BC Chief of Police at O.C.: Headings tells audience to meet challenges head on

Echo Staff


Talk about expecting one thing and getting another.
Battle Creek Police Chief David Headings spoke at Olivet College Feb. 10 as part of the college’s Black History Month offerings. While the Cereal city’s first African American police chief (2002 to present) talked a bit about civil rights, his speech was more about motivation – specifically motivating his mostly college-age crowd of about 125 people to become leaders. And not just leaders, but leaders who know the perils and predicaments of what successful leaders face.
Drawing from his military and police experience, he pointed out numerous times when leaders are pushed to do things they might not imagine, but need to be prepared for, such as killing another human being. While he lingered on some war and disaster stories, the 45-minute speech ended with chapter and literal poetic verse about the integrity, decisiveness and fortitude good leaders wear.
“Leadership is not a place, it is a process,” he said as he paced the front of Mott Auditorium throughout his speech, returning to the podium periodically to check his notes. And the worst enemy of a leader? Indecisiveness, or as Headings emphasized, procrastination.
“Tomorrow gives aid and comfort to the enemy…..tomorrow is a dangerous word,” he said, as he quoted two poems about the destructive results of putting things off.
“Don’t wait,” he said, specifically addressing students. “Great leaders…they don’t wait to do it tomorrow.”