...concerns. When private corporations face similar challenges, they often turn to executive coaches and consultants for guidance.

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While the law enforcement profession periodically employs consultants, a systematic, active use of executive coaches has been minimal. (1) The wave of baby boomers exiting from law enforcement will thrust many individuals into leadership positions without giving them the benefit of mentoring as agencies will have to cope with the loss of highly experienced personnel. Executive coaching can meet the unique needs of law enforcement leadership in such critical times.

ONE CHIEF'S DILEMMA

The chief of a police department with approximately 500 sworn officers is well educated and also well respected by his peers inside the agency and community residents. (2) His county police department has the sophistication (technology, training, and organization) similar to those in most large cities. The chief, other agency leaders, and critical personnel are eligible to retire. The county's proximity to a competitive employment market of other federal, state, and local law enforcement departments concerned him regarding his own recruitment, retention, and succession planning (R-R-S), so he contacted Dr. Steve Gladis, an executive coach. The chief, a progressive county administrator (the chief's supervisor), and Dr. Gladis worked together to determine the vision of the department in a year if it operated optimally and focused on R-R-S. This group determined the chief's strengths and challenges to optimize them in setting goals and objectives, which also included those of his department. For example, the chief chose to have preliminary R-R-S reports completed by certain dates and required the drafts from his staff. Thus, the chief was the client for the engagement, but he did not personally execute every step himself. While he could have completed this entire project on his own, he readily admits that having an executive coach helped accelerate its accomplishment.

However, the chief took complete responsibility for the plan and actively participated in its execution. For example, one task called for follow-up contact with key officers who had quit the department 6 months or longer ago to find out why they actually left and to ask them if they wanted to return to the department. It was hypothesized that people often might not express the real reason for leaving a department in formal exit interviews (currently used by this department and many others); therefore, personal contact by the chief...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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