{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Grounded Engagement","title":"SE01 E02 What Is Leadership When the Stakes Are Real? Lessons from 25 Years in Law Enforcement | James Herrington","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2807,"description":"Jim Herrington grew up the eighth of nine kids in Kansas City, raised largely by his mother and siblings in a household where you learned fast how to get along, advocate for each other, and show up for the people around you. He spent over 25 years as a Kansas City police officer before becoming Director of Safety and Emergency Management at Kansas City University -- and the through line across all of it is the same: the leaders who actually changed people weren't the ones with the best credentials or the highest test scores. They were the ones who showed up as human beings first.\nIn this conversation with Kristina Katayama, Jim reflects on what two and a half decades of working with people in crisis taught him about leadership, accountability, and what it means to genuinely have someone's back. He talks about what it felt like to fail the sergeant's exam five times and keep going, about the supervisors who led through fear versus the ones who quietly changed the room without ever raising their voice, and about a moment at a train station -- just after becoming a grandfather for the first time -- that he still considers the most important thing he ever did in uniform.\nWhat you'll take away from this conversation:\nWhy the leaders who shaped Jim most weren't always the good ones, and what learning from a bad boss actually looks like in practice\nWhat 25 years of policing taught him about meeting people at their worst and why that's where real leadership begins\nThe quiet supervisor who de-escalated a situation from 50 feet away, without saying a word about what Jim was doing wrong\nWhy failing the sergeant's exam five times didn't stop him, and what kept him going when the system didn't reflect what he knew he could do\nHow active shooter training actually changes behaviour, and why compliance-first programmes often miss the point entirely\nWhat his mother's fierce advocacy for him as a struggling reader taught him about what people need from their leaders\nConnect with...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/x5xkfdWuX9GmdCJn0ZFNdlTGkxLQjykc0Gn5Spyy9dg/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9jYzVl/NzgyOGI0ZmRiYjZm/YjMxNzEzYjZlOGYy/ODlmNy5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}