Taking the lead: Dixon City Manager Danny Langloss

DIXON – Danny Langloss is passionate about being a leader.

It shows in where his career has taken him: up the ladder. Langloss, 45, has been in a position of leadership for nearly 20 years, from the day he was promoted to sergeant in the Dixon Police Department, which he joined in 1996, to the day he became chief in 2008, to the day he took on the job of city manager in 2017.

But Langloss isn’t done climbing yet. He’s still reaching for the top. For excellence.

How does he do it? One step, one day – and 1% – at a time.

The Peoria Heights native said he’s learned an important lesson in life and leadership: Be 1% better than the day before, and those percentages will add up to success, and for Langloss, a lifelong mission to train others to follow in his footsteps and become leaders in their own right.

“We’re always pursuing excellence,” Langloss said. “There’s no arrival. There’s always a better way, always ways to get better, and we got to try to be at least 1% better, if not more, every day. We’re committed to excellence, and we’re pursuing excellence. It’s a lifelong commitment to find ways to be better, to serve better, and to do better.”

One the of ways he’s found is using technology’s tools to build tomorrow’s leaders today.

He’s created a website,dannylangloss.com, where podcasts are available in which he talks with people he’s met or worked with through his years of public service to help others become better leaders.

“A podcast is a way to reach people all over the world with your own messages, and have that positive impact,” Langloss said. “It’s a way to showcase others, and to showcase great, progressive, innovative ideas related to leadership.

“My desire to do that was to give back, and one of the things that always motivates me is to be in a position where you can make an impact.”

When Langloss isn’t working at City Hall, he’s writing, researching, speaking and listening about ways to be better at being a leader – all while being a leader at home with his wife, Valerie, and two children.

Driven to motivate, inspire, and help people and companies reach their full potential, Langloss has delved into the leadership mindset, employee engagement, creating high-performing teams, cultures of leadership, organizational excellence and change and crisis leadership. He constantly looks for new, progressive strategies to drive additional engagement from employees, drive ownership and establish a commitment to excellence. He’s spoken at national and state conferences on leadership, substance abuse, brain health, and protecting children from child predators.

His presentations include creating cultures of leadership, employee engagement, a community-based approach to the War on Drugs, and how Dixon dealt with the $54 million Rita Crundwell embezzlement controversy. Public trust in city government had eroded due to Crundwell’s record-breaking theft, and Langloss was looked upon well enough to be tapped as an interim city manager to help restore that trust. That involved moving away from the chief’s desk temporarily, but once Dixon established a revamped governing system, he went back to being chief.

Nearly two decades after experiencing his first leadership role as a sergeant, the city once again looked to Langloss to fill a more established city manager position – and he came into that role a little less green in regard to leading.

One of the things that drives Langloss is to be in positions that make a big impact. When he was coming up through the ranks of the police department, and now as city manager, he would go to conferences and listen to keynote speakers in an effort to improve himself.

Now, he’s the one doing the speaking. For more than 10 years now, he’s given presentations about topics he’s passionate about: crimes against children, substance use disorder, mental illness and leadership.

The improvements have no destination, he said, it’s an endless escalator of growth.

“This is a high-pressure industry and a high-pressure job, and it’s easy to get burned out,” Langloss said. “Those speakers can help flip the switch and help hit the reset button.”

Some of the people Langloss has interviewed as part of his podcasts include Aurora Police Chief Kristen Simon; Julie Hruska, a life coach and CEO of Powerful Leaders LLC; Heather Younger, founder and CEO of Customer Fanatix, an organization dedicated to inspiring and training leaders to put their employees first; Bill Wooditch, who runs a multimillion-dollar insurance and risk management firm with best-selling books written about leadership; and Charlie Cartwright, a popular employee engagement specialist who is sought after by many companies throughout the nation and the founder of People Success Labs to inspire leadership.

Each speaker shares his or her experiences, principles and strategies with listeners.

“The leadership principles and lessons that people can take from those experiences and the conversations can be applied to any business, any organization and any situation,” Langloss said.

One of the community leaders whom Langloss sometimes has turned to for advice is KSB Hospital President and CEO Dave Schreiner. Every leader has their own style of leadership, and Langloss values Schreiner’s values-driven leadership as something that can work for aspiring leaders.

Schreiner is taking a doctoral course in values-driven leadership at Benedictine University in Lisle, and was happy to share his philosophy earlier this year in one of Langloss’ podcasts.

“I’m thrilled with the work that Danny’s doing,” Schreiner said. “He’s bringing in leaders that have important voices and important messages. What a tremendous resource for people to either have leadership aspirations or people that are leaders. I have a lot of respect and smile every time I see him put out a new podcast.

“He’s working real hard at it, and I’m proud of him. I think Danny’s doing an important thing.”

Being a leader isn’t about just being in charge, it’s about taking care of those in your charge, Langloss said. Two important people in his life who set the foundation for his leadership skills are his father, Danny Langloss Sr. who told him, “you can accomplish anything you set your mind out to accomplish, and the only person who can stop you is you,” – and the late police lieutenant, Harry Ulferts, who established a high standard of work that Langloss admired in the department.

“That initial experience is a transition, because you go from being responsible for doing your job and front-line tasks to being responsible for and helping others do their job and frontline tasks,” Langloss recalled about his first days as sergeant. “There was definitely a growing period there. I had some solid values and beliefs about what the responsibilities of a leader was that stay with me today.”

“It’s about giving people the tools and the resources they need to do their job, and then get out of their way. I realized those things when I became a sergeant, but I couldn’t have articulated them the way I can today.”

Langloss began his podcasts in the second week of July, and his words have traveled far and wide: They’ve been listened to in six continents and havebeen downloaded more than 2,000 times.

When he finds some time, Langloss would like to one day fulfill a longtime goal and write a book about creating cultures of leadership.

“I’m just trying to add value. If people find value in the content I’m sharing, that’s great. The biggest thing for someone trying to realize their full potential is to realize that there’s never a destination. There’s so much to learn, and I’m getting better every day.”

To learn more

Learn more about how Danny Langloss can guide people toward effective leadership by visiting dannylangloss.com, where podcasts from various professional leaders nationwide are available, and to read articles from Langloss about effective leadership.

Langloss also is on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter (@DannyLangloss).