Book excerpt: To carry out their wide array of vital duties supervisors require a whole toolbox of complex skills. This handbook was created with the purpose of supplying or, where already present, strengthening those skills. Assembled by a veteran police chief who served 15 years as a first-line supervisor, the book provides practical "how to" advice for confronting and mastering the multiple challenges of the first-line supervisor's life. Chances are, you are already a good leader. This handbook will make you better. It contains the information you will need to succeed as decision-maker, tactician, trainer, counselor, disciplinarian, and officer safety expert. It will help you accurately to evaluate your employees' job performance, serve as an integral part of the leadership team, and lead your people to deliver exceptional customer service. It will, in sum, serve as a true handbook for leadership success. As you doubtlessly have figured out for yourself, today's law enforcement employees are by no means identical in personality or work style to their predecessors of even a decade ago. But they are good people with outstanding potential. They, along with their more senior colleagues, are waiting for a great leader to bring out their best. That leader should be you. This handbook will equip today's capable first-line leader to excel in his or her vital role of influencing the future of policing. Surely nothing is more vital to an increasingly complex and too-often-troubled society.