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Leadership Tips for Corrections Professionals

  

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[Ed. Note - Each month we will feature a guest blog post from corrections professionals and industry thought leaders. This month, Mr. Greg Whitaker, Product Marketing Coordinator at Digital Solutions / Inmate Telephone, Inc., writes about the leadership.]

Hi, I’m Greg Whitaker, one of the individuals in the marketing department at DSI.  I am currently involved in the Blair County Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Blair County program which provides local business people with the opportunity to improve their leadership skills and learn how to become servant leaders within the community. 

The most recent session included Dr. Evan Offstein, a graduate of West Point, Central Michigan Universityand Virginia Tech.  He has written several books on leadership and presented us with multiple concepts that struck home right away.  While there were many take-aways from the talk, here are some that I feel will apply particularly well in a corrections environment:

1.  Leaders should have a 1 on 1 relationship with each person working under them. Get to know the people working under you.  You may have ten people under you and see them as a group of ten, but each of them views the relationship as between you as their manager and them.  A one to one relationship.

2.  Effective leaders give second chances to their employees who work hard. Everyone fails sooner or later. While effective leaders do not welcome failure, they do realize that these failures provide a “teachable” moment where they can work with their employee to improve them and prevent future problems.

3.  Don’t create an environment that does not allow for errors.  A zero defect environment does not allow team members to feel safe with taking risks, so your team remains stagnant and cannot grow.  Team members become unwilling to help others and spend more and more time with cover yourself types of activities.

4.  Leaders do not tolerate ethics violations.  Simple mistakes happen.  Ethical violations are far more serious and an unethical team member can ruin your team. You will need to correct ethics violations right away.  This may trump #2 and #3 depending on the violation!

5.  Make your actions match your words.  As my father always said, “Your actions speak louder than your words.”  Make sure that you walk your talk.  Nothing is a bigger morale killer than preaching one thing and doing something else.  If you have a plan and a reason and you stick with it, situations will not dictate your responses.

6.  Leaders develop their team members.  You have to continually work to improve your team.  Each person has something to offer and each have their own capacity for growth. Use both to make both them and your team better.

So, now it's your turn. If you're in a leadership position at a correctional facility, how do you lead for both your staff AND the inmates? Let your thoughts and opinions flow in the comment section below!!