#Leadership

Dec 14, 2018
4 min

Building A Better Man

Building A Better Man Men have been under the gun since…well, the very beginning. So what are our options? The only true option is to move forward toward building a better man. But throughout time, men have amassed personal pain along with their earthly accomplishments. A big part of manhood is silently enduring the hurt as a wayward medal of valor. It’s left us wounded, more fragile than we’d ever acknowledge, in an unwelcome transition of gender roles, and unsure where to s

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Scott Silverii

Aug 21, 2018
2 min

Jesus: Team Maker – Team Breaker

Jesus: Team Maker – Team Breaker Years ago, I was assigned as the commander of a brand new, police task force. After 12 years in the mix of it, my boss offered a big rank promotion. I replied, “This is my baby. I can’t leave them.” Part of being a good team maker, is also knowing when to make your break from the team. We get comfortable, and the members grow complacent resting on your image, efforts and activity. While that may feed our ego, it prevents your team from stretch

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$FIT@50 \ week 5$

Scott Silverii

Apr 10, 2015
1 min

FIT@50 \ week 5

FIT@50 \ week 5 Legacy Building Talking with a newly promoted commander I encouraged him to consider how he wanted to be remembered. “Think about building your legacy today,” I said, “not on your deathbed.” He leapt to his feet and shared a movie scene he felt applied. Warring kings agreed to have their respective champions fight in their place. King A calls a giant, menacing soldier. King B calls a guy—who’d decided to sleep in that morning. An apprentice was dispatched to r

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Scott Silverii

Jan 15, 2015
2 min

TPD Celebrated 3rd Annual Blue Summit

“We are a shining example to the nation that you can combine compassion and policing to achieve great things.” Those are the words heard by Thibodaux Police Department personnel as Thibodaux Chief of Police Scott Silverii spoke at Blue Summit, the agency’s annual departmental meeting. The entire department gathers once a year to share a meal, receive awards, and hear from Mayor Eschete and Chief Silverii, who recap the previous year and share a vision for the next. “I love th

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Scott Silverii

Dec 9, 2014
3 min

Crucibles of Leadership (part 4)

In our interviews, we heard many other stories of crucible experiences. Take Jack Coleman, 78-year-old former president of Haverford College in Pennsylvania. He told us of one day, during the Vietnam War, when he heard that a group of students was planning to pull down the American flag and burn it—and that former members of the school’s football team were going to make sure the students didn’t succeed. Seemingly out of nowhere, Coleman had the idea to preempt the violence by

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Scott Silverii

Dec 2, 2014
8 min

Crucibles of Leadership (part 3)

Geeks and Geezers We didn’t set out to learn about crucibles. Our research for this article and for our new book, Geeks and Geezers, was actually designed to uncover the ways that era influences a leader’s motivation and aspirations. We interviewed 43 of today’s top leaders in business and the public sector, limiting our subjects to people born in or before 1925, or in or after 1970. To our delight, we learned a lot about how age and era affect leadership style. Our geeks and

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Ferguson & Public Engagement | What are they good for?

Scott Silverii

Nov 29, 2014
2 min

Ferguson & Public Engagement | What are they good for?

What’s the best time to plant a tree? – 30 years ago. What’s the next best time to plant a tree? – Today In general, law enforcement has made for horrible horticulturalists. We’ve not tilled the soil of community engagement as a practice. Now we wonder why no one understands us. When an incident like Ferguson erupts, the pundits hurry to fend off allegations from a civilian population incessantly asking for answers. I’ve had so many tell how they’ve unfriended people on socia

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Scott Silverii

Nov 27, 2014
3 min

“If Not Us, Who?”

My heart weighs heavy in this week before the important decisions contemplated by a civilian grand jury in another state. After nearly 25 years of serving my community and country, I see the potential for an occupationalrevolution. The potential for substantially significant cultural change. While most revolutions are spurned through violence, this cannot be one of them. Soon, events born in violence will again effect this country. Not just for today, but years to come. Regar

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Scott Silverii

Nov 25, 2014
2 min

Us versus Them | A Ferguson Outcome

Us versus Them: Sunday I shared the burden on my spirit in anticipation of the grand jury decision, “If Not Us, Who?” (https://www.facebook.com/CopsWritingCrime) It wasn’t about an outcome. It was that our nation rallied on either side of the issue based not on facts and evidence, but on historical perspective. Truth is, there’s more than one narrative to American history. Just before turning off the news, I received a private message. Simply, it read – We Won! In clarity, I

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Scott Silverii

Nov 25, 2014
5 min

Crucibles of Leadership (part 2)

Learning From Difference A crucible is, by definition, a transformative experience through which an individual comes to a new or an altered sense of identity. It is perhaps not surprising then that one of the most common types of crucibles we documented involves the experience of prejudice. Being a victim of prejudice is particularly traumatic because it forces an individual to confront a distorted picture of him- or herself, and it often unleashes profound feelings of anger,

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Scott Silverii

Nov 18, 2014
4 min

Crucibles of Leadership (part 1)

What makes a leader As lifelong students of leadership, we are fascinated with the notion of what makes a leader. Why is it that certain people seem to naturally inspire confidence, loyalty, and hard work, while others (who may have just as much vision and smarts) stumble, again and again? It’s a timeless question, and there’s no simple answer. But we have come to believe it has something to do with the different ways that people deal with adversity. Indeed, our recent resear

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Scott Silverii

Oct 16, 2014
2 min

Leading or leaning?

Think of those immediately surrounding you in supervisory positions. Now filter out your natural biases, jealousies or negative comments. Just look around. How did they get to where they are? Okay, now you’re free to flood the responses with whatever your perception is of how they arrived at that level. Some of your suspicions are probably true. This article isn’t as much for those being led, as those doing the leading. Ask yourselves how’d you get where you are? Was it becau

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Community policing starts at the top – the Very top

Scott Silverii

Sep 3, 2014
1 min

Community policing starts at the top – the Very top

Thibodaux Mayor Eschete and Bicycle Patrol #Leadership #police #BicyclePatrol #IPMBA #Silverii #MayorTommyEschete #Communitypolicing #thibodaux

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Scott Silverii

Nov 26, 2013
2 min

Lead Thyself

Lead Thyself: Quick Tips for Those Managing Themselves There’s a common misconception regarding the title of “leader”: You don’t have to be a manager or a supervisor in order to lead. If you’re providing direction or support to fellow colleagues, you’re a leader. More importantly, being a leader starts with being able to manage yourself effectively. If you one day wish to move up the corporate ladder and lead others, you must start with yourself. Even if you have no intere

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Scott Silverii

Nov 13, 2013
5 min

Cops and Cavemen; Come out of the Cold

First posted Law Enforcement Today; March 25, 2013 in Featured, Leadership, Posts by Chief Scott Silverii, Ph.D. What’s With This Person? I was speaking with a Law Enforcement Agency’s Commander about an officer who just did not seem to grasp an agency’s vision. Although clearly communicated over the last several years in agency-wide meetings, in-services, e-mails, social media, and personal conversations the officer just refuses to “get on board.” This Commander is fully com

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Leadership, Smeadership | Get your own coffee

Scott Silverii

Nov 4, 2013
2 min

Leadership, Smeadership | Get your own coffee

I’m often asked by officers, media and my college students about leadership. Seldom is asked what it takes to be led, or how to actually lead; but mostly when do “I get a chance to lead” or “I want to lead now.” I appreciate the enthusiasm, and if sincere, the desire to offer themselves up for the sacrifice to lead others. Sacrifice? Did you say “sacrifice?” No one ever mentioned sacrifice. Guess what? Servant leadership requires sacrifice. You must understand that to lead, y

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Scott Silverii

Oct 14, 2013
4 min

Women in Leadership: Good for Us All

Image credit: Shutterstock September 30th, 2013 by Kellie McElhaney The topic of the value of getting more women in the top echelons of corporate leadership has garnered a great deal of coverage as of late. Credit Suisse published a report in 2012 stating that their research shows that having more women on corporate boards increased both the share price — particularly in volatile markets — and the return on equity (ROE) of companies. Norway, the first country to have institut

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Scott Silverii

Sep 24, 2013
3 min

When God has a Message | Just hush

Developing a talking theme for the year’s last quarter, I thought about leadership. Everyday my inbox is inundated with training solicitations for courses on leadership. Sure, everyone wants to lead, guide, direct and command. It’s our manifest destiny standing at the helm with a sword in one hand inspiring the troops. Today we can learn how to do it for a very reasonable registration fee, travel, hotel and per diem. Then I thought about learning to serve instead. Jotting ide

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Scott Silverii

Aug 1, 2013
2 min

Wanna Pull a Train?

Pulling the Train Recently returning to recreational cycling, I’ve enjoyed heading out after work for as long as the sunlight allows. These rides are usually alone, and the hours of solo saddle time allows for so many thoughts to get sorted out. It’s amazing how mental the physical act of cycling can be. There are also the other fantastic times when I join other cyclists. With a little experience, instruction and commitment most people become comfortable in a pace-line, or “t

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Scott Silverii

Apr 5, 2013
2 min

Leadership: Trust Me

Thibodaux Police Chief: ‘Trust me’ Editor’s Note: This article is an archived media piece posted in January 2011 when Chief Silverii first took office. Newly appointed Thibodaux Police Chief Scott Silverii speaks to the department as a group for the first By: Nate Monroe Published: Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 11:01 a.m. THIBODAUX — Thibodaux Police Chief Scott Silverii wanted to make sure his officers were ready to break with the past. In the opening portion of a speech add

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