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An intense one-week course for sheriffs in the United States recently completed its 123rd session and included Mower County’s Sheriff Steve Sandvik.

The National Sheriffs’ Institute’s (NSI) Leadership Development Course is held yearly in Quantico, Virginia and comes at no cost for those taking part.

The training, which includes sheriffs from departments ranging in size, focuses on developing and assessing leadership strengths, defining a leadership direction and identifying how to effectively engage their leadership team to advance their department’s mission, vision and values.

“This one was based on leadership and working through different angles, avenues and solutions to problems both large and small,” Sandvik said Thursday morning. “It’s really invaluable because the other sheriffs there range in size from staffs of three to over 5,000 and what you’re rapidly taught in the beginning is there really is no difference in the problems and it’s how you manage the resources you have and how you work together to find a solution and put the right resources in place to have ongoing effective and efficient responses.”

The program is provided by the National Institute of Corrections, U.S. Department of Justice in collaboration with the Major County Sheriffs of America.

Sandvik was one of 23 in this year’s class, that followed a rigid structure through the program’s duration and was held Nov. 18-22. The structure required interaction throughout in reaching the goals of the course.

“You’re really engaging,” Sandvik said. “They put us through a self-assessment process and we had a bunch of homework beforehand.”

“And then as groups you’re sharing that and going through that and learning how to interact with each other,” he continued. “Developing specific situational things you would like to address in your own agency and community and how you go forward in that.”

As such, the course took the participants through the training, recognizing each sheriff’s specific concerns and challenges.

That further strengthens the ability for the participants to form connections in terms of knowing where to go to get answers to particular questions and challenges.

“You learn about who you can pick up the phone for in the worst case scenario,” Sandvik said. “Having that first hand connection, they now know who I am and who every other of my classmates are. Everybody now has a connection to those resources and understands what they can do for you or simply who to ask a question of.”

Participation in the week-long course is by invitation after a sheriff submits an application. For Sandvik, it was actually the second seminar he was able to attend this year, with the first being his invitation to a Jail Administration program at the same location.

This latest program is generally limited to first-time sheriffs, and Sandvik was initially invited in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic shut the program down and so he was able to go this year.

He got the notice for the this most recent opportunity not long after returning from the Jail Administration program.

“I felt very, very fortunate to fit into that,” Sandvik said. “They are invaluable connections with all the sheriffs.”

One of the cores for those taking part in the program is implementing clear and good communication, which in turn rolls into how to effectively serve the community.

“Best applying your team’s resources to the mission of public safety; looking at ways to improve efficiency,” he said. “Learning where there’s angles and avenues that you could improve efficiency and not diminish public safety. The goal is to increase both.”

And Sandvik feels that’s already translated well to Mower County’s own department.

“I’ve implemented some of them where we can better use our resources, and put people into positions where their skill sets fit better,” Sandvik said. “Let’s apply where the most effective outcome for the task is going to be accomplished and get people into those spots.”

“If you’re stagnant you’re going backwards,” he added. “There’s several aspects and that bleeds out to our partners.”