Lesson Learned: Leaving a Positive and Lasting Impact on Others

One of the many lessons I learned during my three decades in policing is that regardless of rank, position, or title held, a person can have a positive and lasting impact on other people in an organization. Officers who are willing to listen to others with an empathic ear when needed, or willing to pay attention to the struggles and challenges of other officers, can position themselves as valuable resources, and in doing so, leave a positive and lasting impact that can change the trajectory of career or maybe even save a career!

Policing is a very tough profession, and newer officers are often not prepared for the cultures they encounter within and outside of the organization, nor are they prepared for the demands and stress policing can place on their personal lives, which in turn can result in challenges adapting to their new career. As newer officer, I had a difficult time adapting to the internal culture that existed during the mid to late 1980’s.

Challenging co-workers

I am an introvert by nature. As a new officer, I was quiet and listened intently to senior officers to learn “the job.” Because I was quiet, it made some of the more senior officers uncomfortable. I had heard many complaints about new police officers acting like “know-it-alls,” and I did not want that to be me. I had some challenging nights working with senior officers who were rude and condescending. In this article I highlight three of those incidents (below). Because of these incidents and others, I contemplated resigning several times during my first year.

1.    A Senior officer I was assigned to work with angerly told me he did not want to work with me but was “stuck” with me for the night because his regular partner had called in sick! Nothing like building the self-confidence of a new officer. 

2.    I already had a few months on the job when I overheard a senior officer telling another officer that although I performed my duties competently, he did not trust me because I was too quiet. What I felt were positive traits of being quiet, listening, and learning actually bothered some officers, which made me rethink whether policing was the career for me. I contemplated resigning several times during my first year.

3.    With about 6 months on the job, my partner for the night, a senior officer I had not previously worked with, yelled and swore at me for driving the squad car one block out of the city in an area which I was not familiar with. That could have been a teachable moment had that officer provided me with guidance instead of releasing a torrent of unnecessary anger. It made me feel small and incompetent.

Caring co-workers

Not all the officers on my shift were as unfriendly as the examples above. The turning point for me was during a midnight shift when I assigned for the first time with a particular senior officer. The dispatcher sent us to a family trouble call. The senior officer told me to take the lead interviewing the husband. As I did so, he stood by and listened to me conduct the interview and offer my advice to the husband on how to resolve the situation for that night. The man complimented me and told me he appreciated my good advice and agreed to accept it. My partner, overhearing this, said, “He’s really good for a new officer.” When we got back in the squad car, my partner provided additional positive feedback. I felt like I was on cloud nine! I remember that sentence word for word more than 33 years later. That single sentence left a positive impact on me and gave me the boost in self-confidence I needed to become a capable and trusted police officer. Just a few words from one cop to another! However, they were powerful, career changing words that left a positive and lasting impact on me.

The years that followed were mostly good, but I went through a rough period professionally with about four years on the job and was possibly headed toward career disaster when another officer took note and courageously confronted me with his observations, offering his assistance, which I reluctantly accepted. He turned out to be an excellent resource for me to share with, learn from, and rely on for confidential conversations, becoming a valued and trusted friend. Again, this officer left a positive impact on me and my career, likely saving my job, simply by taking the time to invest in me. That was a second turning point for me, and the one that set me on my career path from police officer to assistant chief.

Career journey

My career was undoubtedly a journey! From rookie cop to assistant chief, a role I held for nearly ten years before retiring. I worked hard to embrace the lessons learned in my early career as an officer, as I moved up the supervisory chain-of-command. 

I tried to always keep in mind that I, too, could have a lasting and positive impact on people and their careers. All I had to do was follow the examples of those officers who took the time to invest in me as a person and cop, offering me valuable and self-confidence boosting advice and mentorship that lasted an entire career. Moreover, by doing so, my desire was that others would learn from me and in turn, do the same for other officers. My conscientious decision to follow the positive examples resulted in several informal successful mentor/mentee relationships of my own.

Conclusion

I encourage all officers, regardless of rank, to remember where they came from (their policing roots) and to remember that everybody has a unique life’s journey. People are at different phases and places in their lives when they enter the police profession and can experience challenges and stressful situations, both personally and professionally throughout their career. Keeping this in mind is essential to understanding and knowing how to be an asset to other officers who may be in a difficult or challenging situation and in need of that one person to listen to them, understand them, and help set them on a path toward career success instead of a path toward career destruction.

A police organization need not have a formal mentorship program for senior officers and supervisors to take newer officers or even established officers under their wings to mentor them and be a resource for career growth and development. You never know, you may leave a career changing, profound, and lasting impact on another officer, just as I had left on me! And for me, that meant the difference between career success and career destruction!