Two Failures, Two Lessons: What we can
Learn from Both Sides of a Botched Promotion

By: Andrew A. DeMuth Jr.

Several months ago, I taught a leadership class to law enforcement officers at a southeastern training facility. As we began the second morning break, a young officer approached and shared a story.

Two years earlier, his agency’s administration called him in and told him that he was being groomed for an anticipated sergeant’s opening. He would receive internal and external training in preparation for this new assignment.

Over the next 24 months, he embarked on an eclectic training regimen in the applicable areas. As expected, the position opened up, and he was thrilled about the soon-to-take-place move. And then he got the news: they went with someone else.

The officer was floored. He felt betrayed by his agency. He approached several commanders who would have been involved in the decision, but most were tight-lipped.

Finally, one captain agreed to meet with him. The officer made his case, but the decision had been made, and there was no turning back. The captain did give him some insight into the reason for being passed over. He told the young officer, “Sometimes, you’re too cocky.”

The officer defended himself to the captain, explaining that he knew his job well and took pride in it. The captain agreed that he was a good officer but again expressed that he came off as cocky.

From here, it was difficult to lock into exactly what happened, but it appeared that the officer shut down. It also looked like he had become the agency malcontent.

The easy explanation, the most common interpretation of this? “It was political; they put ‘the golden boy’ in the position.” Maybe.

“Business as usual. The administration doesn’t care about their people.” Possible.

“He stabbed me in the back to steal the position from me.” Perhaps.

So, what did happen? We know that a meeting took place to decide on the next sergeant. We know that this officer was the choice and that he was given schools and training to prepare him for the position. And we know that, at some point, the agency decided to go in a different direction.

Of course, there are two sides to every story, but for the sake of this article, let’s assume things transpired exactly as this young officer described them.

The First Failure: Leadership and the Promotion Process

There are two powerful lessons here. The first is a lesson in leadership and training.

When an agency decides to promote someone, there must be a comprehensive plan in place. This plan must include a component where the person being promoted receives real-time feedback, and the feedback should be about everything from their written reports to how they conduct themselves in the locker room.

There is no greater function than promoting personnel to leadership roles. (See related article: Protect the Leadership Pipeline) We must get it right, both the selection of the person and the process of preparing them for the role. In the current case, for the agency to change their mind, how many times were negative observations made about this young officer’s behavior? How is it possible that he was not once called in and counseled if he was carrying himself inappropriately?

Future Supervisors Need Real-Time Feedback

As leaders, we want high-performing personnel, but we must understand that as performance increases, often, ego (and cockiness) does as well. When this happens, we need to address it. This might require regular meetings with our rising stars and conversations like: “Hey, John, you are doing some great things here and are starting to get noticed, but you need to keep yourself in check. The quickest way to turn the bosses off is to get too full of yourself.”

Such a meeting might require two or three ranked leaders to make the maximum impact. If done correctly, we can keep our people grounded without shutting them down.
Our job is to always help our people succeed, and that sometimes includes protecting them from themselves. When we fail to have these difficult conversions, and, instead, partake in the whispers about them, we have failed as leaders.

No One Should Be Surprised by a Lost Promotion

The agency could have handled this much better by addressing issues as they saw them. As a general rule, no one should ever be surprised by a withdrawn opportunity without being made aware of perceived behavioral or performance issues and being given an opportunity to correct them. The agency could have also laid out clearer expectations of what they wanted during this preparatory period. And, if it was absolutely necessary to skip this officer for the promotion, the agency should have told him in person rather than the officer finding out from the grapevine. Wholly unacceptable.

They had to know that this would be a crushing blow to this young officer. Their plan? They took the easy way out. “Let’s just bypass him completely.” The worst course of action in leadership is to ignore the problem.

The Second Failure: Emotional Intelligence

The second lesson here is one of emotional intelligence.

This officer had several theories as to why he did not receive the promotion, including those described above. The only explanation he did not consider was the explanation given to him: his colleagues think he is too cocky.

Famed author Daniel Goleman defines emotional intelligence as the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions. One might describe it as emotional maturity, the ability to have difficult conversations. The conversation between the officer and his captain is a ground-zero example of the need for emotional intelligence.

However, instead of recognizing that this conversation might have been the single most significant career-building moment of the 20 to 30 years he had ahead of him in law enforcement, all he could see was betrayal. This captain gave him the most honest and brutal truth of his career, but he could not see it. Chances are, he did not hear one word after “cocky.”

Candid Feedback Can Change a Career

Being able to accept candid feedback about yourself is a superpower. If you can get past the initial sting to a point where you can objectively analyze and grow from what you learned, your career will be a journey of growth and improvement. A single conversation could have an impact that lasts for decades. A single missed promotion could lead to a career full of promotions.

Or you can spend the rest of your career telling anyone who will listen about the time you were wronged, the time you were told you were too cocky.

Two Failures, Two Leadership Lessons

As with all organizational failures, this was a failure of leadership. Leaders need to get the promotional process right.

Leaders also need to develop a rank and file that is emotionally intelligent, coachable, and resilient.

Andrew A. DeMuth Jr. is the founder of Leading Blue, a leadership development firm serving law enforcement agencies and private-sector organizations. He spent more than three decades in law enforcement with four agencies, serving in a wide range of leadership roles, including investigations commander, range master, agency training officer, public information officer, and director of a youth police academy program.

For more than a decade, he managed New Jersey’s CODIS DNA collection program, overseeing compliance, operations, and training for more than 500 participating law enforcement agencies and correctional facilities. He has also served as an adjunct professor at two institutions and speaks throughout the country on leadership, supervision, organizational culture, and professional development.

He is a passionate advocate for transforming law enforcement leadership development from a collection of isolated courses into a modern, comprehensive system that deliberately prepares leaders at every level to build stronger people, stronger teams, and stronger organizations. Visit our Leadership in Law Enforcement page for more articles on leadership.