Anna Loes

Final Leadership Paper

10/15/2020

In evaluating my personal leadership, I want to take the viewpoint of not only how I’ve

grown in the past three years as part of the Breitbach program but also continue to look ahead

and apply characteristics, traits, and concepts to the job I want in the future in law enforcement.

Evaluating my growth in leadership, how these concepts connect to my current life, and applies

the same concepts to my future in law enforcement will not only capture all aspects of my

personal leadership but help to depicture my overall growth throughout my three years in the

Breitbach program.

The 7 C’s of the Social Change Model and Leadership apply very well to my personal

leadership philosophy. While I could spend time speaking to all seven, there are three which

stick out most to apply to the three areas I want to speak about: congruence, commitment, and

controversy with civility. Congruence is behaving with consistency, authenticity, and honesty

toward others in one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (Komives, Wagner, & Bass, 67). This

concept applies heavily to my personal philosophy and future occupation as it would be

extremely challenging to be a successful leader if I thought one thing and acted differently from

that. Especially as a police officer, I can’t believe in and speak of ideas of equality and dignity

for all and then go around treating minorities or anyone who isn’t like me as if they are less.

Commitment is the ability to stay focused and driven toward one’s values, beliefs, and

what they desire to do (Komives et. al, 87). Commitment in anything is important. I firmly

believe that if you approach anything with less than your best effort, there is no point in taking
on that specific project. Truthfully, it is a waste of not only your time but the time of those also

participating or working toward the same goal if you do not commit 100% of yourself to it. If

you are passionate about something, it doesn’t make sense to me to give anything less than your

best effort. I apply this to everything I do and hope to continue this into my future occupation.

Controversy with civility is the recognition that others may not share the same values or

beliefs as you, respecting this, and still seeing these perspectives as valid (Komives et. al, 160).

This is something that has taken some time to get used to as I have grown. I’ve not typically

struggled with respecting others but accepting opinions that differ from my own has always been

difficult. I try my best to approach every situation and person with an open mind and heart to

attempt to understand things from their point of view. I will continue encountering this

throughout the duration of my life and will especially see this in my occupation, as there will be

a lot of times the general public does not agree with the actions of a member of a department,

much like they do right now. Continuing to respect and validate the opinions of others will help

me develop further as a leader.

A quote that I also attribute heavily to my personal leadership philosophy is “If I claim

human rights for myself, I must also recognize those rights for others” (Clark, 16). This aligns

heavily with the golden rule of “treat others the way you wish to be treated”. I cannot expect

others to treat me with dignity and respect unless I treat them with dignity and respect. Even in

the case of those who harm me or do wrong by me, I must still love and respect them because we

are called to do so as humans.

I interviewed Josh Jasper for my leadership interview. Josh is the head of Resources

Unite, which is a non-profit in Dubuque that seeks to aid individuals in the community in any

way they can, whether it be helping pay rent, providing food, or connecting individuals with
housing or employment opportunities. I met Josh in 2019 when I worked as an intern at Live

Like Jack, another non-profit in Dubuque. He helped me maintain my sanity when almost all of

the responsibility for the Thanksgiving Blessing Bags fell in my lap. Josh and I have extremely

similar personalities in our ability to talk to others and true empathy, which I admire deeply

about him. Josh firmly believes that each person has a super power and that his is his true

empathy. He feels like he can really take on the pain and struggling of those he encounters to

understand their situation and help them out in the best way he can.

Josh spoke of vulnerability and the value of shared leadership as two traits leaders need

to posses to be successful. He says that a leader cannot expect to grow if they do not

continuously open themselves up and be real with their peers. He also recognizes that each

person as areas they are strong in and instead of having one person attempt to be a hero and do

everything, it makes more sense to let individual’s thrive in areas they are strong in and share

leadership. He wants Resources Unite to model this so that one day when he is no longer there, it

will still be able to thrive as it currently does instead of becoming a sinking ship. He also spoke

of the need for balance in life and how that can be detrimental to a leader if they can’t properly

do this. If you can’t disassociate from work when you step outside the office and take care of

yourself, a person will burn out so quickly and never be able to stay in one occupation for long.

Brining Catholic Social Teaching into my leadership abilities, concepts like solidarity,

life and dignity of the human person, and the call to community are ones that apply heavily to

what I want to pursue in the future. Solidarity is extremely important in law enforcement. We

must recognize that each person is to be treated with love and respect, regardless of the

difference in race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or whatever causes one
person to be different from myself. Everyone deserves the same benefit of the doubt when I enter

calls in the future.

Going right along with that, recognizing that human life is sacred and steps need to be

taken to uphold this at all costs is always on my mind. I would love to never have to encounter a

situation in which I need to use force of any kind or put any human life in danger, including my

own. The reality is that I will face dangerous situations and people will feel threatened, even if I

present myself as compassionate. I need to do everything in my power to ensure the dignity of all

human life is upheld and respected while also balancing the fine line of knowing that my life

matters too. At the end of the day, everyone wants to go home to their families as much as I do

and keeping that in the front of my mind for each call I go out on will be important.

Answering the call to community is understanding our responsibility to create the

kingdom of heaven on Earth. We cannot create this united community if we are constantly on

edge with each other and have no trust. Everyone has a right to a community in which they feel

loved and valued. It is my responsibility as a law enforcement officer to make sure the

community I serve feels safe. Applying characteristics of love and respect to every person and

every situation I encounter will help create this positive community and aid in creating the

kingdom of heaven on Earth that we seek.

While all three ideas of critical thinking, ethical decision making, and responsible

contributing are important, ethical decision making is one that I will constantly be faced with

when I enter law enforcement. Every choice I make will be under scrutiny. I will have the

responsibility of not only upholding the values and beliefs of the department and community I

work for but also upholding my personal values and beliefs. I can’t expect to be a successful law

enforcement officer if these two areas of beliefs and values conflict. I will have to do my best to
uphold both of these values and ensure some sort of dissonance doesn’t occur. If this can’t be

done, then I will have to understand that the occupation may not be what I am called to do and

go back to discovering what my purpose is. I must also understand the weight and finality of

decisions as they apply to law enforcement. I can’t go in to a call without considering every

opportunity and exhausting all of my options to ensure the safety of everyone involved. This is

something I believe is not considered enough today and I hope to implement this in whatever

department I find myself at in the future.

My three years in the Breitbach program have elicited tremendous growth from me. I

have gained a confidence in myself that I never had before, as I always subjected myself to the

opinions of others and never considered my opinions to hold more power than theirs. I have

discovered traits about myself that I would not have figured out had I been in a different

community. I firmly believe the program has helped lead me down the path I currently find

myself on and without it, I would not be where I am today. I may still be subjecting myself to the

opinions of others rather than following my own heart. I am so grateful for what these three years

in the program have given me in knowledge, community, and confidence. I hope that I can

continue to do my peers and everyone in the Breitbach program proud as I step out into the real

world and apply Catholic values into my everyday life.