McMahon, Deb
Dahl, Aaron
Leading Collateral Teams: Leadership in the Part-Time Negotiation Environment Workshop (Limited to First 50 Students)

Most crisis negotiation teams are comprised of highly skilled professionals who serve as negotiators in addition to their primary assignments. Patrol officers, detectives, dispatchers, supervisors, corrections personnel, mental health professionals, and command staff often balance negotiation responsibilities alongside competing operational demands. While this model provides diverse expertise, it also creates unique leadership challenges that traditional leadership courses rarely address.

Leading Collateral Teams is a leadership development workshop specifically designed for crisis negotiation team leaders responsible for building readiness, accountability, and team cohesion within a part-time environment.

Participants will examine practical leadership strategies for developing influence without direct authority, fostering team identity, maintaining training standards, evaluating readiness, developing future leaders, and strengthening relationships with command and tactical partners. The course also addresses performance management, succession planning, operational sustainability, and leading teams through unintended outcomes.

Through facilitated discussion, a leadership self-assessment, and a close examination of the Ten Leadership Domains of Collateral Team Leadership, participants will leave with actionable tools to build resilient, engaged, and operationally ready negotiation teams capable of performing when the stakes are highest.

Designed for current and emerging team leaders, this workshop provides realistic tools to sustain high-performing negotiation teams in a part-time operational environment.

The Ten Leadership Domains of Collateral Team Leadership

1. Influence Without Authority Leading professionals who often do not report directly to you. 2. Building Team Identity Creating ownership, pride, commitment, and shared purpose. 3. Protecting Training and Readiness Ensuring operational preparedness despite competing priorities. 4. Establishing Accountability Standards Creating expectations, measuring participation, and addressing performance gaps. 5. Evaluating Operational Readiness Determining who is truly prepared to perform under stress. 6. Developing Future Leaders Building succession plans and creating leadership depth within the team. 7. Managing Team Dynamics Addressing conflict, difficult personalities, burnout, and commitment disparities. 8. Leading Through Unintended Outcomes Helping teams learn, recover, and improve following difficult incidents. 9. Building Strategic Partnerships Strengthening relationships with command staff, tactical teams, dispatch, and mental health partners. 10. Sustaining a High-Performance Team Culture Creating a culture that outlasts individual leaders and survives organizational change.

Deb McMahon - Bio
Ms. McMahon serves as a senior instructor and curriculum developer for Crisis Hostage Negotiation and Peer Support Programs for Crisis Systems Management, LLC. Ms. McMahon retired as a Special Agent of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division. Prior to her retirement, Ms. McMahon was an instructor assigned to Operations and Investigations Division, Advanced Law Enforcement Training, U. S. Army Military Police School, Fort Leonard Wood, MO. Ms. McMahon instructed advanced law enforcement subjects to criminal investigators who were assigned to municipal, state, and federal law enforcement agencies from throughout the world. In addition to her instructional duties, Ms. McMahon developed specialized advanced law enforcement training programs. During her twenty-one years of law enforcement experience, Ms. McMahon has performed such diverse duties as patrol, traffic accident investigation, desk sergeant, covert drug investigator, criminal investigator, protective services agent, and crime scene and evidence technician. She has also served as a senior criminalistics advisor, evidence program manager, and in a variety of positions on Crisis Response Teams. Ms. McMahon served in supervisory capacities as Task Force Commander, Drug Suppression Team Chief, and as Operations NCO to a seventy-person protective service security element for the 50th Anniversary NATO Summit. Operational assignments have taken Ms. McMahon throughout the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Some of Ms. McMahon's technical education and training include numerous Crisis and Hostage Negotiations courses, Countering Terrorism, Traffic Accident Investigation, Advanced Fraud Investigation, Protective Services, Child Abuse Prevention/Investigative Techniques, numerous advanced interview courses, gang training courses, and several Drug Enforcement Administration training courses. In addition to her technical training, Ms. McMahon has also attended more than twenty-six weeks of advanced leadership development and management training. Ms. McMahon has earned Bachelor of Science degrees in both Criminal Justice and Psychology. In a variety of environments, Ms. McMahon has served as a member of a crisis response team and has negotiated numerous hostage, barricaded subjects and potential suicide incidents. In addition to her practical experience, Ms. McMahon has authored Crisis Response Plans, has planned, executed and supervised major crisis response training events, and has published numerous professional articles on a variety of law enforcement topics, including crisis negotiation and crisis negotiation training. Ms. McMahon is currently the Training Director for the Missouri Association of Crisis Negotiators. Ms. McMahon has Bachelor of Science Degrees in Criminal Justice and Psychology from Drury University.

Aaron Dahl - Bio