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Lessons for

New Leaders

from a

New Leader samueL Jines, cJo

Due to unusual circumstances the two of us. One of us is an older generational change can be attrib­
within my agency, I was confronted man moving into the twilight of his uted to many factors. The most
with my first test as a new super­ career and the other is a 26­year­old, prominent, I believe, is the current
visor. The challenge? To welcome newly promoted supervisor at the negative view of law enforcement.
and train 30 new employees from dawning of his career. This perception has kept many
a previously contracted, pri­ The corporal mentioned work­ veteran correctional officers from
vately run facility. The Davidson ing in corrections for more than 18 stepping into supervisory roles,
County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) in years. It’s crazy to think I was in the and has encouraged senior officers/
Nashville, Tennessee, had 90 days second grade when he began his administrators to take early retire­
to absorb a total of 180 staff and career. I say this to emphasize one ments. Another contributing factor
400 inmates from this facility. Thus, of the many complex scenarios pre­ I have noticed is the lower number
there I was, meeting with one of sented to me as a newly promoted of people enlisting in the military.
our new corporals as his sergeant supervisor in a field that, until With agencies expanding their
to discuss his annual performance recently, was supervised by a much hiring standards due to the lack of
evaluation. older generation. potential candidates, many of the
In an effort to foster improve­ In this article, I provide several younger generation are electing to
ment, I always encourage new lessons to other new leaders. forgo military enlistment and step
employees and suggest ways each into what they see as a career that’s
can improve his or her job perfor­ 1. Recognize Generational Change much easier to attain now than in
mance, along with highlighting When I started at DCSO five previous years.
their current skills as an officer. years ago, the majority of my chain Looking at the past generation
As I sat there, discussing with a of command was the age of my par­ within the DCSO, a vast majority of
new corporal the skills on which I ents, if not older. Since then, most of supervisors had previous military
believed he could improve, a sud­ my leadership has gone from 25 to experience. Although this still holds
den thought came over me: There is 40 years older than me to roughly true to some extent, it is quite obvi­
a vast difference in experiences between
5 to 15 years older. This massive ous to me that this new generation

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