Like every industry there are critical moments of change that disproportionately move an organisation towards progress. This is the stage when formal and informal leaders are required to up their performance and bring their talents to a place of sight. Here, others are given the opportunity to consider their commitment, or otherwise, to the new direction of travel. Without that movement towards progress, an organisation becomes vulnerable to multiple single-issue predators willing to sacrifice a history of achievement for momentary subjective success. If formal and informal leaders can’t articulate what the future holds, are at odds with each other, or worst still are awaiting others to clarify the confused future landscape, then it seems self-evident that crisis will occur. Might this be such a moment for policing?
If what got us here won’t get us there, then there needs to be a re-imagining of what ‘there’ looks like, and the steps required to make progress happen. In the current UK context, it is likely though not certain, that there will be a change in the hue of government. New governance brings a couple of problematic possibilities: new ideas that in their high energy innovative ways are untried; alternatively, old ideas that have been tried and past-tested and are being repackaged as novel ways forward. Both carry considerable risk to any organisation under pressure. And let’s be clear, currently the very legitimacy of policing is being challenged by the well-informed, the ill-informed, the insightful, and the opportunists alike. There is a cacophony of noise surrounding policing. This is a critical moment for the professional voices to be raised. We need to hear leaders clearly appropriate their own narrative around their profession and be heard. And they also bear a responsibility, maybe even an obligation to write things down, to capture what they are doing in practice. For if it is not written, for many, it didn’t happen!
Might we suggest that before leaders articulate the vision for the future that they need to creatively engage with their people at a deeply emotional level. They need to turn down their transmit buttons, curtail their own impatience levels, refrain from jumping to immediate solutions, and really listen and hear what those who are doing the business on a regular basis are saying. Stop reverting to surveys that take months to produce and are an industry. Go and personally connect with the people whom you have the privilege to lead. Great leaders know when to use soft skills appropriately and they need to be utilised with greater frequency.
There are people dealing daily with absurd email traffic and preposterous meeting schedules and calling this leadership. Here’s the truth: most emails are vacuous; and most meetings unproductive. People are rarely inspired by lengthy emails – regardless of their motivational intent. Why? Because they haven’t the time to read them. And lengthy meetings are generally dominated by professional meeting attenders and leaders who have only read the brief moments before entering the room (or virtual). These are two cultural movements that can be addressed with progressive attitudinal and behavioural changes. Leadership is, and always will be, a person-to-person activity. And people are desperate to be well lead. They are exhausted and have had an existential mindset change post COVID and its subsequent impact.
If someone is so high up the ladder that it is impossible to meet everyone then that is perhaps excusable. So that means every opportunity they do get to engage must be a critical moment. Remembering that engagement can be just about listening to someone expressing their concerns and desires and then taking appropriate action to make progress happen.
So, we argue that leadership:
- Is not about change it is about progress.
- It’s about action and not just creating endless activity.
- It’s about listening (and hearing) and not just transmitting.
- It’s more about emotional encounters than just systems engagement through meetings, emails, and outdated surveys.
- It’s recognising that you need to articulate a well listened to vision before an inappropriate direction is set by others – regardless how well intentioned.
It must always be remembered that everyone thinks they know how to do policing better than the police themselves – some for appropriate reasons; others just being destructively disruptive. Some surface commentators have the potential to create real harm, but not as much spoil as a silent and ill-informed policing leadership. It is time for the brilliant formal and informal leaders within policing to speak out even more regularly and with a self-confidence that is grounded by extensive professional experience. They need to stop being humble about their wide-ranging talents.
Regardless of what certain aspects of the media regularly state, people want policing to work. An emotionally intelligent organisation produces leaders that are self-confident, emotionally self-aware, and can accurately assess their own performance. They have compassion and they listen. It’s time to regain professional pride in democratic policing.
Dr Mark Kilgallon