Michael Cantrell    00:00:00    Hello, and welcome back to the Prison Officer Podcast. Uh, today I want to talk a little bit about, uh, a couple of subjects and one leads into the other. The, the first thing I want to talk about is leadership and the differences between tactical and strategic leadership. Um, this wasn't explained to me very early on. Uh, it wasn't something that I knew even existed. Um, in my mind, leaders were people who led, and I didn't know that there was this difference between the leaders who get things done and the leaders who have vision, the leaders who have that overall strategic plan with a view of, with a view from above or an overall view. I think most of us, you know, from the beginning of our careers, we're taught to be good tactical leaders in corrections. Uh, it's, it's what we do. You know, corrections officers, we run to the fight.  

Michael Cantrell    00:00:59    We, we go where the action is. And once we've proven that we can, you know, handle that, that we are good at making decisions under those types of situations, normally we'll get moved into those, those tactical leader positions. And those tend to be, you know, either a team member, a team, a squad leader, a team leader. You know, as you move up, you're gonna move into rank as a sergeant and a lieutenant. And those are all good examples of what a tactical leader is. You know, immediate action, rally the troops, lead from the front, you know, straighten to the point, and you're there to solve the problem. You grab half a dozen guys or a squad and you go fix the problem. You've got a, a inmate who's causing you problems in the unit. You grab five other guys, you lead a, you know, a use of force team.  

Michael Cantrell    00:01:52    So, uh, tactical leadership comes easy to a lot of us. But what they don't prepare you for, or what they didn't prepare me for, I guess, was strategic leadership. And strategic leadership doesn't have as much to do with fixing the immediate problem. You know, strategic leaders, they're looking more, they're looking ahead, they're looking for planning. Um, you're, you're trying to determine what needs to be done, why it needs to be done. It involves intentional, you know, high-level thinking, uh, that defines the direction for others to take for those tactical leaders to go forward and, you know, complete the goals and objectives. And with that, with, you know, being a strategic leader, you need to have a different perspective. Tactical leaders, their perspective is usually from either right behind the followers or right in front of the followers. You know, you're either the first one in the stack or, or you're standing back leading those individuals who are, are completing that mission at that moment.  

Michael Cantrell    00:03:01    And strategic leadership becomes a little bit intangible, you know, because it's a higher level of thinking. It's an overall view. It is, um, you know, planning motivation of your staff, developing a vision. Um, you're directing the overall operation of the institution, and you're the one who has to, you know, take that longer term or that higher level view and figure out the systems and the contingencies that need to be in place so that your tactical leaders can execute. I guess I, you know, to me, I kind of put it with chess versus checkers. You know, with checkers, that's more your tactical leadership checkers. You know, you're out there on the board and every move you're jumping, you're trying to make kings, and you're trying to take over that board with chess from the very first move, you're trying to put together a plan or a vision of how you're going to capture one piece on that board, okay?  

Michael Cantrell    00:04:08    You're not worried about, you know, the other pieces on the board, except on how they can get you to that one piece with checkers, you're trying to take everything off the board. So that's kind of the way I look at strategic leadership versus tactical leadership. I look at it as, uh, checkers versus chess. I know many of you have read The Art of War by Sun Zu, uh, but there is a quote in there, and it says, strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. And tactics without strategy is just the noise before defeat. Now, let's break that down a little bit. But they have to have each other, and they have to work with each other. Strategic leadership without tactical leadership is just throwing those people against a problem until they either win or lose. You have to have that strategic vision. You have to have the overall view of the battlefield and the planning that it takes to get your tactical leaders into place to get that victory.  

Michael Cantrell    00:05:15    Otherwise, you're just throwing 'em against a wall. Okay? And he talks about their tactics without strategy is just the noise before defeat. If you send out a bunch of teams and they just all go their own direction after the, uh, the goal, without a strategy, without a strategy to put them together and bring them together without a vision to focus their goals and their tactics, that's just the noise before defeat. And that's absolutely, I mean, we're talking 500 bc and they, he had this figured out back then. I don't know why. I didn't understand the differences between strategic leadership and, and tactical leadership until later in my career.  

Michael Cantrell    00:05:58    And so, understanding strategic leadership and tactical leadership, you know, this takes us to the next step of vision and why vision matters. You know, as a strategic leader, um, vision is a huge part of what you do, um, your vision, you know, it provides meaning and, and orientation for those tactical leaders and their teams. It gives them direction. It helps them focus their energies and lets them engage in the process. It puts everybody on the same playing field, everybody on the same map. A really good vision can even help inspire your staff. And as we know, working in corrections and being leaders in corrections ins, inspiration, motivation, these are key parts to what we do as, uh, leaders. Our staff need motivation. They need inspiration. They need, um, purpose in their work. And a good vision can help with that and can help the staff feel that which motivates them and, and gets the, the projects done, and gets the mission done.  

Michael Cantrell    00:07:11    You know, it allows for day-to-day activities to have more meaning, because it's clear how everyone contributes, how we're working as a team, and people who are working as a team feel better about their goals and the visions of the organization. Um, it, it's so important to have that vision there. Uh, but I think in corrections, it's even just a little bit more important because correctional staff, we don't get the praise or we don't get the pat on the back from the public that maybe some other public service areas do. Uh, so we have to do that ourselves. We have to pat ourselves on the back, and we have to have, um, purpose for why we go to work. And if you look around, uh, I know you see the people who don't have purpose in why they're there. And I was one of those for many years.  

Michael Cantrell    00:08:02    I was very unhappy at work, and that was because I couldn't figure out what my purpose was. Uh, I walked around and I just, uh, I existed at work, you know, I came in, I did a shift, I fed, uh, we showered, we ran rec, and, you know, wash, rinse, repeat. Uh, we did it again the next day, but there was never any vision or purpose to why I was doing this. And therefore, I was unhappy for many, uh, years at the beginning of my career. So, as a leader, it's important that you get that vision out there, that you put it out there in, in clear terms, so that people can grab hold of it so that they can be motivated, and so that they can have meaning in what they do. So I talk about that, um, to take you to the next step of my career, and when my career changed, and when my, um, when my attitude changed, and I ran across an article, and it talked about developing a personal vision statement.  

Michael Cantrell    00:09:08    And there were a lot of things that really, I, I guess when I read that, I felt like I needed it. Uh, I felt like I needed a, uh, a reason, a purpose, you know, because I wasn't getting that with work. And if you don't get it with work, sometimes it's hard to get that in life. Also, because, uh, I don't know about everybody, but for a lot of us, work is a very important part of who we are. And I wasn't getting that. So when I read this article, um, I decided I was gonna sit down and I was gonna make myself a personal vision statement, you know, something that would visually map out and, uh, plan my future, you know, so that I could, I could think about what's it gonna take to get me there. In that article, they said, write a letter to your future self, one, five or 10 years in the future, and to save and review that so that you could tell that you were moving forward so that your personal vision statement was making a difference in your life.  

Michael Cantrell    00:10:08    I don't know that I wrote myself a letter, but I did make some lists. And, uh, over the years, I did go back and review those, and I was able to check mark several things off the list and, and see that I was moving forward. That it wasn't just, um, that daily grind that I thought I was stuck in. And I don't remember, you know, exactly how long it took me to put together my personal vision statement. Um, I worked on it for a while. There were several, and I'm gonna talk to you about it, but there were several events that kind of resonated with me and, and were part of how I developed that vision statement. So, so I'm gonna share my personal vision statement with you. And this has been around for, I don't know, maybe 15, 16, maybe 17 years ago, was when I actually sat down, put this together, wrote it out that I needed to have a, a vision, you know, a direction.  

Michael Cantrell    00:11:06    So, uh, here's my personal vision statement to serve and keep safe, the public, my family, my staff, and those in my charge. I choose to lead for those who cannot, to be a prisoner to nothing. And an example to those who need one, three lines. That's my personal vision statement. Now, let me go through that a little bit, and I'll, I'll, it doesn't have to make sense to everybody, but it makes sense to me. And I'm gonna walk you through how I developed that. You know, of course, the first part to serve and keep safe, the public, my family, my staff, and those in my charge. That's a pretty easy sentence for most of us that work in corrections. Now, I'm gonna have have some people who are gonna say, wow, you've got those in the wrong order. And I did. I, I changed the order of that sentence several times, but I did finally come to the, the realization that to serve and keep safe, the public, that's an umbrella over everybody else.  

Michael Cantrell    00:12:11    You know, my family's part of the public, my staff are part of the public. Even those in my charge are part of the public. So to serve and keep safe, the public was why I went to work every day. Okay? And then the next statement is, my family. Well, of course, right after the public, it's got to be my family. I go to work with the thought that I am providing for them, that I am protecting them, and that what I do at work matters to them. So that's the next part. The one after that was my staff, because after my family, the people that I worked with, the people I depended on the people that I walked into those correctional centers with every day. Those were important people in my life. Even the ones I didn't like. You know, I had friends and I still do <laugh>.  

Michael Cantrell    00:13:05    I had friends. No, I still have friends. But even those people who just, you know, you, you don't agree with him, you, you're not on the same page with them. They're not the same person you are, and they're not people that you, you want to go out to the bar with and have a drink. Even those people stand beside me inside, and I have to give them my respect, and I have to do what I do for them. Does that make sense? So, to serve and keep safe, the public, my family, my staff, and then the last one, and those in my charge. And that was a hard one for me to wrap my head around early on in my career. You know, you're taught early on, it's us and them. It's, uh, you know, they're the, they're the bad guys. And don't get me wrong, it's not that I think that inmates aren't the bad guys, but the public has entrusted me with their care.  

Michael Cantrell    00:14:02    The public has entrusted me to, to keep them inside the fence while keeping them fed, keeping them sanitation up and, and taking care of them in, you know, medical in the other ways. I don't make those rules, but that was the charge that I was given when I, when I took the oath of office to become a correctional officer, that I would take care of those in my charge as well as taking care of the public. So that's the first line of my personal vision statement, to serve and keep safe, the public, my family, my staff, and those in my charge. The next line, it says, I choose to lead for those who cannot. And there's a story that goes with that. My family and I, for many years, when the kids were growing up, uh, we've been to almost all of the Missouri State parks, you know, didn't have a lot of money.  

Michael Cantrell    00:14:56    So, you know, we didn't take big vacations to Disney World, but we could afford several times to, you know, grab some tents and sleep in bags. And later on we bought a camper, and we went to all the parks in the state of Missouri, all the, uh, state parks. So that was something we did all the time. And I remember when this came about, I went, we were at, uh, Merrimack State Park up towards St. Louis, Missouri. I had, you know, the camper was popped up. Uh, we had the fire going. I had probably opened the cooler and pulled a beverage out of there. Um, the kids were playing some games and stuff, and I noticed, I don't know, 10, 15 campsites away. Uh, this car pulls in four college boys get out of it. They open the trunk in this state park. You can hear th and they've got their music going.  

Michael Cantrell    00:15:51    And I understand I've been, I've been young too. And they were pulling out their coolers and setting up their tent. And this music is just rocking this quiet state park with this giant speaker. Well, I'm not the only one that notices. As I look down through there, you know, there's all these people and they've got their heads stuck out their tent. They'll get their head stuck out from their camper. And, uh, you can tell that it's disturbed the entire campground. Well, I watch for a little bit, you know, and I think, well, somebody's gonna step over and talk to them. Well, guess what? Nobody moves. They're all just standing there looking from a distance. So finally, I've had enough, you know, this is supposed to be quiet time. And, uh, so I walked down there and I said, Hey guys, you know, this is a state park.  

Michael Cantrell    00:16:38    Um, I enjoy music too, but you know, you can't crank your music up that loud and, uh, disturb everybody. And, and they were great. We didn't, we didn't, you know, it wasn't antagonistic. We didn't have a problem. Um, matter of fact, I think they gave me a beer to take back to my campsite. But, um, so everything was cool. And then I turned around and walked back towards my campsite, which is like 15 campsites away from all these others, other people standing there looking out their tents and looking out their campers. And they all start clapping and they start clapping for me. Cuz I had walked down there to take care of that. And I've never been that mad very many times in my life, but I was so mad, how come I had to get up? How come I had to walk down there past all of you capable people to go do this?  

Michael Cantrell    00:17:30    And I stood on that for a long time. I truly did. And it, it just burnt at me. Why did I have to go do that? And that was when I realized that, you know, there's a lot of people in this world that can't lead. They don't have the ability to, to run towards the fight. It's not even in them. They don't have the ability to stand up against what's wrong or what's right. And no matter how much they wanted to, they couldn't walk over there. Most people are controlled by their fears. And the confrontation is a learned skill, good or bad. But confrontation is a learned skill. And most of you listening to this podcast, correctional staff, it's a skill that you have learned to hone and to control and to use. And for a lot of people, that's just not something that they can do.  

Michael Cantrell    00:18:24    Being a leader can be lonely. There may be a lot of people clapping, cheering you on, but a lot of the times it's you who has to go out there and stand out front. So I had to kinda come to grips with that, and that was the second line to my personal vision statement. I choose to lead for those who cannot. And there's a lot of them out there, and there's a lot of them inside. Um, there's many times I've had to step up and I've had to go towards the fight or go handle the situation when there were a dozen people between me and the fight, or me and the, the incident. So that's why I put that in there to remind me that not everybody can do what I do. That goes for a lot of you too. Not everybody can do what you do.  

Michael Cantrell    00:19:09    People are gonna downplay our role in corrections, but most of them can't do it. Keep that in mind. So then third part, and the final part of my personal vision statement is to be a prisoner to nothing and an example to those who need one. And there's a few things going on here in this sentence. And the first one is, I've just, I've always been motivated by fear, you know, and not motivated to run away, but I just, I refuse to let fear control me. It's always bugged me ever since I was young, you know, and, and people got me to do some crazy things. You know, I've, I've been down to the lakes and, uh, we used to jump off 40 and 50-foot cliffs into the lake. And this was before bungee jumping. This is just off the, off the bluff into the lake.  

Michael Cantrell    00:19:58    And I'd do it because I refused to be afraid later on in my life. It kind of manifested itself in, in, you know, other ways. One is, um, a fear of public speaking. <laugh>. I know you're kind of gonna laugh at that, but, um, very early on in my career, I didn't feel comfortable standing up in front of people. So what did I do? Well, I became every type of instructor I could, you know, I became a firearms instructor, a disturbance control instructor. Um, and I got up in front of people and I refused to let that fear stop me. And as I did that, I grew as a speaker. And now, what? 30-plus years later, here I am talking into a microphone in front of thousands of people. Oh, and another one. So when I was a teenager, my dad used to keep bees.  

Michael Cantrell    00:20:49    One day he's working with the bees and there's a big chunk of honeycomb off to the side, and he hands it to me. He says, go sit by the truck over there and you can, you can eat that. So I'm like 11, 12 years old, and I'm sitting there chomping on some fresh honeycomb out of the hive, and a couple of bees start running around. And, uh, they're buzzing around my heads and one of them lands on my upper lip and dad goes, don't move. So I didn't move, and the bee crawled up my nose, <laugh>, uh, stung me up inside my nose. Well, of course, I went crazy at that point. I've got honey all over my hands and I jump up and take off running. And that gets a bunch of other bees excited. And before it was over with, I'd been stung like 15 times in the head and passed out.  

Michael Cantrell    00:21:35    Dad had to give me some Benadryl. And we were, we were headed towards the emergency room when I, when I kind of came out of it. But, uh, for years I was scared of bees. So guess what I did About 10 years ago, I became a beekeeper. And that's just another example of, I, I can't stand fear controlling me, you know? So, I've always faced it and I've always put myself in a position to rise up above that fear. And what it's taught me is that really there's not much to be afraid of. Almost every one of those fears. Once I mastered it, once I, um, you know, became an instructor, became a beekeeper, I, I found that, uh, I could overcome anything. And that has went with me throughout my life. S to the point that I'm not scared to try new things. I told somebody just not too long ago, they, they asked me, they said, you know, what do you think was one of the main things that, um, you know, allowed you to promote and, and do what you do now?  

Michael Cantrell    00:22:39    And I told 'em, I said, uh, uh, stepping through the door, you know, when a door opens, you've got a couple of choices. When a door in life opens, you can either stand there and look in and, and wonder what's on the other side, or you can just step through it. And me not giving into my fears has allowed me to just step through the door. I'll deal with whatever's on the other side when I get in there. And, you know, in corrections, a lot of you, uh, just put it in perspective where we're, where we work. How many of you have been on a use-of-force team? You know, that door pops, you could blow all the planning you want on the outside and you think you know what's gonna happen once you go through the door. But for the most part, we don't know what's waiting inside that door until we get there.  

Michael Cantrell    00:23:26    And a lot of life is like that. Just learned to develop your skills, be confident in yourself, and you can walk through those doors. You can step through there. That's what I've done through my life. And the final part of that sentence is an example to those who need one. And once again, this comes back to my work, you know, working in corrections, a lot of, I've had several inmates over the years and they've just told me, you know, thanks for showing me what it looks like to be a normal person. And that's because a lot of them didn't grow up normal. They grew up in some really tough situations. So have a lot of us, I'm not taking that away from anyone. We make choices in life and they made choices in life. But you are able to model behavior for a lot of the people who you, who are in your charge, at your prison, at your jail, at your correctional center.  

Michael Cantrell    00:24:23    The fact that you get up and go to work every morning with an alarm clock, you know, uh, is something that a lot of these people have never seen. You know, they've lived in a, a house where people don't get up till 10, 11, 12 o'clock after they got high the night before. So it's something they don't, that's not even normal to them. The fact that you are nice and respectful and professional to people who may not deserve it, shows them a new way of living. Shows them a new way to be, shows them a new way to interact with those around them, whether it be their family or whether it be people in the public. You modeled that. You gave them the opportunity to see people acting not only as good, decent people, but as professionals And professional does not mean that you always like what you see or that you always enjoy what you do.  

Michael Cantrell    00:25:19    Professional means that you do it at a level that your base emotions aren't controlling you. Does that make sense? So that's my personal vision statement. To serve and keep safe, the public, my family, my staff, and those in my charge. I choose to lead for those who cannot, to be a prisoner to nothing and an example to those who need one. So that takes us to the next step. So what I'd like to see now is you develop your own personal vision statement. And I've talked to some college classes about this and, and they always seem to enjoy it. I, I've broke it down in a way that I think is easy to teach. So here's the three parts of what I believe you need in a personal vision statement. And I call it the why. I call it the way, and I call it the change.  

Michael Cantrell    00:26:10    So let's talk about the why. The why is the first part. And this is what you need to in personal vision statements. You're probably not gonna just sit it down and get it right the first time. I literally worked on mine for maybe a year or two before I came up with the one that fit me and felt comfortable with who I was. But you have to start off with asking yourself some questions. Why do you get up in the morning? What is it that motivates you? You know, you might, and I you hear this a lot in corrections. Well, you know, I go to, to work to make money. Money isn't enough. Money isn't enough to motivate you to get up, whether you recognize it or not. There's other reasons why you have gotten up that morning. People can live without money. They can't live without purpose.  

Michael Cantrell    00:26:59    They can't live without passion. It's not possible. So what is it that does get you up in the morning? Do you like helping others? Do you wanna make the world a better place to live? Do you enjoy watching and helping others succeed? Do you enjoy being a mentor? Um, do you enjoy the public servant aspect of corrections? Do you like going home after a shift and knowing that you made a difference in the world, even if it wasn't entirely recognized? You know, when you leave that prison that for eight hours the public was safe because of the work you put in, is that, is that why you get up in the morning? You know, now money can absolutely be part of why, you know, to buy things for your family to provide for them. I'm not saying that money can't be it, but money can't be the purpose of your vision statement.  

Michael Cantrell    00:27:52    You need to come up with a greater purpose, a greater passion. So think about that. What are your goals? What are your aspiration? The second part of the personal vision statement is what I call the way. And this is, this is an action statement, an as assertion to act to believe or, or make choices that further the why, your purpose, why you get up in the morning, what are you going to do That furthers that in mind. It was a short sentence, I choose to lead for those who cannot. And that was all I put. But you need to have a vision to act to make a choice. And this has to be something that will allow for change. Most of those are gonna start with, uh, statements like I will or I choose to. I believe these are all examples of a decision that you make to further the why, the purpose, the thing that gets you up in the morning.  

Michael Cantrell    00:28:53    And these are all things that once you do them, are gonna allow for the change that you want. So think about that. That's, that's the way. And then finally, the change. Decide on the change you want in your life, your personal growth, uh, your interaction and effect on others' lives. You know, in my personal vision statement, my change was to be a prisoner to nothing. And an example to those who lead, who need one. That was, that was my change that I wanted. And remember, this has to be personal change. We all tend to, uh, think we know what everybody, how everybody else should do things better, how everybody else should act. This is your, this is your personal vision statement. This isn't about other people. So this is things you control, your actions, your words, and your decisions. What are you going to change about yourself?  

Michael Cantrell    00:29:51    And this is another area where you need to sit down, take some thought, uh, examine the areas in your life where you struggle or where you want to improve and grow. And this might be relationships, this might be work, this might just be personal contentment. For some of you, this may be spirituality. You know, this may be where you want to improve and grow and, and what's gonna make you a better person. So think about that change and make sure that it's not things that you're trying to get other people to change. Things you control, to be more accountable, collaborative, and be a better member of my team. You know, that might, that might be a change statement. Um, I choose to, um, be a better mentor to my staff by displaying professionalism, motivation, and integrity on a daily basis. And if, you know, maybe you, maybe you want something more personal, maybe this is about self-growth.  

Michael Cantrell    00:30:48    Maybe you'll say something like, I'll take time each day in self-reflection and meditation, uh, to assess my personal goals and wellbeing. And that's fine. That's, that's change in your life. If you're making a, you know, a dedicated effort to have that self-reflection and to assess your goals on a daily basis, that's gonna actually cause some growth. So those are the three parts, uh, of what I like for a personal vision statement. And the way, uh, I would suggest that you go forward with it. The why, the way, the change. Once you develop this personal vision statement, once you commit to just simple statements such as these, you will now have a way to measure your decisions, your actions, and your life. And what it did for me was allow me, as I was making promotion decisions, as I was making even just basic decisions for, um, where I was going in my career, I was able to look back at this vision statement and think about, is this in line with what I want?  

Michael Cantrell    00:32:03    Right? Does it allow me the opportunity, uh, to serve and keep safe, the public? You know, is it going to put me in a position where I can't lead? Cuz that's something that I have in my vision statement. I'd go ahead and I choose to lead for those who cannot. Does it allow me to be in a position where I could be an example to those who need one? These are my, my personal vision statements, my thoughts. So it allowed me to be able to, to take a look whenever I was doing something and weigh that against my personal vision statements so that I moved forward with purpose. I moved forward within a defined vision, which as a strategic leader over an agency or over a group, that's what you're looking for. So what we're doing is just taking that vision that might be a strategic vision for a company or something so that it guides the company so that it motivates the people to go in a certain direction.  

Michael Cantrell    00:33:02    What we're doing with a personal vision statement is bringing that, uh, into our own lives. I've developed this vision statement that allows me to put a path in front of me that I'm going to stay on. Does that make sense? Another thing I wanna say about personal vision statements. It's not necessarily something you share. You know, you don't need to get a t-shirt made up that says, this is my personal vision statement. Matter of fact, if, if you're living within your vision statement, I think the people that know you and the people that work with you, if they sat down and were asked to write out a personal vision statement that you live by, they should be able to guess most of it pretty easily. What you believe and, and how you have chosen to face life and, and how you're moving through your career.  

Michael Cantrell    00:33:54    I think the people that know you and the mentors and people that you work with should be able to guess all this pretty easily. But it's not something that you need to share because it is personal. It is within you and it it's your own, it's your own journey. So think about that a little bit. Um, and I think, I think one more thing I want to talk about just a little bit, and this is something I, I talk about when I go to the colleges and I, I teach the classes there, I've came up with what I think are my three truths of leadership, okay? I've been doing this a little while and I've, I've led from being a squad leader to a team leader, to lieutenant, captain, uh, chief. And throughout all of that, I have three truths that I think about leadership.  

Michael Cantrell    00:34:47    And the first one is, and I'm not talking about your personal vision statement, but your strategic vision, which I develop now for every project that I'm doing. I, I build a vision. And the most important thing is to share your vision. A lot of leaders, they develop that vision, they hold onto it, they write it down in a book, and they don't share it with everybody. When, when you've got a vision for a group or an organization or a squad or a team, whatever it is, get it out there. Let them know. Just recognize that you do not own the vision. You may have put it together, you may have developed it, it may be based on the goals that you have set, but you don't own that vision. That vision belongs to everybody under you and above you. Cause you all should be working towards the same goals, the same outcome.  

Michael Cantrell    00:35:46    And don't wait to figure it all out before you share your ideas. I found, and I don't know if it's just corrections, but I found that there are a lot of people who have some great ideas, but they always, they're scared to share 'em because they think somebody's gonna steal 'em. Somebody's gonna take my idea and they're gonna get credit for it. Don't wait to figure it all out before you share your ideas. Don't cast your vision in stone. And I'm gonna tell you this about, uh, your, your personal vision statement. Also, you know, my belief is that life is a blackboard if you need to change it and start over. Absolutely. If your life is taken a a different direction and you need to add to that vision statement, absolutely take that eraser and develop a new goal. Uh, it's not cast in stone.  

Michael Cantrell    00:36:34    If that vision needs to change, don't hold onto it till it's, till it's dead. Uh, change it. Adapt it cuz it needs to be something that people can grab, hold to. And it needs to be motivational. It needs to fill people with purpose and passion. The first one of my truths of leadership, share your vision, not your personal vision statement, but share your vision, your vision for the, the team or the company or the agency. You know, I kind of mentioned this, but, um, Harry Truman has a quote and it's a quote that I, oh, it would fix so many problems if everybody would just listen to this quote and follow it as part of their life. And Harry Truman said, it is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets credit. We are so worried. And I, I know in the agency I was in, we are so worried about who gets credit for every idea, every thought, every dollar.  

Michael Cantrell    00:37:33    We've got to let go of that, you know, learn to share credit and you can share credit with everybody, even those who did a small part. Give them that credit. The more credit you give, the more credit you get. Remember that ideas come from all levels. Uh, I've seen so much in my career where ideas go up and then when they come back down, if they do, they've been scrubbed washed and sent back down. It's the same idea, but somebody else is getting credit for it. The best thing you can do, and that's whether you're at the lowest level or whether you're at the highest level of the company, is to share credit. Number one, people see through you. If you're not telling the truth, if this wasn't your idea, people can tell it. If it was somebody else's idea, you're gonna see the passion in the people who truly have the ideas.  

Michael Cantrell    00:38:33    And they're never gonna walk up to you. You, they're never gonna tell you, oh wow, you're taking credit for other people's work. They're not gonna say that, but in the back of their mind, they're gonna know, they're gonna know that you're doing that. And within this, and I got this from uh, um, a captain one time, and he told me this and I thought it was very impactful. He said, don't read your own headlines. Let others, it's more impactful. And that's the absolute truth. If you walk around every day saying, you know, I did this, I did this, I did this, people are going to get wore out with that. But just once, if somebody else goes, Hey, Mike, over there, he did this, it was a great job. That's gonna be impactful to the people that hear it. They're gonna be more impacted by it because it came from someone beside you.  

Michael Cantrell    00:39:21    It's always better to have someone else read your headlines. So that's the second truth of of leadership I like. And then, you know, I, and I, I think I've talked about the little cartoon before with the guy on the island and he sees a boat in the distance and he's yelling boat. And then you reverse the picture and there's a guy in a boat and he sees off in the distance, a a desert island and he goes, land, you know, and neither one of 'em is any better off than they were, but from their perspective, life looks different to 'em, doesn't it? Um, so always remember perspective. Always think about the other person's view. Always think about how somebody else saw that situation. You know, it's been said for years to walk a mile in someone else's shoes. But we can learn as leaders to remember perspective.  

Michael Cantrell    00:40:13    Remember the perspective you had on the agency or your job when you first came into it. It was a nervous time for a lot of rookies. Was it not? The first time I heard a grill slam, I know the hair on the back of my neck went up. Remember that? Remember what those rookies are going through. You know, those first few months of the job, remember three or four, five years into the job when you felt like nobody cared? You've got staff out there who are feeling that right now. Step to them, see if you can help them get through their day a little bit. You know? But always remember the perspective. Can you see the problem from more than one angle? Or are you, are you too attached to your own view to be able to see the root cause of problems? You know, this comes down and you, you've probably been preached to this before, especially those of you in, in the upper management.  

Michael Cantrell    00:41:08    But the three best ways to get past this and to, to get perspective on what's going on. And number one is to get outta the office. If your perspective is always through the, you know, the view of your door, you're not gonna understand what's going on in your correctional facility. You're not gonna understand what's going on in your jail. You've got to get outta that office and you've got to walk around. You've gotta be, be hands-on. And the next thing you can do is ask questions. Quit telling people what to do all the time. That's a hard habit. We get in this, we get in this, um, we get in this mode of operation where we're trying to pass information on from the top down. But the best thing you can do is to ask questions and get that information coming from the bottom up.  

Michael Cantrell    00:41:58    If you want to know what's going on in your jail, if you want to know what's going on in your correctional center, you've gotta get out of the office and you've gotta ask questions. And the other thing you're gonna develop by doing that is motivation. And you're gonna have staff with purpose and you're gonna have people who have more passion in the job they do because they're gonna see and they're gonna hear the people making decisions for them. They're gonna see them out there being part of the solution or at least trying to. And that's what asking questions does. If you never ask questions of your staff, you have separated yourself from them to a point that they no longer have confidence in you because you have no perspective. So that's my three truths of leadership and I hope some of that can help you.  

Michael Cantrell    00:42:52    I hope you can sit down and, and write out a personal vision statement. See if that doesn't help you with purpose and drive, it doesn't help you on that leadership journey that you're taking. And I, I have people all the time that say, I'm not taking a leadership journey. I just want to be a co I don't want to be a sergeant. I don't want to, you don't have a choice in corrections. If you are in corrections, you are a leader of somebody. Now, whether that's an inmate, whether that's the other three guys running rec in your seg unit or whether that's, you know, the other people that lean to you cuz you've got experience and you're look to, as a mentor, you're leading somebody. So you can't tell me that you don't need the leadership skills. Just remember, you know, leadership can't be bought.  

Michael Cantrell    00:43:39    You can't borrow another person's leadership. You can't even get a degree that makes you a leader. It's a journey that you must take if you want it, if you want it for you, and if you want it for the staff who look to you and trust you. That's this episode. I hope you got something out of that. As always, I'm, I'm excited that, uh, uh, you're listening to this podcast. We just hit this week, 40,000 downloads from 54 countries. So, I'm extremely proud of that. I thank all of you that listen to this podcast and support us. Have a great.