February 2026 | The New Jersey Police Chief Magazine 45
Continued from page 30 The LRM is divided into two parts, attributes and competencies.
• Attributes are acquired personal characteristics
• Competencies are the trained skills gained from education and experience
Collectively, this establishes a framework to align expectations for a leader’ s development, applicable to all. This conveys an expectation for what a leader is, says and does. Essentially a blueprint to build a leader.
BE Be attributes of Character and Presence define who a leader is. Character is defined by actions that are underwritten by what value system they adhere to and inspires them to follow. Do their deeds match their words, do they lead by example, are they honest and trustworthy?
Can they admit their mistakes with humility? Do they have empathy and understanding when in charge, and take the right form with the correct measure of corrective action when needed, fairly and consistently?
Presence is both taking pride in representing the agency or department, in and out of uniform. How people dress, look and act reflect both on the individual and the agency they represent. This is not just keeping up appearances, this is making the effort to always be on time, in the right uniform and ready, which brings confidence to the person as the leader and their followers.
The adage- act confident, even when you are not, for people will not know the difference.
Know The Know attribute of Intellect derives from what a Leader says by drawing on the knowledge learned. Personal self-motivation drives professional study and education to be the best. This is not only book knowledge but being smart enough to recognize what is not known. Learning how to judge effectively, weigh options, read the room, knowing when to speak or not, and what to say and when. This comes from self-reflection, as well as those painfully learned leadership lessons made or self-inflicted by one’ s own actions. Everyone makes mistakes but the key is to own it, learn from it, move on and avoid doing it again.
Do Taken together, Character, Presence, and Intellect enable a leader to DO. A leader who applies their own attributes will learn and do competencies of Leads, Develops, and Achieves; those trained skills on the second half of the LRM. With each advancement comes greater responsibility and the continual need to learn and improve to meet the demands of position.
Leaders do this out of obligation to those they lead and always seek to improve themselves as professionals to become stewards for the organization.