Hire for Character - Train for Skill
A couple weeks ago we finished another leadership class here at the Boone County Sheriff Office. At this time I believe all our employees have been through this 10 hour course that teaches the philosophy of “servant leadership”.
This class originated about 5 years ago when a friend recommended a book for me to read by James Hunter called “The Servant”. I was told it was a fictional book about a leadership retreat. I told my friend that I do not read fiction. For some reason I cannot make myself read that stuff. I would rather spend my time reading something that is true, historical or educational. My friend insisted I would like the book, so I got the book and began to read. After the 1st chapter, I was so impressed; I looked online to see what else I could find that Mr. Hunter wrote.
What I found was one of the best books on leadership I have ever read called, “The World’s Most Powerful Leadership Principle”, (How To Become A Servant Leader). As I began reading the book, I began to take notes. When I finished the book I had 17 pages of notes that I took from this awesome book. I took the notes and separated them by the chapters of the book I took them from. Then I made a worksheet for each chapter.
I contacted the office of the author of the books and asked if I could speak to him and within about a week I received a phone call from Mr. James C. Hunter. I asked him if he had a workbook that would go along with the book to use as study material. He told me no. I told him I had read his book, took lots of notes and had put together a worksheet for each chapter. I asked for his permission to use my worksheets to train all my staff on his book. He was glad to grant permission and I offered to send him the material I had made.
Since then, we have implemented a lot of the same philosophy taught in his book here at the Sheriff Office. Things like:
We hire for character, train for skill.
We manage things, we lead people.
1st duty of a leader is to train more leaders.
There is a difference in leading with power and leading with authority.
There are many more lessons and “rules” of leadership we study here, but these are a few. The bottom line is we want to continue training here at the Sheriff Office in all areas of our careers and leadership is a very important part of that ongoing training.
We’re better people for it. That makes us better employees for the county and better servants to our citizens.
Sheriff Mike Moore