In 2022, I’ve published 25 free police podcasts totalling 15 hours of open-access content for your police promotion and leadership CPD. Plus there’s one more on supervising investigations in the pipeline!
Topics are focused on a range of police promotion and police leadership matters, complementing the intensive, structured content in my downloadable eGuides and Promotion Masterclass Video (described by my clients as ‘worth their weight in gold’). Whether it’s interviews with senior officers to glean leadership insights, or discussing the CVF and your values, I hope you’ve enjoyed the free content, whatever your rank.
In this article, I pick out my top five free podcasts released during 2022, to help set you on course for UK police promotion success in 2023. I aim to create more of this completely free, no-strings, no-signups content in 2023, to support your CPD and in converting your leadership aspiration into promotion success. This is over and above my premium bespoke toolkits for the Sergeant rank and Inspector / Chief Inspector ranks. If you appreciate the free content and would like to contribute to my work to help keep it flowing (I’m fuelled by caffeine!), you can buy me a coffee here; all contributions are gratefully received.
“Wisdom is the reward you get for listening, when you’d have preferred to talk.” – Doug Larson
Consider each podcast part of your leadership CPD, supporting your aspiration whatever your UK police force promotion process. There are of course a range of structured, tried and tested materials if you want to go further, including upcoming masterclasses in 2023. Now let’s get to an executive summary of my top 5 podcasts…
S2E12: The Inspector’s Role: What Do You Know?
A common mistake many promotion candidates make is not understanding the role applied for, be it Sergeant, Inspector, or Chief Inspector. In this episode, I provide some freebies from my premium content and talk to you about the role of Inspector.
I discuss aspects of the role you may not know to aid your rounded preparation. I cover yet another Inspector testimonial, functions and dimensions of the role, ethical decision making, taking a strategic view, and much more. This is all to help you become familiar now before you are in the hot seat. It will also support you in compiling your evidence when your promotion opportunity arrives.
See my comprehensive Inspector’s toolkit for more information and your very own ‘super briefing’ for your promotion ambition. In this podcast I also provide a bunch of example promotion questions. Consider the following potential board question, frequently asked!
“What is your understanding of the role of Inspector?”
“Thank you. Not only did you get me through my Sergeant board 5 years ago, I got the call today to say I passed my Inspector board. Your videos over lockdown and after were brilliant in setting everything out clearly to me around the CVF. I watched every video more than once. I bought your promotion guides, which again helped settle me and make me believe I could do it.” – Zoe, passed Inspector promotion board
S2E18: Interview with ACC Una Jennings
In Episode 18 of Season 2, I had the privilege of interviewing ACC Una Jennings, an inspiring senior leader in Cheshire Police.
Una kindly spared some time from her schedule to talk with me about various police promotion and leadership topics. It’s a jam-packed half-hour! We discuss the importance of values, her experience of coaching and mentoring others, being a role model herself for women in policing, career development, and she also shares plenty of insightful gems along the way.
I hope you find it as inspiring as I did! In fact, I was so inspired coming away from this interview, I decided to also compile a blog of inspiring police leadership, including a section on Una’s powerful TEDx Talk in 2019. It’s called ‘Inspiring Police Leadership and Interview with ACC Una Jennings‘.
“Our children will one day have children of their own and they will ask us what we did, in our place, in our time, to make things better.” – Una Jennings
S2E1: Smashing Promotion
I kick-start this ‘Year of the Tiger’ season off with a podcast discussing not just passing, but SMASHING your police promotion board. This perspective takes a completely different level of mentality and attitude to your ambition. I also provide a number of tools and tips along the way to help you with your ambitions.
There’s good reason this is in the top 5 podcasts lists, and you can listen below. Of course, if you’d like a running start on smashing your own promotion board, whatever your force process, join me on my exclusive masterclass or download a premium toolkit (including loads of examples of great promotion evidence!).
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” – Albus Dumbledore
S2E23: Interview with Chief Constable Lee Freeman, Humberside Police
I had the privilege of interviewing Chief Constable Lee Freeman of Humberside Police, following his force being graded as the best performing force in the country by HMICFRS!
You’ll enjoy his grounded communication style and ‘intelligence-led leadership’ approach. I ask him about performance, leadership, culture and more under his stewardship in Humberside Police. There’s a heap of lessons here for aspiring leaders everywhere, including Lee’s universal tips on police promotion. He also shares his perspectives on leading with legitimacy, leading change, building trust, culture, communication/listening, supervision, how he turned the force around from worst- to best-performing in the country, and much more besides.
This interview was so insightful, I was inspired to write a blog on my time with Lee.
You won’t regret listening to this 45 minutes of incredible insights as quality CPD, especially if you’re aspiring to a higher rank in policing. I’m sure many cops out there might also be envious of some of the apparent approaches taken by the leadership in Humberside! I’d like to thank Lee again for making the time to share his wisdom on police leadership with you. I’ll post a blog in the usual place as a follow-up with my reflections and thoughts soon. For now, enjoy this jam-packed episode and make sure you have a pen to hand for those golden nuggets!
“What defines your culture, your wellbeing, and your performance is the quality of your first line supervision and management.” – CC Lee Freeman
S2E16: Fast Track Police Promotion and High Potential
Last but not least of my top 5 podcasts in 2022, I chew over the ins and outs fast track promotion. This included how you can adopt a fast-track mindset, what fast-track all means, your high potential, what the promotion boards are looking for, additional leadership concepts for rounded preparation, and much more.
On this subject, you may also be interested in my dedicated blog all about fast track police promotion, and what all aspiring candidates can learn from the scheme.
“Exploit your talents, skills and strengths, make the world sit up and take notice. No one can discover you until you do.” – Rob Liano
I hope you have enjoyed this look back at this top free police promotion content over the last year. For all my podcasts, you can find me on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcasting apps, or simply ask your Alexa or other smart device ‘Play the Rank Success Police podcast’. I look forward to providing much more great content for you in 2023! Until then, I wish you every success for the new year and feel free to get in touch for targeted support along the way.
Kind Regards, Steve
Want to go further right now? Hit the ground running with your promotion preparation. Get your personal digital promotion toolkit, and/or my Police Promotion Masterclass. You can also contact me to arrange personal coaching support. If you first want to explore completely free content, I have a collection of videos, eGuides, and podcast.
