Plan of Action for Criminal Justice Leaders

Introduction

Criminal justice refers to a system that is set up for the purpose of running specific practices and various institutions that belong to the governments. The efforts of the system are directed towards maintaining command over social relations. In addition, it assists in stopping and justifying crimes committed. Furthermore, the system punishes people who abuse the laws of the corresponding country with criminal punishments and penalties and comes up with efforts for rehabilitation. Criminal justice leaders are of two types, the enforcers of law or the legal ones. Law enforcers do activities such as policing while the legal leaders provide services such as representation.

Political Issues which Pertain to Criminal Justice Leaders

Heifetz and Linsky (2002) raised three important issues to be addressed that relate to politics. The first is the aspect of knowing how to deal with individuals who are on one’s side or have the same line of thought relating to the case at hand. The second factor brought out is to know how to manage the people who are opposing one and his/her opinion on the issue at hand. The third aspect is being able to work with the individuals who are not committed but are on one’s guard (Heifetz & Linsky, 2002).

Vision

According to Heifetz and Linsky (2002), people in authority have the power to make criminal justice pace up. The authors argue that when a person in authority is making an agenda he/she can be able to postpone the provocative issues in two ways (Heifetz & Linsky, 2002). The first method is to strike the aspects off the agenda, while the second one is to exclude the advocates of the provocative issues from participating at the stages that are termed as early. If this was to happen, then the rate of change in criminal justice would be modulated.

Core Values

It is important to prepare individuals for a task that is awaiting them. In order to achieve this, one must be able to take control of the situation at hand. As a leader, one has to try to change something that is deemed strategic. When dealing with matters, one should consider how difficult they are, how tolerant is the community with which he/she is dealing, the environment where the authority is held and how strong one’s relationships of authority are. Calculation of the risks involved is important before making a decision on how to act as a leader (Heifetz & Linsky, 2002).

Planned Goals and Objectives

For a leader, it is important to maintain the momentum during a time of change. It is significant to find a way of reminding individuals to have positive vision (Heifetz & Linsky, 2002). The best way to attain this would be to set objectives which must include having a way to save the system of a free market and coming up with ways to protect democracy. A way to achieve the goals is drawing the future in people’s imagination so that they would accept it and work with the leader towards fulfilling the dream while, at the same time, securing him/her from being targeted when anyone resists (Heifetz & Linsky, 2002).

Addressing Political Issues

According to Heifetz and Linsky (2002), the best way to address political issues is to find partners. Finding a partner helps one know when things happen behind his/her back without his/her knowledge. For instance, a meeting being held in one’s absence prior to an official one in which the person in question is expected to participate. When a meeting is held in someone’s absence, it means isolation, where the people in attendance reduce their differences leaving the leader on the sideline in the official meeting (Heifetz & Linsky, 2002).

Notably, the best way to handle politics is by keeping the people who are opposing one close (Heifetz & Linsky, 2002). For a leader to be successful in leading, working hand in hand with the people who oppose him/her is essential just as it is with working with those who strongly show support for the work he/she is doing. Instead of wasting time exchanging abuse with opposing persons, it is rather easier to have them close as one will always know their next move towards him/her and hence one will be more prepared to counter them.

The next big step is to accept the responsibility for the things that one might have done and which appeared to be wrong (Heifetz & Linsky, 2002). In reality, when a person is leading a team and the team has a problem, then he/she is also part of it. It is important to identify the role the leader played in things which went and accept the responsibility he/she bears for his/her actions that led to the prevailing situation. Particularly, when one always blames others for mistakes that occur then he/she is building opposition and resistance to himself/herself which is risky.

Another way to handle politics is acknowledging other people’s loss. When a person is asked to give up something he/she has been used to for decades, it creates animosity within a team and can lead them to planning an upheaval. For this reason, it is important for the leader to let people know in detail why they are expected to sacrifice something like position in power and make it very clear to them that it also hurts him/her to make them sacrifice something; make them know that he/she actually knows how valuable the position is and how relevant they have been (Heifetz & Linsky, 2002).

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