Leadership within the field of intelligence is undeniably important. To successfully lead an intelligence team in the law enforcement realm, the leader needs to be dynamic with different approaches to leadership. Trait, style and situational approaches are all applicable to becoming a successful leader in law enforcement intelligence. When it comes to the leadership approaches of trait and skills, one does not matter more than the other. Trait leadership is defined as innate or natural characteristics that give an individual certain qualities to be a leader. Skills leadership is defined as abilities that can be learned or developed over time instead of being born with, as trait leadership suggests. As a leader of a team in law enforcement Intelligence, you must be able to work in groups, be knowledgeable with the material at hand and have integrity (Northouse, 2015).
Team Vison The vison for my intelligence team would encompass a group of individuals that work in a collaborative effort with less hierarchal barriers. As their leader, it is important to trust your followers and not command and control their actions but cultivate and coordinate their ideas and actions to allow them to perform their job duties. I would encourage my intelligence team to not simply apply existing frameworks but instead be open to new possibilities and to gather data from multiple sources to assist the men and women in the field.
I would promote a direction and vison of increasing local, statewide and regional intelligence collaboration by building relationships on a grass-roots level with local representatives, as well as to foster timely reporting of information for the purpose of analysis, sharing, and dissemination of intelligence. I would communicate this vison to my team through a process that is not linear in nature. It is important to create a relationship between the leader and the follower. This allows for both parties to interact allowing for the sharing of ideas and allowing for an interactive event to take place. I would communicate this vison by highlighting common goals. Leaders work with others to accomplish a shared purpose (Northouse, 2015). This bridges the leader to the follower as they work together towards a common good.
As a result of these components, I can configure and communicate my vison in a way that is defined by Northhouse as “a process whereby an individual influences a group of people to achieve a common goal”. Tone of the Team The tone I would set for my team would be that of action and leading by example. Through leading by positive example, the idea is to get positive behavior and performance in return. When you make these behaviors such as the display of honesty and integrity, working productively and meeting deadlines regular practices, they earn your respect in return.
Most importantly, they build your personal influence as a manager, which puts you on the road to ensuring the commitment of your employees. It’s easier to ask your employees for high levels of performance and professional conduct when you demonstrate these efforts yourself (Acona, Malone 2007). Team ApproachMy approach to leading intelligence processes within the team would be of influence and situational approach. Leadership is reliant on influence. Without influence, leadership cannot be executed. This involves how the leader manipulates the follower. Leadership takes place in groups and involves leaders influencing groups to perform, think or act in a way that the leader feels fit to complete a task, or an objective. (Northouse, 2016).
I would also lead through situational approach, which concentrates on different situations, and how those different situations effect how a leader should lead based on that specific situation (Sims, Faraj, Yun 2009). Within law enforcement intelligence, there will be different situations that arise that involve my styles to adapt and change”. As a leader in the intelligence field, I must be able to foresee the changing environment to which intelligence is collected and from whom it is being collected from. Bruce explains three needed adaptations, functional, cultural and adaptive mechanisms (Bruce, 2004). As a leader of an intelligence team, I must not to be stuck in my ways and be open to suggestions and feedback. I need to be prepared to adapt to the ever-evolving threat that my team and I are working against.
As a leader, I have to adapt my leadership style based on my followers. Young or old, a little experience to a lot, my leadership style that works for one follower or analyst may not work for another. For example, if a section is filled with young, less experienced analysts, I may have to change my leadership style, to a more mentoring support role, to help teach the analysists. In contrary to an experience analyst, where the leadership style may be more hands off and act in more of a support role with this less overhead management. Obstacles Two potential obstacles for my team would be member personality differences and team members carrying an unbalanced work load. I would overcome the obstacle of personal differences within the team by being the mediator or third party to the personality conflict. I would first identify the source or problem.
Then I would attempt to resolve their differences by trying to find common ground between the two. I would help them navigate around each other’s difficulties and teach them to get along with each other. If the problem continues, I would separate the two if possible and move them to other teams (Myatt, 2015).
In handling a team member that is not pulling their own weight, I would first try and recognize what motivates them. If I could not motivate the team member, I would be upfront with the individual and explain to them how they are affecting the team and the consequences for not performing their job duties like everyone else on the team. Organizational Learning Organizational learning is the process of creating, retaining, and transferring knowledge within an organization. An organization improves over time as it gains experience. Through the experienced gained, the organization is able to create knowledge. Knowledge that is gained from the organizations failures is often important to the organization’s future success.
Put most simply, you learn from your mistakes. The means for organizational learning within a team is based on building blocks that lead to organizational learning. An organization must first gain experience from others or their own, then use that experience and transform it into to working knowledge that can be applied to future ideas and problems (Garvin, 2014). Ethics I would promote ethics within my team by openly discussing principles and guidelines on how to act and work ethically within the team. Codes of conduct and legal requirements would be brought up frequently, to remind team members and to guide them towards a continued moral direction. I would also reward ethical behavior to motivate others to follow.
In the Book, “The Practice of Leadership: Developing the Next Generation of Leaders: the author explains that ethical values are more likely to take precedence when reinforced by a rewards system. Lastly, I would lead the team by being a good role model and acting and working with ethical standards and practices (Johnson, 2007). In conclusion, leadership is vital to every organization.
How one conducts themselves as a leader is determinantal to the success of the team being led. Law enforcement intelligence holds a pivotal role in maintaining the safety of others. As a result, leaders in the field must be detailed in their approach and have a cohesive team to perform the job proficiently and effectively.
