Midterm Essay
Josephine Ceasar

University of North Texas Dallas

Dr. Larry D. Terry II

Mgmt. Leadership

4470 090

Date

Introduction

There are many definitions of leadership. According to Northouse, leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal (2013, p. 5). Yet true leadership is much more than that. A leader can be the CEO of an organization or a first year employee who leads his or her team to success behind the scenes. A leader might lead through official authority and power, yet just as often great leaders lead through inspiration, persuasion, and personal connections. So what is leadership? Leadership is the art of leading others to deliberately create a result that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. The assumption is that because he or she has the ability to display these characteristics, others will automatically follow their direction. However, to me, leadership is more than just about getting others to follow your lead.

The purpose of this analysis is to understand the role of leadership and the purpose of a leader. A leader has many roles that will be identify in this paper. True leadership must begin with a strong sense of self. Leaders must be able to lead themselves first before they can expect to effectively lead others. This is important, because the challenges of leadership are huge! The tests that leaders face often reach to the very core of who they are. If as individuals, leaders do not have a profound sense of their values and what they mean, they will have nothing to anchor themselves to, when the storm clouds gather. A leader that is anchored to their values will know how to use them to make the right decisions in both the good and the bad times.

In this paper I will first show how the values leadership and how the four types of interests aid leaders in being effective in leading both individuals and communities. In the second part I will show how to compare and contrast the concepts related to the organization as a machine, as an organism, and Servant Leadership. In the final part I will show how decision making and the skill approach contribute to my understanding of leadership.

"The Salinas Police and the City of Salinas are recognized nationally as leaders in reducing crime through a community-based strategy of prevention, intervention and re-entry services, working to reduce the need for enforcement. Salinas was invited to be a founding member of the President's National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention, which is focused on community-based solutions to crime and on the recognition that you can't arrest your way out of the problem.' Salinas is the leading agency in the Community Alliance for Safety and Peace, (CASP) which brings together community groups, social services, the faith community, local governments and law enforcement around the Prevention-Intervention-Enforcement-Re-entry (PIER) strategy. Even though Salinas is facing severe budget shortages, it dedicates a full-time staff member to serve as the manager of CASP and give it every possible support. The Police Department is also facing shortages, and is seriously under-staffed, but it has assigned two full-time CASP officers to the Hebbron Heights neighborhood of the Alisal. These officers, who have been recognized nationally for their work, make very few arrests, devoting almost all of their time to assisting members of the community and building connections among families, neighborhoods, community groups and service providers. Chief McMillin has committed the police department to the legitimacy and procedural justice model of policing, which holds that true authority comes not from the use or fear of force but from the trust of the community. According to a recent KSBW-TV story: The method recognizes that people want to feel heard, feel respected and want to know their police are neutral and trustworthy.' The Salinas Police Department is the first on the West Coast to train all officers in legitimacy and procedural justice. The Salinas Police Department is among the pioneers in using the Operation Ceasefire strategy, which has led to dramatic reductions in violence in cities across the country while improving relationships between police and the communities they serve. Operation Ceasefire's originator, David Kennedy, mentions the Salinas Police in his ground-breaking book Don't Shoot: One Man, A Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America. Chief McMillin was recognized by the White House in 2012 as a Champion of Change. The recognition was for his work to prevent youth violence within the community through Operation Ceasefire and the CASP strategy."

As the Department of Justice continues their investigations of the recent officer-involved shootings, there's an ongoing evaluation of the dialogue between police and the community in Salinas.

Police Chief Kelly McMillin, the president of the police officers association and two city council members said they're trying to give frustrated residents a forum -- other than City Hall - to vent and come up with ways to improve a strained relationship after four officer-involved shootings this year.

"You guys need to change and police departments need to change," said one resident.

There were some tough words from some Salinas residents on Thursday night, who claimed that some officers aren't professional while on patrol.

“I mean I had some clothes that I wanted to give away and I went and I asked him, 'Where do you think I could do that?'...well we have some illiterates over there," said another resident.

The department said it's seen a 25 percent loss of funding for positions over the past five years and leaders are doing everything they can to hold its officers accountable.

"If there's an officer that treats you poorly on the street and you feel that they have done something rude, unethical, there is a mechanism in place," said Officer Gabriel Carvey.

The League of United Latin American Citizens said now is the time for a citizens' police oversight committee.

"It's very important to gain that trust within the community," a representative from LULAC said. "Because its been almost four months and I think we haven't heard any action."

McMillin said he hopes to start making improvements with place-based policing.

"We need police officers in your communities in our schools to build relationships so that people never begin to think about committing crimes in the first place," McMillin said.

McMillin said those relationships depend on having enough officers to respond to the number of calls. But he said looking for the best recruits, makes it hard to fill the departments seven vacancies. Some residents feel the community isn't doing enough to aid police efforts.

"If people would get involved and start helping the police department get rid of the crime, then there wouldn't be as many incidents," said a resident.

City council members who organized this open dialogue said this is just the first of several meetings they plan to hold, as they gather a clearer idea of what's causing a lack of trust between residents and police.