EP 59: Portland PD SWAT Officer Nick Frankus on Confidence: How to Get It, Keep It, and Make Sure It's Real

Nick Frankus has been with the Portland Police Department for 18 years – many of them on the department's SWAT Team. Nick is a very observant and introspective guy and he's been documenting the lessons he's learned along the way and he's now sharing them in his own podcast Work on the Edge, which I highly recommend. It's actually not about law enforcement, although his topics apply directly to the profession. It's aimed at anyone who works in a high-stakes environment. Nick wrote a book and released a series of episodes on what he calls the "confidence/competence conundrum" in which he argues that confidence should come from courage and humility, not from competency. He shares a training scenario that he failed as a younger SWAT operator that sent his confidence spiraling, and how he's a much better cop, husband, and human as a result of that learning experience. This graphic might not make much sense right now, but listen to the episode and refer back to it. We talk about it on the show and you can come back here to thesquadroom.net/episode59 to view if after you've listened. Nick articulates his position very well and I think anyone who listens will recognize times in their own lives where they pulled their confidence from their competence, and how that is a receipt for disaster. Another great book on this topic, and one I read to help me as a parent, is the Carol Dweck's book "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success."   This book is our audible.com choice of the month. You can get a free 30-day Audible trial and a free book by going to audibletrial.com/thesquadroom. Listen to Nick's podcast Work on the Edge here on iTunes. Follow Nick on Instagram and Twitter @workontheedge Follow me on Instagram and Twitter @thesquadroom. Our website is thesquadroom.net