s week I am at the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers (ILEETA)annual conference in Wheeling Illinois. In my opinion (based on experience) ILEETA is the premier law enforcement trainers conference and law enforcement trainers organization.
The conference week is always an inspirational learning experience that brings together close to 750 trainers and educators from around the world to share thoughts, tactics, skills and experiences all with the singular goal of improving the quality of law enforcement trainers to keep law enforcement professionals safe.
It is fitting then that I happened to be reading Mark Sanborn’s blog while I was catching up on e-mails in my hotel room. Sanborn is a leadership expert and the author of the book The Fred Factor (a must read for all trainers).
Sanborn was talking about listening to a panel presentation from a conference he attended and how he was reminded of something very important about highly successful people. He indicated two traits of those successful people are:
First, they invest regularly and significantly in their own growth.
Second, they become conduits of what they’ve learned.
It struck me as I read his blog posting that these two factors are reflective of the ILEETA experience. A significant number of the people who attend this conference are here at their own expense and the majority of the trainers who attend the conference invest regularly in their own growth.
Attending this or any other conference or training session however is just the first step. We must then all become conduits of what we have learned. As I have stated in previous posts knowledge is not power. Knowledge has the potential to empower if we share it with other people. The reason I right this blog, write my W.I.N. Newsletter, and have edited and published the three books through Warrior Spirit Books is to serve in some small way as a conduit what what I have learned and continue to learn.
So what are you doing to invest in your own growth and how are you working to become a conduit for what you have learned.
Take care.
Brian Willis
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