The NJ Police Chief Magazine Volume 25, Number 6 | Page 5

The New Jersey Police Chief Magazine | June 2019
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
MITCHELL C. SKLAR
LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE
There are two truisms that cannot be disputed, nor can they be avoided: life is short, and the best
learning is by experience. The combination of these two truisms leads to one conclusion – to
maximize your potential you must study the experiences of others. 1 Of course, direct personal
experience is the best guide, but knowledge is usually limited in scope and is often in short supply.
Theory is one substitute for experience but alone is far from satisfactory. Not nearly so neat and clear
-cut as theory, but far more illustrative of the complexity of human factors, is history, which is
nothing more than the experience of others. Changes in technology render some lessons obsolete, but lessons draw from
history and biography are timeless because they spring either from universal principles or from universal human
characteristics. 2
It is with this in mind that the NJSACOP has expanded our highly regarded portfolio of high quality, innovative leadership
development experiences. Over a decade ago we inaugurated our NJSACOP Staff Rides for Law Enforcement Leaders,
adapting the military staff ride concept for the needs of police professionals. Based upon feedback from our attendees and
input from our members, we have added similar modules to several of our other professional development courses, with
others still in the development stage. And taking this concept to an even higher level, we have developed and offered the
innovative NJSACOP Normandy/D-Day Leadership Experience and NJSACOP Battle of the Bulge Leadership
Experience.
Why study the lives and careers of great leaders of the past? For the answer, we need look no further than to, well, one of the
great leaders of the past. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was asked his opinion as to the essence of leadership. His response:
“Making decisions.” 3 When asked how one develops as a decision maker, Ike’s response was equally direct: “Be around people
making decisions.” 4 In other words, the best way to develop as a leader is to “be around” those who lead. That being the
case, what could be better than to “be around” history’s greatest leaders? That is the premise behind our staff rides, as well
as our presentations on other great leaders that are included in each session of the NJASCOP Police Executive Institute.
The study of the great leaders and decision makers of the past provides the raw material for wise decisions today and
tomorrow, since all of us are prone to the same kinds of mistakes our predecessors made. We can emulate the successful
leaders of the past, and learn from their mistakes as well. Certainly no great leader is a copyist. Those who have slavishly
copied earlier leaders nearly always fail. However, a leader might be isolated in time from others, but can achieve a unity with
them by the responsibility they have shared. Most great leaders have, throughout history, studied the experience of those
that came before, profiting by their mistakes, and capitalizing on their success. 5
Still, you may ask if even the study of great leaders can be effective in teaching leadership. This is, perhaps, the wrong
question. According to two of the most prominent thinkers and writers on the topic, 6 a more relevant question is: Can
leadership be learned? The answer is a resounding “Yes.” One of the tools at our disposal in setting out on the life-long effort
that is learning to lead is studying the “art of leadership” from history’s great leaders. 7
Rudy Giuliani wrote: “Leadership is mostly a skill that people learn. They learn from their parents, from their friends and
colleagues, from their teachers, and from their clergy. But leaders also learn from leaders they’ve never met – by reading
about them.”
You supply the parents, friends, colleagues, teachers and clergy. We’ll supply the leaders you’ve never met – via the NJSACOP
Staff Rides for Law Enforcement and our other presentations on history’s great leaders.
Mitchell C. Sklar, Esq.
Executive Director
______________________________________________________
1.
William Robertson, The Staff Ride [U.S. Army Center of Military History, Washington, DC 1987], p. 3
2.
Id.
3.
Edgar Puryear, American Generalship: Character Is Everything [Ballantine Books, New York 2000], p. 340.
4. Id. at p. 74.
5.
John Laffin, Secrets of Leadership: Thirty Centuries of Command [Sutton Publishing, Gloucestershire, UK 2004], p. 2.
6.
Robert Taylor and William Rosenbach, eds., Military Leadership: In Pursuit of Excellence [Westview Press, Boulder, CO 2000], p. 3.
7. Id., at 4, quoting Gen. Matthew Ridgeway: “[L]eadership is probably a combination of art and sciences. He thinks that there is far more art than science involved. He describes the chief
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ingredients of leadership as character, courage and competence. His advice for developing leadership
is to read history and biography, work hard, be humble, and be oneself.”