^{*The following was written by Mecosta County Sheriff Brian Miller for the December edition of his monthly editorial.}

Last spring, Muskegon County Sheriff, Mike Poulin, sent an email to members of our Michigan Sheriffs’ Association District 3 group about leadership training he had attended at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia with the National Sheriffs’ Institute. The National Sheriffs’ Institute (NSI) is sponsored by the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) in collaboration with the Major County Sheriffs of America (MCSA), the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), and the National Association of Counties (NACo). The NSI is the only executive leadership program designed specifically for first-term sheriffs. The best part: it was free to me and our agency.

I just completed the weeklong NSI Leadership Development Course. During the week, we had an opportunity to consider the current state of our office and the changes or improvements we can make, whether we are in our first term in office or beginning our second. To successfully fulfill the duties and responsibilities of being Sheriff, we need to have the knowledge and leadership principles to ensure we are maximizing the service our office has to the citizens of our communities. 

Among the topics we covered this week were ‘Sheriff as a Leader’, ‘Defining your Leadership Direction’, ‘Self Awareness’, ‘Developing your Executive Team’, ‘Building and Maintaining Professional Ethics throughout the Organization’, ‘Emotional Intelligence and Motivation’, ‘Building Trust and Engaging with your Community’, and ‘Leading and Developing External Partnerships’. The topics are not worth it unless you take something from the presentations.

There are just over three thousand sheriffs in the country. If you wear a badge on your chest or a patch on your shoulder, make no mistake: a sheriff’s actions and behaviors will affect the rest of us. Making the rights decisions benefits all sheriffs. Having personal and professional accountability mechanisms in place prevents us from going down that slippery slope of dishonor or even skirting the edge. Thinking of it this way, little things become big things. If you are by yourself and without a good executive team or other sheriff to speak to, you rarely realize your mistakes until it is too late. 

One thing learned was to wield the power and authority we have wisely and continue to be a positive example for others. We always want to highlight our commitment and dedication to those we serve to the best of our ability. This is no different than the message I try to relay to my two sons every day, “Do your best and I love you.”  I always attempt to strive to be the best version of me I can be and want our staff and my kids to do the same. This is why I want training to be a priority not only for our staff, but me too.

This week was about self-reflection and examining the strengths and weaknesses we all have and the impact they can have with your agency and the stakeholders in it. This relates to how you run it or the projects you have in relation to it.

As important as the material was, just as important was the group of people we had in our class. I must admit, I had a little anxiety flying to Virginia and being gone for a week. The anxiety lowered before ever leaving Grand Rapids when meeting Ottawa County Sheriff Elect Eric DeBoer. We shared a flight, spent time seeing some places in Washington D.C., before catching our bus to Quantico.

Once there, our group of twenty-three sheriffs from all over the United States, including Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon, Ohio, Kentucky, North Carolina, Mississippi, and Texas, quickly developed a close bond. There was Tim, from Kentucky, who had an agency of seven people, and then Ed, from Texas, who had 5,000 people. There was also Jeremy from Kentucky, who was an ultra-runner who runs two hundred miles at a time. We met Mario, from Mississippi, who has 26,000 residents and is already sitting at 23 homicides this year. We had Kevin, from Texas, and Tim, from Virginia, who both were taking over for sheriffs who had been indicted on criminal charges and left the office. We had Tyree, from North Carolina, who was the first black sheriff in his county and spoke of the segregation that still

goes on in his county. We had three sheriff elects who hadn’t taken office yet, Eric, Kevin and Trey, from Texas. We had one female in the class, Caprice, from Oregon. There was Curt, Cody, Todd, and Roy, all from Wisconsin. Roy became our class photographer. From Minnesota, we had Eric, Eric, Gordon, and Steve. Matt was from a county in Ohio, north of Columbus, but I did not hold that against him. Jeremy, from Mississippi, was our youngest sheriff at 36-years-old. There was Tyrone from North Carolina, who with his infectious personality and snappy dressing kept everyone engaged. The two elder men, who were filled with wisdom and experience were Willie and Clarence, both from North Carolina. You would just sit back and listen when they spoke. One that stuck with me was when Willie said, “The longest distance you have is the three feet between the front and back of your desk.”

Despite our age, the size of our offices, or the makeup of the communities we were serving, our challenges were all the same at different scales. We have a circle of friends in our respective areas, but hearing an outside perspective was worthwhile. The 123rd Session of the NSI Leadership Course made a lasting impact on me and our future at the Mecosta County Sheriff’s Office.