Stripes and Bars AMAURY MURGADO
YOUR ROLE AS A SUPERVISOR Supervisors need to become more involved with their agencies and the communities they serve to truly fulfill their roles. TYPICALLY, the responsibilities of a firstline supervisor stem roles? Have any of your supervisors mentored you in the from one of four broad categories: personnel policies and past? Is your current supervisor mentoring you now? Has procedures, staffing, employee training and development, any supervisor helped you achieve any of your career goals and employee performance management. Each agency cre- and objectives? Has any supervisor ever stood up for you ates a set of tasks from those broad categories that, in turn, when necessary? Have you ever had a supervisor you enjoyed become the job description of a supervisor. It seems logical working with because they set a positive tone and led by exthen that if you complete your list of tasks, then you are do- ample? Do you know of a supervisor who is well respected in ing your job. Life would be great if things were really that the community? If you are shy on answers, somebody should simple. Unfortunately, just doing your job is not enough. You be asking why. In today's world, there is a tendency for the quick fix. We have to fulfill your role as a supervisor, which encompasses look for short-term solutions and forget about establishing much more. In order to understand what is meant by job and role, we long-term goals. Law enforcement is no exception. We tend can refer to their differences in terms of hard and soft skills. to forget that today's rookies are tomorrow's command staff. Supervisors who don't understand the importance of each We have to improve in this area or we'll suffer the same mefocus on the hard skills (job) and glance over soft skills diocrity or, in some cases, incompetence. The only way to have supervisors and (role). In order to rise to your full potenWE ALL SUFFER a command staff that are worth having tial, you need both. WHEN SUPERVISORS is to make sure that as officers rise up Supervisory hard skills are those pure IGNORE THEIR ROLE through the ranks, they are made to unmanagement tasks like preparing time sheets, writing performance appraisals, AND FAIL TO ENGAGE. derstand the importance of the roles they play in and out of the agency. They have to filling staffing requirements, performbe given the opportunity to develop both ing vehicle inspections, and making sure hard and soft skills. We have to put a premium on making a policy and procedure are being followed. Soft skills, on the other hand, are more subjective be- difference by creating a culture of engagement. And one of cause they are people oriented and fall more on the lead- the best ways to do this is for supervisors to lead the charge. Supervisors need to become more involved with their ership side. In other words, soft skills relate to the way you interact with people in order to accomplish goals and objec- agencies and the communities they serve. The only cure for tives; yours and theirs. Examples of soft skills include your inexperience is experience, so it's extremely helpful for suabilities with written and oral communication, motivation, pervisors to get involved with things like serving on agency problem-solving, how you protect institutional knowledge, committees and hiring boards, and in helping evaluate promotional exams. It's also important to volunteer in various and how you bring about teamwork. There is always a high level of expectation in your role as in-house programs like Police Explorers, citizen academies, a supervisor. For example, you are supposed to coach and and Crime Watch. And it wouldn't hurt to become an agency mentor your subordinates, be an advocate for your agency, or police academy instructor to share your experiences and and at the same time be an advocate for your subordinates. help your agency grow. The argument for doing your job is a simple one; do the In order for you to meet these expectations, you have to be willing to put yourself out there in the middle of things. You minimum and you still get paid. The argument for fulfilling have to be willing to challenge the status quo. Unfortunate- your role is more complicated. It's only compelling, howly, not everyone is willing to do that and many keep a low ever, to those who want to rise above mediocrity, set high profile by embracing the safety of mediocrity instead. Many standards, and make a difference. of the ills we see in law enforcement today stem from supervisors ignoring their role and failing to engage. Amaury Murgado retired a senior lieutenant from the Osceola In order to further understand, let's stop and reflect for County (FL) Sheriff's Office with over 29 years of experience. a moment. What's been your experience with supervisor He also retired from the Army Reserve as a master sergeant.
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POLICE APRIL 2017