Words of the Wise Podcast: Chief Matthew Markham — Pivot, Bounce Back & Let Go

Chief Matthew Markham of the Columbia Heights Police Department reflects on 28 years in law enforcement and the increasing pressure that accompanies each promotion. As chief, his responsibilities include leading difficult public conversations about violence, immigration, and police technology while continuing to care for his employees and his own health. His personal wellness practices include regular exercise, travel, fishing, national-park visits, and interests that exist outside the profession. Organizationally, the department offers programs involving mindfulness, emotional intelligence, resilience, nutrition, sleep, and two mandatory mental-health check-ins per year for employees. Chief Markham believes executive peer support must continue expanding because leadership can feel isolating. Chiefs and senior leaders often cannot discuss every difficulty with their employees or communities, but speaking with someone who has faced a comparable situation can help them stay engaged and avoid leaving the profession prematurely. His understanding of resilience is intensely personal. Chief Markham has survived cancer and lost his 19-year-old daughter to the disease. After her death, he reached out to a judge who had also lost a child and found support in their shared experience. He now views resilience partly as using what a person has endured to guide someone else through a similar hardship. His closing message is to communicate your position honestly, support it with facts, and then accept what you cannot control. When a final decision differs from what he advocated, he reminds himself that he completed his responsibility and must move forward. Being flexible, adaptable, and willing to let go has become one of his most important forms of resilience. Views and experiences shared by guests are their own and do not represent verified facts or the views of the host.