The Professional Reading Program is intended to save leaders that most precious commodity - time.

This post was inspired by a post at the Business Insider: General James 'Mad Dog' Mattis Email About Being 'Too Busy To Read' Is A Must-Read The General was asked by a colleague about the importance of reading for officers who often exclaimed they were too busy to read. The general’s response:

Sid Heal sent this very insightful piece on leadership and its development for me to share with those who frequent this Blog. It was written back in August 2009 By GEN. TONY ZINNI and TONY KOLTZ. great insights on the age old questions are leaders born, made...or something in between?

Where good leaders come from.

“If you light a lamp for someone else it will also brighten your path.” ~Buddha

Seth Godin has a short but powerful blog post today titled "Beyond Showing Up" I thought I would share here with a few remarks as the quote pertains to cops.

I received a newsletter from Brian Willis of Winning Mind Training, that offers some great advice on not being afraid to make a fool, of yourself. Yes that's correct; in the risk averse culture of law enforcement he recommends not being afraid to make mistakes. In my view this is sound advice because making mistakes and then applying the lessons learned to become better is what it leads to. The current state of things in law enforcement when it comes to mistakes is all too often to punish for them.

“The most powerful drive in the ascent of man is his pleasure in his own skill. He loves to do what he does well and, having done it well, he loves to do it better. You see it in his science. You see it in the magnificence with which he carves and builds, the loving care, the gaiety, the effrontery. The monuments are supposed to commemorate kings and religions, heroes, dogmas, but in the end the man they commemorate is the builder.” ~Jacob Bronowski

"Vision is what you see for tomorrow, and is an aspiration informed by insight and driven by desire. Your vision is a mental image of something that has not yet occurred or a state not yet achieved.” ~J Scott Shipman

• Autonomy the urge to direct our own lives (Daniel Pink)
• Mastery-the desire(INTEREST)to get better (Daniel Pink)
• Purpose-a yearning for something larger than self (Daniel Pink)

I got these wise words or better yet "critcal questions" from the Brian Willis, newsletter W.I.N. (WHATS IMPORTANT NOW) we should all consider asking before you answer a question we often keep internal "Are You Ready?"

...To question the beliefs is to question their authority; to accept the beliefs is evidence of loyalty to the powers that be, a proof of good citizenship. Passivity, docility, acquiescence, comes to be primal intellectual virtues. Facts and events presenting novelty and variety are slighted, or are sheared down till they fit the procrustean bed of habitual belief. Inquiry and doubt are silenced by citation of ancient laws…This attitude of mind generates dislike for change, and resulting aversion to novelty is fatal to progress.