My guest this week is Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings.

You may know Director Rallings from leading the Memphis Police Department. After announcing his retirement for the year 2021, I wanted to speak with Director Rallings to understand what it felt like when he accessed and walked with protesters off the Mississippi River Bridge in 2016. This is a replay of an episode that was recorded in the summer of 2020.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• The principles that he has lived by throughout his life
• What a global perspective teaches him about the City he leads
• How to have context for the big picture when you're thinking about specific challenges
• And more

Please enjoy my conversation with Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings.

1:40 Family, Dignity, Respect, and Loving People

1:57 Being Responsible for one’s own actions

3:08 Why discipline matters

3:39 Only two things I wanted to be: a soldier and an officer

4:36 Parents didn’t want me to join

7:20 The sacrifice others have made

7:35 What others have done for me

8:41 What a true global perspective gives you

12:24 George Floyd

12:41 Actual facts about law enforcement

15:00 Soldier for life

16:45 Look at the whole body of work

21:29 I have a long way to go

24:10 I am not going through anything anybody else hasn’t

24:40 Criticism has few terrors for a man with great purpose 

26:30 If it’s good to my boss it’s great to me

27:17 You can’t do it all

28:23 Drown out the noise and do the work

29:44 Only hear because of the grace of God

30:04 Love yourself

33:20 President Obama I made a mistake every day

36:20 Getting in harms way

40:36 Negative Media

42:41 Transitioning career and getting to know Mike

RESOURCES

Matt Haaga State Farm

AB Jets

Memphis Police Department