Leadership Lessons From “the Cop Who Didn’t Shoot”

Top image source: CityNews https://youtu.be/Hd3eEHYccPw

It was a glorious spring day in Toronto. Just 1 week before, there had been a surprise storm that deposited 3 to 4 inches of crusty snow over the city. We all wondered if spring “didn’t get the memo.” On Monday April 23, it did. The sky was clear, not a cloud in sight, the day was warm (by Toronto standards), and everyone wanted to be outside. Shorts, sandals and smiles roamed the streets.

That afternoon, I attended a talk at University of Toronto by Dambisa Moyo, the world-reknown Zambian economist. After the talk was over, I switched on my phone to see a slew of messages from my sister and my cousin in New York:
“Are you OK?” “Have you heard?” “Isn’t it terrible?”

I checked my news feed. A van had ploughed into pedestrians on Yonge Street, south of Finch. I recalled the announcement on the train as I had travelled to the presentation, that service had been terminated at Sheppard/Yonge station due to “an incident at street level.” The area is 2km from my home. My children attended Earl Haig High School, a mere 3 blocks east of Yonge. Years ago, my daughter had worked at the Starbucks at Mel Lastman Square, the community hub on Yonge Street, just south of Finch. My son works at the Goodlife Gym less than 100 metres below the square. I called him: “There are bodies everywhere” he reported. This was literally close to home.

10 innocent lives going about their daily business on a lovely spring day, were lost. 15 people were injured, most critically. And the perpetrator appeared in court on Wednesday. We are used to incidents like this ending with the perpetrator cut down in a hail of bullets. Justly so, we opine. But not this one. In a mere 37 seconds, a lone police officer, Const. Ken Lam, captured him. No bullets were fired, no blood spilled. I have watched the video of the capture countless times. By itself, without the knowledge of what the perpetrator had wreaked, it is a dance, a sidewalk duet. In the dance, the perpetrator advances and Const. Lam steps back, then moves sideways. There’s a moment when he raises one leg, and slams it to the ground with the full force of his body. I jump watching it. He paces from side to side, moving forward gradually. The perpetrator raises and lowers his arms, mimicking the movements of someone with a gun. He retreats and a few seconds later he is lying on the sidewalk, subdued by Const. Lam. As I view that video, the news reports and the interview with Const. Lam’s father, it strikes me that there are some lessons for leaders when faced with crisis situations.

1. Assess the situation before taking action. Const. Lam appears to have realised that the object in the perpetrator’s hand was not a gun. We are used to reports of police saying, “I thought he had a gun” and then finding out that the object was a phone, or nothing at all.
   • LEADERSHIP LESSON: take the time to assess the situation before rushing to action. This allows you to make an informed decision. Is there a risk? Yes. But there’s also a risk of acting without taking the time to understand what’s going on.
2. Minimise noise. Const. Lam was headed to the scene when he saw the van crash on the sidewalk. His siren was still blaring, as he faced the perpetrator. His hand holding his gun not wavering, he reaches with the other hand into the vehicle and switches off the siren. 3 things happened – he was able to hear what the perpetrator was saying, the perpetrator was able to hear him, and tension was diffused.
   • LEADERSHIP LESSON: turning down noise, be it from a siren or shouting voices in a boardroom, calls in the power of silence, allowing what truly needs to be heard, to be heard. It starts to bring calm to the situation, laying the foundation for resolution.
3. Training matters. In 2013, there was a horrific incident in downtown Toronto with Sammy Yatim, a young man who had caused a disturbance on a streetcar. Passengers disembarked, but the streetcar driver remained calm at the controls. As Sammy descended the steps onto the street, a police officer pumped 8 bullets into him. He had been armed with a pocketknife. He died a few hours later. Since then, Toronto Police Services has reportedly embarked on training for its police officers on how to diffuse such situations. On Monday, that training paid off.
   • LEADERSHIP LESSON: make sure your team is trained to handle exceptional situations, the unthinkable “what ifs.” And when incidents do happen, ensure that you take corrective action to reduce the possibility of a recurrence.
4. Values matter. Const. Lam’s father was a police officer in Hong Kong. In an interview after the incident, he stated: “The responsibility of a police officer is to minimize casualties” and continued: “I’m very happy because he (his son) successfully handled the situation. He didn’t fire his gun, and no one got injured. He did his job.” These are the values that Const. Lam grew up with. These are the values that guided his actions on that day.
   • LEADERSHIP LESSON: ensure that you are clear on your own values, and the core values of the organization. Do your team members know and understand what the values are, and how they should behave? Do you demonstrate these values by consistently modelling the behaviours? Values are the foundation of your culture, and the root of successful strategy execution. They matter.

Const. Lam is now known as “the cop who didn’t shoot.” He is hailed as a hero (neither he nor his father think he is – he was just doing his job). How are you known when dealing with a crisis? The leader who “shot from the hip” or the leader who took quiet, calm control of the situation and resolved it successfully? Choose.

View the analysis of it, here