The year 2014 will hopefully not sit as a blip on the timeline of the policing profession.  There are so many resources and stories from which we can learn and grow.  Supporting officers to grow in service to their communities is a very difficult task: we must prepare them to work safely in dangerous environments, yet understand the needs of the larger community.  Our officers hold vast amounts of power, yet we ask them to be servants – how can this be?

My study is Servant Leadership.

It seems like a very strange concept, leaders as servants.  But those who don the uniform to go out onto the streets and police are leaders. To call a leader, no matter the rank, a servant, is paradoxical and confusing in traditional leadership. The Servant Leadership philosophy takes away the confusion and promotes better service attitudes in those who are fostered by it and take it to heart. Leading officers to serve requires that their leaders serve them. The traditional leaders in a department must set a clear vision and maintain rigorous accountability to serving. Each person is humbly responsible to the other and to the community at large.  This does not take away the honor, courage, or dedication to the profession that police officers hold dear in their hearts.  But servant leadership helps draw others in through community building and appropriate service.

This site is simply a place where exploration into the topic of Servant Leadership and improving policing can happen. The blog posts and comments will be conversation pieces from which we can all learn.  If you are interested in the academic journey that I took at Gonzaga University while studying Servant Leadership, the please feel free to peruse through the portfolio pages.

I look forward to learning from you.  Thank you for engaging and visiting.

–Joan Fiesta