September 8, 2026 | Podcast
The Active Share Podcast
The Active Share Podcast
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In a world where law enforcement faces unprecedented challenges, the role of leadership has never been more critical. On this episode of The Active Share, Hugo sits down with Kristen Ziman, Aurora, Illinois’s first female chief of police and now a sought-after leadership consultant, who shares her journey and the transformative power of effective leadership in policing. Kristen also reflects on how optimism, transparency, and courageous conversations can transform not just police departments, but any organization facing turbulence and change. Her story provides a unique blueprint for leaders who are ready to build trust, drive accountability, and create cultures that thrive—even when the pressure is on.
Comments are edited excerpts from our podcast, which you can listen to in full below.
Kristen Ziman: I grew up with a dad who was both a Marine and a police officer, so I was around law enforcement early. There are two moments from my childhood that have stuck with me.
The first was driving past a car accident. We pulled over, and my dad told me, “Don’t move,” then jumped out and started pulling people from the car and helping them. I remember everyone else just kept driving.
The second moment was at a toll booth, and my dad threw the car in park, ran out, and started wrestling with a drunk driver who’d crashed. And again, cars just kept passing by.
I was about 8 the first time, 10 the second time, and I had this realization: first responders run toward what everyone else runs away from. I’ve wanted to be a police officer ever since.
Kristen: Absolutely, but I didn’t know any of that in the beginning of my career. I just wanted to run toward the action, so the idea of sitting in an office or cubicle never resonated with me.
I didn’t understand the challenges of law enforcement until I was in it. But what drew me in was the idea of helping people. Later, especially as I moved up the ranks, I came to understand not just the challenges of being a police officer, but also the challenges of leading in law enforcement.
Kristen: Leadership is a kind of power structure. As a young officer walking onto a scene, you have a certain situational power, and that can be used for good or bad.
I remember an “aha!” moment in my mid-20s. I would arrive on scenes, and people would be looking to me to solve problems. You’re stepping into domestic disputes, neighborhood conflicts, all kinds of situations, and then expected to assess it and decide on the best outcome in minutes.
Leading others came later but not by my own design. Other leaders saw something in me before I saw it in myself, and that was a gift. I thought I was just being a bit bossy and taking charge, but they saw it as something to develop.
That encouragement pushed me to move up. As I did, especially into middle management, the role shifted. As a sergeant, you’re still on the street. As a lieutenant, it becomes more administrative. And by the time I became chief, my focus was on making sure the mission was carried out through others, not just through me.
Kristen: I had a lot of training to become a police officer, but a lot of what I learned about being a leader came from watching others and realizing that just because someone moves into a leadership position, it doesn’t automatically make them a leader.
It also comes down to learning what not to do, and that’s a tough thing to admit, but it’s true. We’ve all had those moments where we think, “I’ll be the boss I wish I had.”
With encouragement from a commander, I started pursuing leadership training on my own. I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and later went to hear author Stephen Covey speak in Chicago. I sat there and absorbed everything, and that really lit a fire in me to become a lifelong student of leadership.
But there have been moments when I had to look in the mirror and admit I made the wrong call or acted in my own interest instead of the organization’s. That forced me to recalibrate and recognize leadership is an ongoing journey.
First responders run toward what everyone else runs away from.
Kristen: I was the first female lieutenant, commander, and chief in my department’s history. One advantage I had was that I grew up in the organization. I started at 17 as an intern and spent 20 years there, so by the time I became chief, I had built trust and support.
That said, not everyone was supportive. Some people wanted the role themselves, and there were what I call “tormentors” or active saboteurs. I addressed that head-on with hard conversations.
As for whether it was lonely, a lot of leaders say it is. But for me, it wasn’t. I had seen leaders isolate themselves, hold onto power, and end up on an island. So, when I became chief, I built a team I trusted and told them plainly, “This is new for me. I need you to challenge me and show me my blind spots.” We then created a culture of truth-tellers and healthy dissent. We argued, we debated, but we did it together.
Kristen: Without a doubt. I often say I’ve lived two careers in law enforcement. I started in the early ’90s, and back then, we didn’t have body cameras, dash cams, or formal internal affairs processes the way we do now. Accountability often came down to a supervisor giving you a talking-to.
But over time, the profession evolved. Policing became more accountable because people were capturing our interactions, which isn’t a bad thing. As I moved through the department and into leadership, and as body cameras were introduced and everything was being recorded, there wasn’t much backlash from officers because those tools also protected them.
Then came the post-George Floyd era. His killing sparked a national reckoning, and in many ways, it was necessary. Some departments, including mine, were already focused on accountability, but others weren’t, and those cases dominated the headlines.
Kristen: Just like calling 911, organizations don’t usually bring me in when everything’s going well. I give a lot of credit to leaders who bring me in though; it takes courage to invite an outsider in and say, “Take a hard look at us.”
So, the first thing I do is send out an anonymous culture survey. It covers leadership, training, management interactions, and even mental health and wellness. Once people trust that it’s truly anonymous, they’re honest. Participation is usually very high, and the open comments are where you really see what’s going on. From there, I move into one-on-one and group conversations and then build a diagnosis and outline areas for improvement.
Kristen: We tend to put all the responsibility for culture on the person at the top, and while leadership absolutely sets the tone, that’s not the whole story. People underestimate the influence they have in their own corner of the organization. Culture is shaped at the team level, the unit level, even among just a few people. You can positively or negatively impact it right where you are. But that means speaking up and being willing to disrupt, or at least interrupt, what’s not working so culture can improve.
People underestimate the influence they have in their own corner of the organization.
Kristen: Just like morale or culture, we often look to someone else to fix the sense of optimism, but we each have a role in optimizing our own performance. I also use the word “optimism” intentionally. It’s different from positivity, which can feel hollow, especially in a crisis. Telling people, “Stay positive, everything will be fine,” doesn’t help.
Optimism is a choice. It’s a deliberate mindset that says we can make tomorrow better than today. It means acknowledging reality (the challenges and the threats) and then getting strategic about what to do next. That’s where teams come together. You identify the problem, challenge ideas, and focus on solutions.
I also don’t let people default to “the problem is up there, in the boss’s office.” That mindset creates what I call learned helplessness. It’s like sitting in a jail cell with the door wide open.
Kristen: There’s no formula. And if I had that formula, I would sell it as a magic potion. A mindset shift is a process, but every process starts with a movement. And a movement starts small: one person, and then another. It takes someone willing to speak up, challenge the negativity, and offer solutions.
That first person matters, but the real shift happens with the first follower, which is when momentum builds, and you reach a tipping point.
Kristen: Never. And here’s why: if things truly aren’t improving, it’s usually a leadership issue or a refusal to implement change.
I don’t come in as someone on a mountaintop. I come from the messy middle because I’ve lived it. And it’s remarkable what a fresh set of eyes can uncover. Organizations are emotional systems, and people make emotional decisions.
In some cases, I can identify the real problems right away. Sometimes that even means telling an organization, “Your leader is the issue,” and if that kind of behavior is left unchecked, it spreads. People want strong leadership, and when they don’t get it, it creates division.
Organizations are emotional systems, and people make emotional decisions.
Kristen: I have seen them go into remission, which is a result of courageous conversations.
This is where organizations struggle. People can usually identify the “cancers,” and they’re often in middle management where they still have significant influence. The expectation is that leadership will step in, diagnose the issue, and address it in some way.
What I’ve seen is that change is possible when leaders are given clear feedback, often through survey results, and are willing to hear it. I’ve had very direct conversations with leaders about how they are perceived, how they communicate, and where they are falling short. Criticism is often seen as a negative word, but when it comes from a place of care and a desire to help someone grow, it’s actually a gift. Then, we talk about accountability and how that progress will be sustained.
Kristen: Trust is a complicated animal, and that word gets used very casually. Without trust from the community, law enforcement has no legitimacy. And without it, we can’t do the job we’ve been called to do.
Leadership is no different. If people don’t trust you, everything breaks down. Trust can fail in different ways, too. Sometimes it’s about competency; other times it’s about character. But trust is layered, and the way it’s built is through consistency and communication. If I’m making decisions on behalf of an organization, my responsibility is not just to decide, but to explain why. I’ve never met anyone who thinks their leader communicates too much. Overcommunication isn’t the problem; undercommunication is.
At the end of the day, trust and respect go together. And building both requires transparency, clarity, and the discipline to explain your decisions consistently, even when it’s uncomfortable.
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