This week, I had the privilege of interviewing Paul Davies, who recently retired as an Assistant Chief Constable from Devon and Cornwall Police. Paul was down to earth, generous with his time, and forthright in his considered responses to my questions. Our conversation is a fantastic ‘talk through’ of police promotion, leadership, and wider topical issues in policing. This is one of my longer free episodes, but I would gladly have spent longer than the time we had!
Paul shares insights from his 34 year policing career achieving promotions through the ranks to ACC, including his own views and experiences on promotion processes in the service, plus perspectives from his own journey in progressing his career.
If you’re thinking of going for promotion as part of your own career progression in policing in the UK or beyond, you’ll find this podcast chat a rich vein of content to support your aspiration and thinking on the topics discussed. Even if you’re just generally interested in policing matters (as Paul clearly still is!), his frank responses on some issues won’t disappoint!
We cover an array of issues, including:
- Mindset to approaching promotion opportunities.
- The value of failure and feedback.
- Fairness (or otherwise!) of promotion processes in policing.
- Neurodiversity and associated support.
- The proposed removal of the legal exam at the front end, and its implications.
- How processes are almost always over-subscribed, ergo abundant competition.
- The value of interviews in assessing aspiring leaders.
- Performance management and getting the balance right.
- Police discipline, standards and culture.
- The politicisation of policing.
- Attributes of great leaders Paul worked with.
I wanted to briefly mention a few topics here that particularly resonated with me, including some of Paul’s incisive quotes and inspiring perspectives. Here is a snapshot but there’s lots more, so I hope you enjoy this COMPLETELY FREE podcast which I’ve embedded below.
Failure is an Option
“I’ve failed at every single rank, at least once.”
On learning they have been unsuccessful in a promotion selection process, many officers believe as REM’s song lyrics suggest, ‘this is the end of the world as we know it’!
Some officers take it personally, but it’s strictly business. Others become angry hares.
But individuals with a growth mindset (‘you win or you learn’) more often than not try again. They end up coming to terms with the bitter ‘sting’ of disappointment, it’s a short term thing. Failure is an unwelcome reality check at first, but offers serious candidates a valuable opportunity for meaningful reflection and to try again, differently, next time.
From the outset, Paul volunteered that in his own policing career he had “failed promotions at every single rank at least once.” He openly shares his perspective around failures enroute to becoming an Assistant Chief Constable, using his own career to demonstrate and to reassure aspiring leaders that ‘knockbacks’ do not mean the end of the world. His open and honest take on this is inspiring:
“I don’t know many people who have been unsuccessful that many times through promotion procedures, so I have learned from that and I have reflected on that over a lengthy period of time for most of my career actually. Because for most of my career, I was reflecting on a failure in order to go back and subsequently get through on a following occasion.”
Paul also alludes to how challenging it can be to keep your career progression and momentum going from a CPD perspective. It is clear personal resilience and determination were factors in how Paul approached his own learning and growth, developing as a senior leader to subsequently prevail through processes and succeed in achieving promotions.
Failing to better yourself is a lesson every aspiring leader can take on board from this. Whilst I encourage promotion candidates to commit to a depth and breadth of preparation for opportunities that may arise, as Paul demonstrates, there are no guarantees in selection processes. How you deal with being unsuccessful is part of your self-awareness (an element of emotional awareness).
With this in mind: How do you react to failure? Now consider that question as if you were just asked on a promotion board.
Preparing for Promotion
“Promotion is a voluntary process. Nobody is making anybody go for promotion, it’s voluntary. So I think because of the impact that can have on your personal and professional life, you really need to have an understanding of WHY YOU are choosing to put yourself through that.”
How can you prepare effectively for your police promotion opportunity? This is a quest thousands of newly qualified aspiring police leaders embark upon annually. Many seek tips, guidance, and insights to help navigate the process.
With this in mind, Paul offers some insight when it comes to your approach in preparing for promotion opportunities, while developing and displaying your leadership…
- Know yourself.
- Know what is expected of you.
- Have a plan.
Paul expands on these points with some valuable and important questions as below, to ask yourself as you develop your own leadership capacity and think about your career trajectory or CPD plan.
“If you choose to display and develop your leadership through promotion (and that’s not the only way to display leadership), then the first question I think you should ask yourself, because it’s all about self-awareness for me, is WHY ME? And the answer to that requires an increased sense of self awareness, a level of honesty with yourself as an individual, and a level of emotional intelligence that allows you to understand really, what other people think of you.”
“So the questions I posed myself when I was determining whether to go further through the promotion, through the rank system as I did, is ok what qualities do you possess? In the role that you are already in and the level of the organisation you are currently operating in, but also what qualities do you possess more importantly if going for promotion for that next rank in the system and that more senior level in the organisation?”
“What drives you as an individual?”
“Promotion is a voluntary process, nobody is making anybody go for promotion, it’s voluntary. So I think because of the impact that can have on your personal and professional life, you really need to have an understanding of why you are choosing to put yourself through that… why should people buy into what you are offering? Why should they follow you? And why should they be led by you? Why now?”
“What kind of leader are you? Does that align with what the organisation requires from you as a leader?”
“So that sort of self-awareness, an understanding of why you are putting yourself through that process… an oversubscribed process, that far more people than are required are going into, and a competitive process. I think aspiring leaders should have that level of self-awareness and should be able to articulate that quite easily, because that’s naturally where their mindset is.”
It’s Not FAIR! Or Is It??
“Fairness is very subjective.”
I posed questions to Paul around the perceptions of fairness in promotion selection, feedback, and also the postcode lottery of processes that exist across 43 forces. Here’s some insights:
“When it comes to specific promotion processes, if you are unsuccessful, it really does impact on you. It impacts on you, your family, your view of yourself within the organisation. Because none of this is done on the quiet, everybody knows you have been unsuccessful and that’s something you have to deal with. But fairness is very subjective and is often a personal perspective and perception based on your individual circumstance.”
“Over many years, you and I will have seen many people who question the fairness of promotion processes. Frankly, when I failed promotion at every single rank, I didn’t always consider that process was fair. But, when I reflect on being subsequently successful at every single rank up to the rank of ACC, I didn’t once question the fairness of the process. Very rarely do you see people who are successful in a process questioning the fairness of it. The point being it is very subjective and it’s competitive, and if it’s competitive there’s always going to be those who are successful, those who are unsuccessful, and that will shape their view of the process. Having said that it’s really important that organisational justice and in the case of promotion processes procedural justice, is seen to be an important factor of the overall process.”
“What I would say on the other side of the process, as you alluded to, is I have sat on countless promotion boards through most ranks up to and including Chief Superintendent, and what I would say to those who question the fairness of the process, whether you feel the process that has been put in place is the right one is a different debate, but when you question the fairness of the process, having been involved on both sides of the table is that if I had ever felt that those processes were inherently unfair, had a predetermined outcome for particular candidates or a certain type of personality, and was not a level playing field that applied equality of opportunity, then I wouldn’t have allowed myself as a senior leader with integrity and values to be part of that process. And I can’t think of any promotion board I have sat on, where anybody else would have allowed that either and the fact that most boards have an independent HR specialist, who if they are worth their money wouldn’t allow that to happen anyway, but it was never an issue for me sat on those boards.”
“It was very clear, the process has been agreed, whether you agree with the process or not is a different debate, that doesn’t mean if you think it’s the wrong process, that it’s unfair. It is probably deemed unfair by people who frankly, have been unsuccessful and that’s because it’s a very subjective view. So that’s what I’d say about the fairness of the process.”
“What is the right process? Well, some standardisation I think nationally would help, it does seem to be a bit of a postcode lottery…”
I ask Paul about the topic of interviews including not interviewing: “What level do you think it is inconceivable to promote someone without interviewing them?
“So, I sat on interview boards for every rank, some of those ranks had an additional requirement to look at practical scenarios, almost like a mini PNAC sort of set up, certainly for Chief Superintendent. And I’ve always had the view actually that an interview board should be a requirement for promotion to all ranks. The reason being there has to be some process put in place, PC to Sergeant is slightly different in that in some cases the projections for numbers is not matched by people coming through, but most ranks it’s oversubscribed, so you need a process put in place and for me to sit down in front of a panel of peers, they may be more senior peers, but they are peers, sit down in front of a panel and be able to articulate why you. In a structured interview, why you are the right person to be successful in this process. I think is a requirement of showing yourself as suitable for that promotion.”
Until Next Time…
That’s just a small taster of what we discussed! There’s lots more in the podcast, including performance management approaches, so if anything resonates with you in particular, please let me know your thoughts in the comments or by email. I hope you enjoy this as a resource to support your thinking around the subject of promotions.
My thanks to Paul again for his kindness and generosity with his time, and especially his detailed responses to the questions and topics we covered.
I aim to offer a balanced approach in podcast conversations. Serving senior officers clearly have to be careful and measured with what they are able to say on some issues. But as an aspiring police leader and promotion candidate, it is not very often you get an opportunity to listen to senior leader’s insights, views, experiences and perspectives geared towards supporting, challenging and provoking your thinking. I’ve had great feedback on these relatively relaxed conversations with both serving and former senior officers like Paul, which offer ‘something for everyone’.
With this in mind, if you have anything interesting to say, or topics you’d like to discuss, why not get in touch for a respectful chat and writeup like this?
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.