7th INTERNATIONAL BIRD FLU SUMMIT

Date: November 13-24, 2008
Location: Las Vegas, NV

Top leaders and key decision-makers of major companies representing a broad range of industries will meet with distinguished scientists, public health officials, law enforcement personnel, first responders, and other experts to discuss pandemic prevention, preparedness, response and recovery at the 7th International Bird Flu Summit.

At the summit, attendees will be able to draw on first-hand best practices to create the solid business continuity plans that their companies and organizations need in order to prepare for, respond to, and survive a pandemic.

The summit draws on the success of the six previous summits which featured as speakers several distinguished personalities such as Dr. David Nabarro, the United Nations Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza, Alex Thiermann of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and Dr. Wenqing Zhang of the WHO Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response.

Well-known emergency responders, heads of hospitals from around the world, and poultry industry leaders also spoke in previous summits. Included in this list are Adolfo García-Sastre of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, John Thompson of the National Sheriff’s Association, Prof. Oleg I. Kiselev of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Anna Thorson of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and Dr. Bruce Stewart-Brown, Vice President of Food Safety and Quality for Perdue Farms.

Topics Include:
Country Report & Situations Update
Surveillance and Data Management
Preparing Communities Strategies; Local Partnership and Participation
Delivery of Vaccine and Antiviral Medication
National Pandemic Influenza Medical Countermeasure
Socio Economic Impact on Poultry Industry
Benefit-risk Assessment: Public Health, Industry and Regulatory Perspectives
Prevention Education Efforts and Risk Communication
Command, Control and Management
Emergency Response Management
Business-Based Planning
School-Based Planning
Community-Based Planning

More Information
http://www.new-fields.com/birdflu7/index.php

Army Leadership

As the keystone leadership manual for the United States Army, FM 6-22 establishes leadership doctrine, the fundamental principles by which Army leaders act to accomplish their mission and care for their people. FM 6-22 applies to officers, warrant officers, noncommissioned officers, and enlisted Soldiers of all Army components, and to Army civilians.

From Soldiers in basic training to newly commissioned officers, new leaders learn how to lead with this manual as a basis. FM 6-22 is prepared under the direction of the Army Chief of Staff. It defines leadership, leadership roles and requirements, and how to develop leadership within the Army. It outlines the levels of leadership as direct, organizational, and strategic, and describes how to lead successfully at each level. It establishes and describes the core leader competencies that facilitate focused feedback, education, training, and development across all leadership levels.

It reiterates the Army Values. FM 6-22 defines how the Warrior Ethos is an integral part of every Soldier’s life. It incorporates the leadership qualities of self-awareness and adaptability and describes their critical impact on acquiring additional knowledge and improving in the core leader competencies while operating in constantly changing operational environments.

In line with evolving Army doctrine, FM 6-22 directly supports the Army’s capstone manuals, FM 1 and FM 3-0, as well as keystone manuals such as FM 5-0, FM 6-0, and FM 7-0. FM 6-22 connects Army doctrine to joint doctrine as expressed in the relevant joint doctrinal publications, JP 1 and JP 3-0. As outlined in FM 1, the Army uses the shorthand expression of BE-KNOW-DO to concentrate on key factors of leadership.

What leaders DO emerges from who they are (BE) and what they KNOW. Leaders are prepared throughout their lifetimes with respect to BE-KNOW-DO so they will be able to act at a moment’s notice and provide leadership for whatever challenge they may face.
FM 6-22 expands on the principles in FM 1 and describes the character attributes and core competencies required of contemporary leaders. Character is based on the attributes central to a leader’s make-up, and competence comes from how character combines with knowledge, skills, and behaviors to result in leadership.

Inextricably linked to the inherent qualities of the Army leader, the concept of BE-KNOW-DO represents specified elements of character, knowledge, and behavior described here in FM 6-22.

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http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/repository/materials/fm6-22.pdf

CAN FEDERAL INTERVENTION BRING LASTING IMPROVEMENT IN LOCAL POLICING?

Ten years ago, Congress gave the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department new powers to sue state and local governments in federal court to correct a “pattern or practice” of police misconduct. Both the Clinton and Bush administrations have used this new power several times: in Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Detroit, the State of New Jersey, Steubenville, Ohio, and Prince Georges County, Maryland, among other jurisdictions.

In Pittsburgh—the first city to enter into a consent decree with the Justice Department— most provisions of the decree were lifted after the Bureau of Police was judged to be in substantial compliance. Pittsburgh, therefore, is the first place we can look to see how the police can satisfy the Justice Department and whether this new kind of federal intervention can make a lasting difference.

To answer those questions, Vera researchers have studied the Pittsburgh Police Bureau since 2001. Both before and after the decree for the Bureau was lifted in 2002, the researchers observed police in field and management settings, interviewed key officials and community leaders, conducted focus groups with police officers, surveyed citizens, reviewed the federal monitor’s reports, and conducted original analyses of police data. In
2003, researchers also surveyed more than 100 front-line officers.

The Vera researchers found that two key factors enabled the city quickly to comply with the terms of the decree: the leadership of a talented police chief and guidance from the federal monitor. The police implemented new systems to track the use of force, traffic stops, and searches; new procedures to hold officers accountable; and new policies and training. Despite recent financial strains, those reforms remain firmly in place today, and both community leaders and citizen surveys reflect significant improvements in service.

The research also reveals the importance of such intervention for minority officers. In Pittsburgh, black officers who quietly criticized how the Bureau operated previously, say they appreciate the new consistency in management. In these respects, Pittsburgh is a success story for local police management and for federal intervention. However, the researchers also found discontent among many front-line police officers and persistent concerns about police misconduct among a sizeable number of citizens. Both black and white officers in Pittsburgh say they believe that tighter management has made police less active and aggressive in fighting crime (although some performance data provided by the Bureau and our citizen survey do not support that belief). The public still lacks a role in the reform process, and citizens do not have access to police data that were given to the monitor under the decree.

There are strong signs a year after most of the decree has been lifted that federal intervention can encourage long-term improvements in police accountability. More engagement of citizens and greater participation of front-line officers might have made a good process even better.

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http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/mime/open.pdf?Item=1454

Boston's Comprehensive Communities

Program: A Case Study, 2004

The Comprehensive Communities Program (CCP) played a pivotal part in Boston’s achievements, most notably by funding an unusually intensive planning process. This planning process brought together the Boston Police Department (BPD), community leaders, citizens, criminal justice agencies, and social service providers in each of Boston’s police districts over an extended period of time during which neighborhood problems were identified and tactics were developed to solve them. This planning process also laid the groundwork for an ongoing accountability process in each of the districts.

To achieve these goals, long-standing suspicions, indeed even antagonisms among participants, had to be overcome and/or managed. While this did not happen overnight, and while the BPD’s and other organizations’ capacities were strained by their new experiences and responsibilities, for the most part, problems were overcome. They were overcome in large part by the self-consciousness of the BPD: that is, by its willingness to learn from its experiences and its attempt to find new ways of solving problems, be they neighborhood or program administration problems.

This case study of Boston’s CCP program was written as a result of site visits made to various CCP programs and interviews with CCP participants between September, 1995 and April, 1997. It also incorporates data from BOTEC’s CCP Coalition Survey and Community Policing Survey, as well as information contained in federal and local documents and reports. Follow-up phone calls were made during December, 1997 and January, 1998, to key participants in order to write the epilogue.

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http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/204680.pdf

Good to Great Policing: Application of Business Management Principles in the Public Sector

In his best-selling book Good to Great, Jim Collins gives business executives advice about how to push their companies from the “merely good” to the rarefied world of greatness. This PERF report explores how the principles of Good to Great might be applied to policing.

It is important to understand that Collins is extremely careful in how he uses the word “great.” His criteria for greatness in business, based on stock market performance, are so stringent that he could find only 11 companies that qualified as great. To make a rough translation of Collins’ principles into the policing environment: A police chief striving for greatness might set a goal of reducing violent crime in his jurisdiction by, say, 50 percent. It would not matter to the chief if crime were going up everywhere else in the country, because great executives do not look for excuses; they look to get things done. And to be truly great, the chief not only would need to meet his target; he would need to ensure that the reduction in crime would be sustained even if he retired.

In Collins’ view, great executives focus their ambition not on personal glory, but on making the organization great, and that includes “setting up their successors for success.”
So Collins has set high standards for greatness. And if greatness in policing can be achieved, it certainly would be a powerful force for good in the world. Good to Great first came to my attention in 2002. I was shuttling back and forth from Washington, D.C., to work with the Chicago Police Department (CPD), and everyone in Chicago seemed to be talking about “getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.” I asked what that meant, and the CPD’s Good to Great fans referred me to the book. They explained that one of Collins’ key findings was that in the companies with the most impressive records of success, executives began their quest for greatness not by setting goals, but by hiring the right people, dismissing those who would thwart change, and finding the best positions for everyone who remained.

Once the right people were on the bus, then the leader and his team began deciding where to direct the bus in order to find greatness. I read Good to Great, was intrigued, and wondered whether the analysis of how to make a business successful could be applied to policing. I tracked Collins down, and he was amazingly approachable for a man who had a book on the nonfiction bestseller lists for months. He invited me out to Boulder and before I knew it, I was on a plane to Colorado. A short time later, I found myself in a Boulder deli with Collins and Milliken, Colorado Chief of Police Jim Burack. What an amazing day we had! Collins was intrigued with how his principles might apply to policing and other parts of government, as well as to nonprofit groups, social service agencies, even churches. While his research was in the field of business, he already was beginning to speculate that the ability to overcome obstacles seemed to be the key to greatness for police executives and other government leaders. (Collins has noted that in some ways, police executives face more obstacles than do business leaders. For example, throwing anyone “off the bus” can be far more difficult for police executives than for many business leaders.)

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http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/files/ric/Publications/good_to_great.pdf

NVAA: Leadership in Victim Services

The study of leadership is recent. Only in the last fifteen years have organizational theorists closely examined qualities of leadership as distinct from qualities of management. Yet throughout history individuals whose actions and accomplishments have inspired people to live honorably, to persevere in personal quests, and to treat others with dignity and respect have been revered. In 1978, James MacGregor Burns, one of the first major theorists on leadership, wrote:

"Leadership is leaders inducing followers to act for certain goals that represent the values and the motivations the wants and needs, the aspirations and expectations of both leaders and followers. And the genius of leadership lies in the manner in which leaders see and act on their own and their followers’ values and motivations."

The role of the modern leader has evolved into a process that involves clearly-defined tangible skills and attributes. The requirements for effective leadership in victim services are developing as rapidly as the discipline itself. In addition to providing leadership in a variety of direct victim assistance programs, victim advocates are heading teams in Attorneys General’s offices, police departments, prosecutors’ offices, and departments of probation and parole. Victim advocates convey their passion and dedication to helping victims to these colleagues some of whom may have little understanding of the cause, may be apathetic towards the mission, or may be nonbelievers.

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http://www.ovc.gov/assist/leadership/files/leadership.pdf

Guard Enlisted Leaders Get Lesson in Nonlethal Weapons

By Army Master Sgt. Bob Haskell
Special to American Forces Press Service

April 29, 2008 - It was 20 times more painful, more debilitating, than any electrical shock she had ever experienced. Yet, a few minutes later, Arkansas National Guard state Command Sgt. Maj. Deborah Collins was walking and talking as normally as if she had never had a shocking encounter with one of the newest weapons available to the National Guard. Collins took part in a demonstration of nonlethal weapons during the National Guard Bureau's first Senior Enlisted Leaders Conference here in mid-April. She let herself be zapped, or "tased," for a single second by a Taser X26, one of the devices the Guard now has for controlling unruly people without badly hurting them.

Nonlethal weapons, the Army Guard's state command sergeants major and the Air Guard's state command chief master sergeants were told, give suitably-trained Guard personnel the ability to protect property after a hurricane or tornado, for example, without resorting to deadly force.

Every state Guard organization now has a nonlethal weapons kit that includes heavy plastic shields, Tasers and weapons that can fire blunt-force rounds and tear-gas grenades designed to control crowds without inflicting serious injuries. The kits are stored in green, mobile containers.

"The policies and practices are still being developed, and our Guard people still need proper training," explained Maj. Tom White from the National Guard Bureau. "All but six states have nonlethal weapons instructors," added White, noting how seriously the Guard is subscribing to this idea of alternative force.

"Under United States law, the National Guard of each state is the only entity that can employ military force in support of civil authorities unless the president declares martial law," the group was reminded.

"These nonlethal weapons are not a substitute for firearms. You don't take a Taser to a gunfight," White observed. "But if they are used early enough, we can prevent the escalation to violence."

Collins discovered that for herself during the very long second that she was tased with the X26.

"I really didn't know what to expect. That's why I wanted to do it. It was immediate, intense pain," she explained. "For that one second, I don't remember anything but that pain. I had no thoughts about anything else. You know how you get shocked sometimes? Multiply that by at least 20 times."

The Taser technology, which has been used since the late 1970s, is described as an electrical muscular disruption device. A one-second jolt will bring a grown man to his knees. The standard charge from an X26 lasts for five seconds, which can be administered in one- to two-second increments with a pistol grip to keep a subject under control.

Collins fared better than the three Guardsmen who also subjected themselves to the device, perhaps because women can withstand that kind of pain better than men, it was explained. She remained on her feet. The men fell to the ground.

"It's a good idea to use this equipment. You can control the situation without doing permanent damage to somebody, especially during a civil disturbance," she observed later. "The Guard is charged to help maintain order, but [those creating the disturbance] are citizens, too."

The nonlethal weapons are to be used with discretion by trained personnel, cautioned Command Sgt. Maj. David Ray Hudson, the National Guard Bureau's senior enlisted leader and a retired Alaska State Trooper captain.

"We have equipment out there that we are not adequately trained on," Hudson told the state enlisted leaders. "It's up to you to make sure your people get trained."

(Army Master Sgt. Bob Haskell serves with the National Guard Bureau.)

OFFENDER RE-ENTRY: EXPLORING THE LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITY FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT EXECUTIVES AND THEIR AGENCIES

Offender re-entry has never posed more serious challenges. Every year roughly 650,000 individuals are released from federal and state prisons to re-enter their communities. Of these 650,000 individuals, nearly two thirds will be rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within three years of their release. Communities are clearly struggling to accomplish the difficult work of assisting former offenders in their transition from prison to productive life while protecting the public from those who will re-offend. Arguably, the seriousness of this struggle is primarily the result of four factors. First, more offenders are re-entering communities than ever before.

While roughly 650,000 offenders will return to their communities from prisons this year, that number was nearer 250,000 only twenty years ago. This does not even include offenders released from jails, a number that, in fact, far exceeds the number of those released from prisons. Second, communities are bearing greater corrections costs than ever before. Over the last twenty years, corrections-spending has increased from $9 billion to $60 billion. Third, offenders are less equipped than ever before to re-enter their communities successfully.

Although corrections expenditures have increased dramatically, critical social services for prisoners have, in real terms, decreased. The need for substance abuse treatment and educational programming in prison has never been greater, but the percentage of prisoners receiving these services has actually declined. Fourth, a majority of offenders return to a small minority of communities that are typically characterized by social and economic disadvantage. As a result, these communities are stretched thin in their efforts to assist returning offenders while working to prevent recidivism.

Given these challenges, reoffending and relapse are, perhaps, to be expected. However, many of the service providers supporting returning offenders refuse to accept the expected. In the last decade, corrections officers, law enforcement leaders, public safety officials, health and human services providers, faith-based organization leaders, welfare officials, employment services providers, and housing and transportation experts have joined together through offender re-entry efforts in order to stop the cycle of wasted lives, disrupted communities, and victimization. These providers work on behalf of offenders by connecting them to critical social services. More importantly, they work on behalf of entire communities by enhancing public safety and reducing recidivism.

In this last objective, no community organization has more at stake than law enforcement agencies. Regrettably, however, law enforcement agencies’ involvement in offender re-entry efforts has remained largely theoretical. Some notable agencies have designed and led offender re-entry efforts, but research by the IACP, BJA and the Urban Institute reveals that a majority of law enforcement agencies do not even participate in offender re-entry efforts. Those who do are rarely involved in the planning or design of such efforts. Offender re-entry poses too costly a problem and too important an opportunity for law enforcement agencies to stand by in this manner.

The moment has come for law enforcement executives and their agencies to take their place in offender re-entry efforts. Summit participants were very sensitive to, and aware of, the fact that support for offender re-entry programs poses a distinct and significant set of challenges to law enforcement.

Given the historically high rates of recidivism among returning offenders, it is appropriate that police take ‘zero tolerance’ positions on re-offending, arresting those who offend, and alerting all returning offenders that adherence to the law is the foundation to their success. The summit’s focus was squarely on the latter group—returning offenders who wish to return to productive lives in their communities.

Participants felt strongly that proactive support to this group is also an appropriate action by the police and one that can potentially reduce the levels of crime, victimization and re-offending nationwide. Summit participants also made it clear that supporting returning offenders is a systemic community level issue vs. one that police can or should take on by themselves.

Thus, the recommendations emerging from the summit call for action by all members of the community through a team concept, with law enforcement officials taking a leadership role in support of their many community partners. And that leadership role for law enforcement can encompass both support to returning offenders making positive progress and aggressive enforcement actions where re-offending occurs.

To help craft an appropriate law enforcement agenda for offender re-entry initiatives, the IACP and COPS organized the 2006 national policy summit, Offender Re-Entry: Exploring the Leadership Opportunity for Law Enforcement Executives and Their Agencies, to consider the role law enforcement executives and their agencies should assume in offender re-entry efforts. Bringing together over one hundred law enforcement executives, corrections officers, criminal justice experts, social services directors, drug enforcement officers, leaders of faith-based and community-based initiatives, youth advocacy leaders, and public affairs directors, the summit asked these experts to develop recommendations that would guide law enforcement executives and their agencies in their work to transition offenders from prison to productive life while protecting the public from those who will re-offend.

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http://www.theiacp.org/research/ReentrySummitReport.pdf

Addressing Hate Crimes: Six Initiatives That Are Enhancing the Efforts of Criminal Justice Practitioners

Over the past few years the nation has experienced an alarming number of disturbing and sometimes deadly hate crimes. The dragging death of African-American James Byrd, Jr., in Jasper, Texas; the deadly attack on Matthew Sheppard, a gay student in Laramie, Wyoming; the shooting rampage targeting minority citizens in Chicago; and the shootings of children at a Jewish community center in Los Angeles, California, followed by the murder of Joseph Santos Ileto, a Filipino-American mail carrier, have left a trail of dead or wounded victims and traumatized, fearful communities. During this time many other Americans have been the victims of far less publicized hate crimes motivated by their perpetrators' bias toward their perceived racial or ethnic identity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, gender, or disability. These less well known hate crimes resulted in similar levels of injury and trauma to both the victims and the communities.

The nation has reacted to these hate crimes with energy and ingenuity. Responses include clear and strong condemnation from religious, civic, and governmental leaders; efforts to strengthen state and federal hate crime laws; innovative preventive programs in schools; and additional resources for training police officers and prosecutors.

Police officers generally are the first professionals responding to the scene of a hate crime. Their actions significantly affect the outcome of the criminal investigation as well as the community's response to the incident. Therefore, law enforcement agencies have a pivotal role in responding to, investigating, prosecuting, and preventing hate crimes. To successfully carry out their roles, police officers and prosecutors must receive training on recognizing and investigating potential hate crimes, have clear protocols on how to respond to hate violence, and develop innovative programs for preventing and responding to hate crimes.

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http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles1/bja/179559.txt

Leaders Growing Leaders

Building Your Organization by Developing Leaders-At Every Level
Overview

This seminar prepares you for a central task and test of leadership: growing other leaders. Developing new, imaginative approaches to managing succession is critical to successful human capital management, which is drawing increasing Presidential and congressional focus, and is included in the General Accounting Office’s high-risk list of Federal activities. The impending retirement of a large component of senior executives over the next few years is intensifying this interest.

Leaders Growing Leaders is designed to help you understand the leadership gap and to develop innovative approaches to improve the situation in your organization. It draws on years of research that clearly demonstrate that leaders are primarily grown, formally and informally, through challenging job-based experiences and interaction with senior leaders.

How Will You Benefit
Understand the difference between leaders and managers
Learn the best ways to help leaders develop on the job
Discover and demonstrate the essential skills for developing leaders
Learn how to frame your life and work experiences as stories to help others learn leadership lessons
Build and implement an effective succession management plan and initiate other leadership development programs for your organization
Gain experience practicing informal roles as exemplar, mentor, coach, and teacher to help grow the next generation of leaders

MORE INFORMATION
http://www.leadership.opm.gov/Programs/Organizational-Leadership-for-Executives/EXE0044/Index.aspx

Leadership

A recent reader review of Leadership: Texas Hold ‘em Style:

“Raymond Foster has demonstrated his knowledge of leadership very thoroughly in this book. Coming from the LAPD, he draws upon his experience as a mid-level manager by using humor and anecdotes so aspiring supervisors and managers can develop their individual skills. I am a retired police captin from Newark, NJ and wish I had the book during the promotional testing process. Now, I am using the book in my consulting practice--very relevant, very practical and an easy read!”

About the book
Using poker as analogy for leadership, Captain Andrew Harvey, CPD (ret.), Ed.D. and Lieutenant Raymond Foster, LAPD (ret.), MPA found the right mix of practical experience and academic credentials to write a definitive book for leaders. Working together, Harvey and Foster have written Leadership: Texas Hold em Style. Most often leaders find they are given a set of resources people, equipment, funds, experience and a mission. As Foster noted, "You're dealt a certain hand. How you play that hand as a leader determines your success."

More than a book: A fun and entertaining journey through leadership that includes an interactive website to supplement knowledge gained from the book.
Proven and Tested: Not an academic approach to leadership, but rather a road-tested guide that has been developed through 50-years of author experience.
High Impact: Through the use of perspective, reflection, and knowledge, provides information that turns leadership potential into leadership practice.
Ease of Application: Theory is reinforced with real-life experience, which results in accessible and practical tools leaders can put to use immediately.
High Road Approach: Personal character and ethical beliefs are woven into each leadership approach, so leaders do the right thing for the right reasons.
Uses Game of Poker: Rather than a dry approach that is all fact and no flavor, the game of poker is used as a lens through which to view leadership concepts.

More Information
www.pokerleadership.com

Leadership: Texas Hold em Style

Using poker as analogy for leadership, Captain Andrew Harvey, CPD (ret.), Ed.D. and Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster, LAPD (ret.), MPA found the right mix of practical experience and academic credentials to write a definitive book for leaders. Working together, Harvey and Foster have written Leadership: Texas Hold em Style. Most often leaders find they are given a set of resources people, equipment, funds, experience and a mission. As Foster noted, You are dealt a certain hand. How you play that hand as a leader determines your success

More than a book: A fun and entertaining journey through leadership that includes an interactive website to supplement knowledge gained from the book.
Proven and Tested: Not an academic approach to leadership, but rather a road-tested guide that has been developed through 50-years of author experience.
High Impact: Through the use of perspective, reflection, and knowledge, provides information that turns leadership potential into leadership practice.
Ease of Application: Theory is reinforced with real-life experience, which results in accessible and practical tools leaders can put to use immediately.
High Road Approach: Personal character and ethical beliefs are woven into each leadership approach, so leaders do the right thing for the right reasons.
Uses Game of Poker: Rather than a dry approach that is all fact and no flavor, the game of poker is used as a lens through which to view leadership concepts.

ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY

Gates Offers Leadership Philosophy to Graduating Midshipmen

Editor's Note: Gates' speech is applicable to criminal justice practitioners in leadership positions.

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

May 25, 2007 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates urged graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy accepting commissions today into the Navy and Marine Corps to apply the lessons they learned here to become strong, decisive leaders who motivate and inspire their sailors and Marines. Speaking to the Class of 2007 at its graduation and commissioning ceremony, Gates thanked the 1,028 graduating midshipmen for choosing to serve the country at a particularly challenging time in its history.

"Today, you take on the awesome responsibility of protecting and defending the constitution of the United States and the American people," he said. "Today we ask you to make the extraordinary the expected. Today, we ask you to lead free men and women by summoning each to his or her nobility."

Gates noted the midshipmen have studied a lot about leadership during their four years in Annapolis, and said he has come to realize that real leadership is a rare commodity.

He offered his personal insights into what makes a leader, citing vision, integrity, conviction, self-confidence, courage and common decency.

Leadership takes vision, Gates told the midshipmen, and the ability to see beyond immediate tasks and challenges to what's ahead. "You must see what others do not or cannot, and then be prepared to act on your vision," he said.

Real leadership also demands integrity, Gates said, acknowledging with dismay that it's a notion many tend to consider curious and old-fashioned.

"For a real leader, personal values - self-reliance, self-control, honor, truthfulness, morality - are absolute," he said. "These are the building blocks of character, of integrity, and only on that foundation can true leadership be built."

Gates called deep conviction another critical leadership quality. "True leadership is a fire in the mind" that's able to transform and transfix others, he said "It is a strength of purpose and belief in a cause that reaches out to others, touches their hearts, and makes them eager to follow."

A true leader exhibits self-confidence, the secretary said. He emphasized that he wasn't referring to "chest-thumping, strutting egotism," but rather, "a quiet self-assurance that allows a leader to give others both real responsibility and credit for success."

A self-confident leader is able to make decisions, then delegate and trust others to carry them out, he said. In doing so, Gates said, the leader "doesn't cast such a large shadow that no one else can grow."

As essential as vision, integrity, deep conviction and self-confidence are to leadership, they aren't enough to make a leader, he told the midshipmen. "A leader must have the courage to act, often against the will of the crowd," he said.

A true leader works as a team, but also must be willing to buck popular opinion and take an independent stand when it's necessary, the secretary said. "Don't kid yourself," he told the midshipmen. "That takes courage."

As the graduates move on to their Navy and Marine Corps careers, Gates reminded them to apply another quality of real leadership: common decency. A true leader treats everyone - superiors, peers and subordinates alike - with fairness, respect and dignity, he said.

Gates urged the graduates to use their authority as military officers constructively to care for their sailors and Marines and help them improve and advance themselves. This, in turn, will build respect and loyalty, he said.

"Common decency builds respect and, in a democratic society, respect is what prompts people to give their all for a leader, even at personal sacrifice," he said.

Gates thanked the graduating midshipmen for choosing to serve the country at a time their country needs them and their leadership abilities.

He noted that most were high school juniors when the United States came under terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001, and all could have chosen an easier, less demanding path.

"You, however, are special, because you are among those who have chosen to deserve, to defend the dreams of others," he said. "And that sets you apart."

Article sponsored by criminal justice online leadership; and, police and military personnel who have authored books.

Service Academies Retain Principles, Embrace Change to Train Future Leaders

Editors Note: Some excellent advice in here for domestic law enforcement.

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

May 24, 2007 – As "ruffles and flourishes" rings through the three U.S. military academies over the next few days, several thousand new graduates will accept their commissions and join the military ranks. These young second lieutenants and ensigns all enrolled in their respective schools -- the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.; the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.; and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. -- recognizing they'd graduate into a wartime force.

Most were sophomores in high school when they watched televised images of the Twin Towers falling and the Pentagon burning, then the U.S. going to war in Afghanistan. Most hadn't yet been to their senior proms when the country entered Iraq. This week they'll leave their schoolhouses behind to join their fellow soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines serving around the world in the war on terror.

To get a better picture of how their schools have prepared them for this calling, American Forces Press Service spoke with their academic deans and alumni who have risen to the senior military ranks.

Here's what they had to say about what has changed at their institutions and what remains fundamental, and how they're helping ensure their graduates are ready for the challenges they'll confront as military officers.

The Basics

Although they're four-year schools like thousands of others that dot the United States, the U.S. service academies stand uniquely apart. All were founded with the specific goal of educating military leaders -- people who understand not just the art and science of war, but also the fundamentals of leadership.

That's a principle the academies have held at their core as they strive to develop what Army Col. Dan Ragsdale, vice dean at West Point and a 1981 graduate, calls "critical thinkers" armed with the education and training they need to think on their feet.
"Our expectations are that these future leaders are going to have to draw on a relatively broad set of skills, backgrounds and experiences to help solve the problems that they are going to confront in ... a greatly ambiguous world in which they are going to have to operate," he said.

To develop those skills, the academies offer curricula that recently retired Army Gen. John Abizaid, a 1973 West Point graduate who went on to lead U.S. Central Command, described as "some of the most challenging in the nation today."

The coursework is steeped in science, math and engineering so graduates are prepared to enter a highly technical military, whether they'll be flying aircraft, serving on nuclear-powered submarines or calling in air strikes as they lead ground forces in combat, explained William Miller, academic dean and provost at the Naval Academy and a 1962 graduate.

"We want to ensure all our graduates have a good, solid technical foundation for serving as an officer in a very, very technically demanding environment," he said.

Equally important, officials agree, is an understanding of the world in which they'll operate. All three academies have expanded their curricula to increasingly focus on regional studies and language skills.

"The kinds of problems that our ... graduates will face are across a broad spectrum, so we have to give them a technological foundation," Ragsdale said. "But we also have to give them a social and cultural perspective around which to address and solve problems. We have to help them understand and appreciate the political aspects of any problem they are trying to address."

More Than Academics

There may be no pat formula for preparing new officers to serve in wartime, but officials agreed it requires more than mastery of academics.

"Our graduates are not going to be historians and mechanical engineers," Miller said. "They are going to be leaders and problem solvers in a very demanding environment."
There's no possible way to train students for every possible situation they'll encounter when they enter military service, the officials agreed.

"That's a given," Ragsdale said. "But because we know that, we have worked to create an environment where they can develop as the adaptable, agile, critical thinkers they need to be to lead the soldiers who will be entrusted to their care."

The academies strive to prepare cadets and midshipmen to look at problems from multiple dimensions and to juggle priorities.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that's one of the biggest lessons he took away from his Naval Academy experience.

"At school, there was always too much to do, and in the Marine Corps, there has always been too much to do," Pace said. "Therefore, you really have to take the important and set it aside to do the critical."

Pace said being bombarded with myriad demands as a midshipman reinforced the importance of teamwork, another principle he said he's carried throughout his career. "In combat, there is nothing you do as an individual," he said. "It's all based on teamwork."

Developing Leaders

While developing their cadets and midshipmen intellectually, the academies also focus on developing them as leaders.

Abizaid said the most important lesson the academies need to instill is "the ability to lead people in a positive, inspirational way."

From their first days at their respective schools, cadets and midshipmen get exposed to valuable lessons in leadership. Initially they observe upperclassmen serving in various leadership positions -- some successfully, some less so. Later, students try their own hand at leadership posts. Through this process, they begin to understand what leadership style works for them, what doesn't, and how they can improve their leadership skills.

Gen. John Corley, Air Force vice chief of staff and a 1973 graduate of the Air Force Academy, described his alma mater as a "leadership laboratory" where cadets exposed him and his fellow cadets to "a set of experiences that you just don't find in other places."

"They also provided challenges," Corley said. "It was a test ... in terms of your development (and) ... your ability to grow and become a leader of character."

"I learned a lot from observing good leadership, and from observing bad leadership, and through experimentation on my own part, trying things that worked or didn't work for me," Pace said of his time at the Naval Academy.

That's the single biggest difference between the military academies and traditional civilian colleges and universities, the deans and alumni agreed.

"Our first and foremost overarching outcome is to commission ... leaders of character who embody our ... core values of integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all we do," said Brig. Gen. Dana Born, dean of faculty for the Air Force Academy and a 1983 graduate. "It stands at the very foundation of what we do."

Miller said leadership lessons learned at the academies have a long-lasting impact on how graduates confront problems.

"No matter what (military) community our graduates enter, ... they are going to be leaders, and we want to ensure they have a good ethical foundation for the decisions they are going to make," he said.

Educating for the Future

While preparing their cadets and midshipmen for the immediate requirements they'll face as graduates, academy officials say they recognize the need to keep their eyes focused on the horizon.

"We try to stay balanced and not hyper-reactive," Ragsdale said. "We recognize that we're providing a foundation upon which they can develop as successful officers."

"We can't just focus on the fact that we are currently engaged in a shooting war ... and think only about what (midshipmen) are going to need right after graduation," agreed Miller. "We need to look at what (future officers) are going to need for the longer term and recognize that we're preparing them for a career of service."

By approaching education as a "strategic investment," Miller said, the academies are helping students recognize that their education will be just beginning as they accept their commissions.

"We are trying to lay a foundation on which they can build over their career and continue to learn," he said. "That's important, because being in the armed services demands lifetime learning."

Change

The biggest misconception about the academies is that they're so embedded in tradition that they can't or won't change with the times, officials said.

"That is about as far from the truth as you can get," Ragsdale said. "On the contrary, we understand ... that our graduates have to be prepared for a changing world. So while we hold on to our firm foundations upon which the institution was built, we have embraced change to ensure we are providing the kinds of experiences our cadets need to be successful in the world they are going to face when they graduate."

Born described sweeping changes in the Air Force Academy's core curriculum so courses build on previous lessons and broaden students' exposure to new concepts and approaches. The other academies have instituted similar changes.

These changes are helping ensure students have a foundation from which to draw when they graduate into a wartime environment. "We need students to learn and be able to build upon prior learning, as opposed to just teaching and hoping that they remember it when they need it when they are in downtown Baghdad making decisions," Born said.

Intraservice Cooperation

An intensive system of sharing and cooperation is helping the academies evolve to better serve their students' and services' needs. Staffs meet in person and share e-mails regularly to keep each other informed about new initiatives they're trying and what they've learned along the way.

"We are trying to learn from each other in a leap-frog fashion rather than all of us learning linearly and stumbling over the same obstacles," Miller said.

"We have very common goals and a common set of outcomes that we would like all our graduates to achieve," Ragsdale agreed. "So we share those things that have worked, and on the flip side, those initiatives that have not been successful so they can learn from our mistakes."

Born said the academies recognize their similarities and build on each others' strengths. "We ... team together to share lessons learned and best practices. We learn from each other and are able to progress more quickly by sharing our lessons learned," she said.

So despite infamous interservice rivalry in the sports arena, Born said, there's a healthy respect and common understanding among academy students, graduates and staffs.

"When it comes to the football field, there is all kinds of talk and all kinds of competition," she said. "But when it comes right down to it, we are all working toward commissioning officers and leaders of character for our nation."

Article sponsored by criminal justice online leadership; and, police and military personnel who have authored books.

Information Key in Stemming Potential Pandemic Flu Outbreak

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

May 9, 2007 – Servicemembers and their families should be aware of Defense Department efforts to prepare the force and assist the nation in a possible outbreak of pandemic influenza, a senior official said. "You can never be ready enough. We have a plan in place," Ellen P. Embrey, deputy assistant secretary of defense for force health protection and readiness, said during a joint Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service interview.

The Defense Department is in the process of rolling out its Pandemic Influenza Implementation plan, which is part of the president's initiative to prepare the nation for a potential mass outbreak of deadly flu virus.

"It's important to know that (the plan) is there, to get information about it, and to know your role in it," Embrey said.

Military and civilian leaders, in particular, need to emphasize to rank-and-file employees the important role that good public hygiene, including the regular washing of hands, plays in preventing influenza or limiting its scope, Embrey said.

Pandemic flu is a fast-spreading human flu that causes a global outbreak, or pandemic, of serious illness that could sicken or kill hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people, according to the U.S. government's pandemic flu Web site. For example, the 1918 flu epidemic killed millions of Americans.

It could take six to eight months to develop a vaccine for pandemic flu after it strikes, Embrey pointed out.

As a rule of thumb, sick people should stay at home if they have the flu or any other malady, Embrey said. This practice helps to prevent passing illnesses to others and speeds patients' recovery times, she added.

"Don't come to work when you have the 'sniffles,' especially during the flu season," Embrey emphasized.

Currently there's no pandemic flu. However, medical experts have been closely observing cases of avian, or bird, flu across Asia and parts of the Middle East. One bird-flu virus in particular, known as H5N1, is especially deadly to fowl. It can be spread to humans, who have no natural immunity to it.

There's currently no vaccine for avian flu, and more than 170 people worldwide have died from it, according to the World Health Organization.

Servicemembers and their families, along with other young adults, could be especially susceptible to a pandemic flu outbreak, Embrey noted.

"If we go based on history when (flu) pandemics occurred, they actually attack the young, healthy adults and young children," Embrey said. "Those are not usually the ones you see getting the regular, seasonal flu."

The seasonal flu is a respiratory illness that, like deadlier forms of the virus, can be spread by human-to-human contact. Seasonal flu particularly affects the very young and older adults. However, most people have some immunity to seasonal flu, and a vaccine is available.

Embrey reiterated the importance of informing young servicemembers and their families about how to confront a potential outbreak of pandemic flu.

"We want to make sure that people in our (military) population, which is mostly a young, healthy population, understand that they are vulnerable and do take appropriate precautions, particularly before a pandemic-specific vaccine is available," Embrey said.

Article sponsored by police officers who have written books on law enforcement jobs; as well as those involved in writing on leadership.

ASSESSMENT CENTER PREPARATION

Police-Fire-Corrections
Leadership & Management Development Course
June 9-10, Saturday & Sunday, 2007
San Diego, CA
Registration: $450
Hotel Reservations:
Doubletree Hotel (Mission Valley), 7450 Hazard Center Drive,
San Diego, CA 92108 Hotel phone: (619) 297-5466
http://www.doubletree.com/en/dt/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=SDGO-DT

For reservation information go to:

http://assessmentcenter.org/

Since 1990, KSA, Ltd. has specialized in teaching the supervision and management skills necessary to prepare for an Assessment Center, promotional tests, and to be successful as a new supervisor, manager or command officer.

Rick Michelson, Director of KSA, is the author of “PREPARING FOR PROMOTION - A Guide for Public Safety Assessment Centers” and “Preparing Future Leaders for Tomorrow: Succession Planning for Police Leadership” in the June 2006 issue of Police Chief Magazine.

By using interactive performance based scenarios, and utilizing proven assessment center methods and promotional interview techniques, we’ll help you to:

Demonstrate your transferable skills and personal values and ethics during an interview, assessment center or any performance based scenarios

Link the job dimensions of the new job from your previous related transferable experience(s)

Conduct a successful subordinate counseling session meeting all objective(s)

Write and orally present at a command briefing, city council/board meeting, etc. training briefing, media event, or community meeting (with minimal prep time)

Facilitate group discussions and enhance your Meeting management skills and achieve the objective(s)

Understand the assessment center rating and ranking system, with feedback on your performance!

Practice working through an “In-basket”

Learn and apply effective: delegation techniques; project management, team building, and conflict resolution skills

Coach and mentor everyone from the marginal performer to the seasoned veteran
Develop a succession plan for your command

Article sponsored by Criminal Justice online leadership as well as police and military personnel who have authored books.

Use 'R-Triple-A' to Lead, Enlisted Leader Urges NCOs

By John D. Banusiewicz
American Forces Press Service

April 11, 2007 – The Air Force Noncommissioned Officers Academy here gives students the tools to lead, but they need to use these tools in a way that works for them individually, the Defense Department's top NCO told graduates here today. Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey, senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told 75 Air Force noncommissioned officers that an "R-triple-A" approach is what up-and-coming servicemembers expect and need from their leaders.

The "R" means leaders should respect their subordinates by giving them responsibility, Gainey told the graduates.

"They crave to ... be 'Responsible' for something," he said. "Give it to them. They're not going to let you down. Give them all the responsibility they can hold."

But giving people responsibility isn't enough, Gainey warned.

"The hard thing for us as leaders is the first 'A' -- to give them the 'Authority' to be responsible," he said.

Gesturing to the flags adorning the stage, Gainey explained that a leader who gives people responsibility for the flags, but tells them not to do anything without first asking for his or her approval isn't being an effective leader. "What have you given them?" he asked. "Nothing."

If authority is properly granted, Gainey said, the second "A" then comes into play.

"Hold them 'Accountable' for their actions, as they're going to hold you accountable for your actions," he told the graduates, adding that it's necessary not only for when subordinates fall short, but also when they succeed.

When they do fall short, he said, it's time for the third "A" - "Assist" them when they stumble.

"Everyone stumbles," he said. "It depends on who's there to help you."

When the inevitable stumbles occur, Gainey told the graduates, a good leader will help the person recover, but then must coach, teach, mentor and train so the individual learns from the experience and can succeed.

At that point, he said, it's important to express pride in the person's accomplishment and show confidence. "They need you to look them in the eye and ... (let them know you) care about them," he said.

Exhorting the graduates to move forward with their ambitions, Gainey advised them not to let anyone get in their way as long as they can answer "no" to five questions about their ambitions.

"The first thing (to ask yourself) is, 'Is it going to hurt somebody else?' No? Go for it," he said. "Is it going to hurt you? No. Go for it. Is it illegal? No. Go for it. Is it immoral? No. Go for it. Is it going to bring disgrace to your name or the unit or your country? No. Then you go for it, and don't let anybody tell you that you can't do it."

But if the answer to any of the five questions is "yes," he said, that has to be resolved.

Gainey used the desire to climb a mountain as an example. While the person might be able to say "no" in answer to four of the questions, the answer would have to be "yes" to the second question if the person lacked the proper training or equipment.

"Stop, take a step back, reassess what you want to do, get the proper training, get the proper equipment, and make it a 'no,'" he said.

The graduation culminated a day in which Gainey met with servicemembers all over the largest U.S. installation in the Pacific theater. He'll remain on Okinawa for the rest of the week, visiting servicemembers at other bases on the island and meeting more people at Kadena.

Article sponsored by Criminal Justice online leadership as well as police and military personnel who have authored books.