don't need to. The week I was promoted to sergeant, I had seven years in the division. The senior trooper at my post had almost thirty. They had almost as much time on the job...
Build It So It Can Run Without You
The text came in at 6:40 on a Tuesday. A deputy one hundred miles away wanted to know if there was still a seat on the June trip, and the answer lived in exactly one place. My own head. Not a shared calendar. Not a second person who could have handled it in ten...
Loneliness at the Top
In 1991, a journalist named John Byrne gave a phenomenon a name: CEO-Disease. This phenomenon is exactly why it feels lonely at the top. It describes the information vacuum that forms around a leader when subordinates learn, through experience or observation, that...
The Smallest Unit of Change
Anne Frank wrote, "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." She wrote that hiding in an attic. Thirteen years old. Surrounded by genocide. Her instinct wasn't to wait for rescue or permission. It was to start....
The Three Things You Need to Unlearn Before You Can Lead
There's a quote attributed to Alvin Toffler — the futurist, not a general or a CEO — that landed on me years ago and never left: "The illiterate of the twenty-first century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."...
Listen to the Wind – Use Stillness as a Weapon
How often does a man stop to listen to the wind? Truly stop—not as a pause between obligations, but as an act of attention. The soul benefits from stillness, yet stillness has become rare. The calendar pulls at us relentlessly, its weight disguised as productivity. We...
The Apology We Should Never Make
Recently, I stood in front of a room full of newly graduated law enforcement officers to speak about standards—what they are, why they matter, and how they quietly define the profession long before policy manuals ever do. These were men and women at the beginning of...
They Told You to Slow Down. They Were Wrong.
“If you keep working that hard, you’re making us look bad.” I’ve heard that line too many times. And recently, I was stunned to hear it again—from a group of brand-new law enforcement graduates. Two decades later, the same tired mindset is still making the rounds:...
Small Lessons in the Mundane
There’s a lesson buried in the small moments of our lives. Often it goes unnoticed. We move through our days on autopilot—steady, predictable, and safe. We find comfort in the status quo. The same drive to work. The same order from Starbucks. The same routines that...
The War on Attention and the Need for Stillness
Every week, I send a message to my teams letting them know I’ll be offline for about two hours. During that time, I turn my phone off, lace up my skates, and play in a weekly hockey league. To some, it may sound silly. But for me, it’s sacred time. Time without the...
How You Play the Game: Why Character Beats the Scoreboard in Professional Life
“It’s not whether you win or lose—it’s how you play the game.”We all heard it growing up. On dusty ballfields, in echoing gymnasiums, and during locker room pep talks, that phrase shaped our earliest ideas of success. Effort mattered more than outcome. Grit mattered...
From Titan to Tombstone: Why Companies Die When Leaders Do Nothing
Leadership is not measured by titles or tenure. It’s measured by movement. And when that movement stops—so does relevance. Companies don’t die overnight. They rot slowly, from the inside out. Not because of one bad decision, but because of no decision at all. Not...
Stagnation Is a Choice: Why Public Safety Leaders Must Grow or Step Aside
Leadership is not a milestone you reach and rest on. It’s a standard you uphold every day. And in public safety, where decisions carry weight and consequences, that standard must be relentlessly sharpened. The problem is, too many leaders quietly stop growing. Not...
No Great Team Ignores the Fundamentals—Why Should You?
Every championship team shares one thing in common: they live and die by the fundamentals. No flashy tactic ever replaces flawless footwork, clean execution, and relentless discipline. In law enforcement, it’s no different. Success on the street starts with discipline...
Accountability Is Not a Punishment — It’s the Guardrail That Keeps Your Team on Track
We’ve been getting accountability wrong. In too many workplaces, “holding someone accountable” is code for punishing them. That’s not accountability — that’s discipline. And they’re not the same thing. What Accountability Really Means Real accountability is proactive,...
Checkpoint Me
Leadership isn’t about being everywhere. It’s about knowing when to show up. There was a time when I thought being CC’d on everything was good leadership. I wanted visibility. I wanted to stay in the loop. I wanted to make sure nothing slipped through the cracks. But...
What Motorcycling Taught Me About Command
Everyone talks about “command presence.” But what does it actually look like in the real world—outside of a classroom or crisis? You don’t need to ride a motorcycle to understand this. The road just happens to be where I learned one of my most valuable lessons in...
You Don’t Have to Lose it to Love It.
We talk a lot about burnout. We don’t talk enough about what we still have. You’re in the middle of something meaningful. But I’ve seen enough people walk away from the job—some by choice, others not—and almost all of them wish they’d appreciated it sooner. Not the...
Culture isn’t a Committee
In law enforcement, we tend to treat “culture” like it’s something abstract. A concept we assign to HR, address in an annual training, or delegate down the chain of command. Throw in a few laminated value cards, a mission statement on the wall, and check the box....
Want to Move Fast? Ride a Motorcycle—Slowly
The wind cuts across my neck as I lean into a curve, throttle steady, mind quiet. This is where I do my best thinking—inside a helmet, on the road. There’s a lot the world can teach you from the seat of a motorcycle—if you’re willing to listen. From understanding your...
The Subtle Art of Self-Sabotage
We are saboteurs by nature. Not rebels against a monarchy or an empire—but disruptors in our lives. Each day presents small, quiet moments with the potential to nudge us forward—personally, professionally, or creatively. Yet these opportunities often slip past us...
Are You Busy or Are You Productive?
As I walked through the convention center hallway, the cloud of dust in the air sent my sinuses into a frenzy. The noise of a banging hammer and the whirl of a drill told me what I hadn’t yet seen: this was a construction zone. The building was undergoing massive...
The Ride.
There is a kind of freedom that those who experience it know intimately. It is the union of man and machine, man and earth, man and himself. It is a freedom that cannot be replaced or replicated by any other means—the freedom of solo riding a motorcycle. The wind...
Find Your Passion—And Be Willing to Suffer for It
If you do something, let it be rooted in passion. But understand this: Passion, at its core, stems from a word that means suffering. So ask yourself—what are you willing to suffer for? For some, it's enduring months of grueling training to cross the finish line of a...
The ‘Go-To’ Danger
I’ve seen multiple organizations unintentionally hinder their own growth. A high-performance culture pushes some to succeed—while pushing others straight to burnout. In the race to rise to the top, there’s a hidden danger lurking behind success: the ‘go-to’ person....
The Art of Quiet Ambition: Why You Need to Ignore the Noise
"Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom."-Lao Tzu "It is through wonder that men now begin and originally began to philosophize." - Aristotle Lao Tzu highlights that true wisdom comes from self-awareness rather than external...
The Case Against Experience
Every job seeker knows the frustration: you find an entry-level job posting that sounds perfect—until you see those dreaded words: “1–2 years of experience required.” We’ve all been there. Whether as a recent grad or someone new to an industry, you hit a wall that...
How to Strengthen Relationships by Applying Leadership Principles in Everyday Life
Matshona Dhliwayo once said, “An archer must never blame the target for missing it.” It’s a simple but powerful idea. It reminds us to look at our actions and choices instead of blaming others when things don’t go as planned. Too often, we take good advice and put it...
The Hats We Wear: A Commitment to Service
We wear many hats throughout our lives. Some of these hats are roles we choose, while others are roles that choose us. I see myself as a husband and father—a guardian; a hiker and non-profit founder—a healer; a trooper—a protector; and a writer and musician—a creator....
Using Empathy
I called to talk about business. As I usually do. When I called, I had my agenda of things I needed to discuss. There is a pressing issue that needs to be addressed. As a man not keen on wasting others' time, I immediately dispensed with the formal pleasantries and...
A Simple Way to Lead Your Team
Leadership is about creating environments where people can thrive—not just as employees but as individuals. Yet, in today’s always-on work culture, we often forget the most straightforward truth: people need space to breathe, connect, and grow. That’s why I believe...
Letting Go for Increased Performance
In leadership circles, high performers often share a common hesitation: the fear of delegation. To these driven individuals, handing over a task may feel like relinquishing control or compromising quality. But what if we shifted this mindset to see delegation not as a...
The Leadership Tax of Turning a Blind Eye
Ever notice how life's lessons sometimes come from the most ordinary places? Recently, I read Seth Godin's blog about his take on car dents. You know the scenario - you get a massive dent in your car, and there's no question about what to do. You're at the body shop...
Why Does Your Company Exist?
Have you ever thought about why your organization exists? It may seem like an odd question, but it’s a vital one. Just ask Satya Nedella, CEO of Microsoft. The moment he took charge, he posed this question to his team not just for introspection but as a fascinating...
Rethinking Leadership Development for Entrepreneurs and Executives
Whether you're an entrepreneur, a seasoned executive, or a leader in public safety, understanding how to cultivate leadership skills internally can be the one competitive advantage you are missing. I remember years ago touring The Ohio State University's football...
Unmasking Your Inner Demons
We talk about ghosts. Not the past. Not our departed friends, family, or loved ones. But, the ghosts we create in our minds. The little goblins that give us doubt. They suck the joy away from us. They make us overthink. Ghosts stop us from living. Full stop. The only...
Be a Better Leader and Parent.
I've posted here about my journey as a parent. At the time of writing this (July 2024), my little ones are still toddlers. I truly believe that having them has made me a better person. But what makes a great leader? Is it their ability to inspire a team or their knack...