Leadership
My quick thoughts on leadership and the leader I strived to be and hope that everyone I worked with could agree.
Communication is key, you have to listen and understand what is being asked, what is needed and what is wanted. I was told once that you can’t learn anything if you’re talking.
I know it might be hard to believe, but English is not my first language, Spanish is. In Spanish you do not work for someone, you work with them. I never liked that about English and always corrected anyone that I worked with when they would say, “I work for so-and-so.” I would say, “You work with so-and-so.”
Leading by example is also key, never did I ask someone to do something they had not seen me do or knew that I had done.
Lastly I never tried to say “I”. I was taught a long time ago to say “we”. I didn’t need someone to do something, we needed to get it done. That also includes “my” team, it was always “our” team.
Charles R. Klingberg
Assistant Chief
U.S. Border Patrol (retired)
