Real-Time Lessons in Leadership
Jody Weis relinquished his role as “Top Cop” here in Chicago, after what was a tumultuous and a productive three-year run in this thankless job.
Weis was a controversial appointment by Mayor Daley. He was an outsider…a product of the FBI, and someone who hadn’t earned any street cred with the powerful cultural force that is the rank and file of the Chicago Police Department.
He stepped into an environment where scandals and corruption were front-page and YouTube news. He was given a mandate to eliminate corruption, and he attacked the job with a ferocity that alienated him from the rank and file and the powerful union. He changed out most of the top leaders and he went after the scandals and the scandalous, including two cases with officers plainly visible on video beating citizens (one a woman in a bar, the other, a man handcuffed to a wheelchair.)
Adding insult to injury from the perspective of the feet on the street, Weis cemented his poor relationship with his organization by wearing a police uniform to various functions. It was widely viewed as an unearned honor since Weiss did not come up through the ranks on the force. Another major annoyance included adding some highly compensated administrators to his staff at the same time he was shrinking the number of police out on Chicago’s streets.
Add all of this up, and Weis was excellent political fodder for the recent mayoral election, where the candidates all pledged to not renew his contract if they were elected. This, in spite of the fact that the measures of success…major crime statistics generally improved (some substantially), and the number of scandals declined during his watch.
The Bottom-Line for Now:
As a new leader joining from outside the team or organization, the biggest challenge you face is how to cope with culture. If your mandate from those that sign your checks is radical cultural change, your instinct is to begin wrestling the beast from the start. Unfortunately, you cannot change the culture on your own, and in most cases, you cannot do it simply by trading out the leadership (every new leader’s knee-JERK reaction.)
If change is in order, you had best learn the culture, find ways to show your genuine respect for the culture, and captivate the minds and hearts of those inside the culture that are interested in creating a new day. You might have to break some eggs along the way, but at least you will have a team helping you cook and clean as you go.
It is all too often the case that people come into an organization and decide that they don’t agree with the direction it is going. That’s not a problem, so long as they realize that the culture of the organization is not a small fishing boat, but a barge that needs to be prodded to change direction. I work at an organization in which the new CEO decided that she didn’t like our direction and began mandating changes that DON’T work with the existing culture. As a result, the rank and file employees are disillusioned with their jobs, the managers are trying to push the agenda as best they can while apologizing for the changes, and there is no shared vision among the lower levels. Culture is something that needs to be changed over time and in small doses so as to not dishearten and disengage your employees.
Great point Art!
Christian, well said! Yours is a case where the comment is worth more than the post. Thanks for sharing…and I hope you and your co-workers are able to get the barge heading in a better direction. Best, -Art
Art – Changing culture of an organization is difficult. I think its strange Jody Weiss would wear a police officer’s suit to meetings when he had a poor relationship with the police officers in Chicago. He could have won their trust and commitment by recognizing differences in a more polite way and more respectful. It would have had a better outcome. Perhaps he could have been able to persuade people toward his visions, then their attitudes would have changed and then the culture would have evolved, eventually. It’s a shame that he didn’t work on this part of his job. Perhaps he should have watched Twelve O’clock High for some leadership advice. Good Story. Thanks Art. -Kira