I recently blogged about my visit last month to Sussex Police Federation’s engagement event. Out of intrigue and always wanting to keep my finger on the pulse of police leadership, I used the opportunity to gain perspectives from ‘rank and file’ Sussex Police officers.
I took a big jar and some Post-it notes. While attending over several days, I placed the jar on my Rank Success display table and invited Sussex cops to write their response to the following question:
“What makes a good leader?”
As I explain and prepare you for in my premium police promotion materials, this is a great practice promotion board question (and a gift for well-prepared candidates!). But it is also a prompt to gain insights into how cops like to be led.
So when I got home, I took a few hours to compile and organise the dozens of Post-it responses. In this blog I share with you the final result. It’s what I call the Sussex Leadership Framework (SLF). I believe this £20 cost of materials and a few hours work gives the £multi-million, multi-year (and recently tweaked) CVF a run for its money. Let’s see why…
What Makes a Good Police Leader?
If you aspire to leadership and promotion in policing, “What makes a good leader?” is a fantastic practice interview or presentation scenario question (see loads more in my popular Interview Success guide)! It gets to the heart of police leadership, yet allows the individual to explain things in his or her own way. It demands introspection. But beware; under-prepared candidates are prone to falling into a boobytrap with this one!
This question was also an interesting conversation-starter with Sussex Police officers attending their local federation roadshow. Dozens of cops, fuelled by free coffee and cakes, but more importantly passionate about police leadership at all levels, were keen to share their views.
The image above is the jar in my shed office (‘shoffice’?), after I’d got back to Devon. As you can see, there was great engagement from officers giving their perspective, with the jar nearly full. I’d like to thank those Sussex cops who contributed, and if you’re reading this, I hope you like the results!
Below I arrange an array of many of the notes officers submitted…
Upon laying them out, I saw commonalities and behavioural themes emerging from the snippet notes officers left. There appeared to be several overlapping themes and much focus on the ‘human’ side of leadership. Given the array of responses, I thought they could easily form a behavioural framework to compete with the CVF. So I introduce to you the Sussex Leadership Framework…
The Sussex Leadership Framework
The infographic above summarises the SLF. This is how Sussex police officers among the federated ranks like to be led. Like with the CVF and other behavioural frameworks, there’s overarching behavioural themes in red, then specific ‘descriptors’ expanding on that theme in more detail (blue).
I’ve incorporated every Post-it submitted, either as part of an overall theme or a specific ‘descriptor’. The darker blue descriptors seemed more important, in the sense they were mentioned multiple times by different people.
To keep things simple, there’s no differentiation here between ‘competencies’ and ‘values’. ‘Behaviours’ is simpler language and seems to abridge both these somewhat academese concepts. After all, what cops were describing here was how good police leaders behave.
So let’s now explore those behaviours, for which there are 6 clear themes in all. The following gives a summary, but I’ll cover each a little more in depth in my podcast:
- Decision Making: ‘Decisive’ and ‘decisions’ were mentioned multiple times. In addition, when people talk of being ‘open-minded’ and being in touch with the front line, this alludes to considerations when making (difficult) decisions. Valuing the skills and views of others in the decision making process seemed to fit here too.
- Communication: Unsurprisingly, this emerged as a highly important behavioural theme, with officers coherently describing an array of interpersonal skills that aid effective, authentic communication.
- Competent and Knowledgeable: This theme was mentioned and seems to fit well the concepts of CPD, strategic awareness, and critical thinking.
- Inspires Others: Deliver, support and inspire maybe (or ‘support and inspire’ as CVF 2024 is now)?
- Cares for Others: Supporting wellbeing, being kind, and demonstrating empathy are all part of the essence of caring for others. Making people feel valued is another, which as I’ve explained at length can be done by brushing up on your giving feedback skills.
- Emotional Intelligence: While several of these could also link with Communication or Caring for Others, the interpersonal and ‘emotionally aware’ skills here are worthy of their own behavioural theme. They speak to the self-management and relationship-management aspects of the entirely learnable skill, Emotional Intelligence (EQ).
Notice too how overall the leaning is heavily towards being considerate to and caring about others? It seemed so much, it wouldn’t be representative to force it into just one nebulous theme (e.g. like ‘emotional awareness’). This trend is evident too in the zeitgeist at force level, where local forces are already tailoring their values. Consider for example Devon and Cornwall’s focus on caring and compassion,
How would you align these descriptors and behaviours raised as ‘good leadership’ by Sussex police officers? Do they resonate with you too? Are they that different from those described in the CVF?
SLF vs. CVF
Let’s compare and contrast then this quick and simple behavioural framework with the official behavioural framework for policing: The CVF.
For context, in my recent video below I summarise and compare the changes made between CVF 2016 and CVF 2024. Note that all forces will continue using the 2016 CVF for promotion assessments until they announce otherwise.
The College state the CVF was developed (and then recently amended) after “robust research and consultation”. The CVF is a product of several year’s work and research, costing £millions in College (and officer consultation) time to produce.
Clearly then in comparison, my proposed SLF does not meet the ‘robust research and consultation’ standard, being a more simplistic ‘fag packet framework’ and based on a sample of frontline cops from just one force. But if officers from other forces were to put simple Post-its in a jar, would the good police leadership behaviours described here be so wildly different? Because let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to be led by someone like that?
The CVF has 6 competencies. This SLF has 6 behaviours. There is some clear overlap between them, for example around ‘emotionally aware’ and ‘(deliver) support and inspire’. There are also clear parallels between the CVF’s ‘analyse critically’ and ‘decision making’ here. Plus overlap of concepts among the details of particular ‘descriptors’.
However the SLF mentions things the CVF does not, such as important human traits appreciated the world over: Being in touch with the frontline, being approachable / friendly, relatable, having patience. Likewise of course, the CVF has many descriptors this ‘straw poll’ SLF has not unearthed.
For simplicity, this hypothetical SLF does not have separate ‘values’; they are ingrained among the behaviours generally. Conversely, the CVF 2016 in use, and the 2024 version on the horizon for your force, pitches extra behaviours labelled as ‘values’. Whether it’s the 4 values of the current/old version, or the 3 of the pending/new one aligned to the Code of Ethics, you will however notice clear overlaps. For example the essence of CVF 2024’s ‘Respect and Empathy’ is captured within the ‘Caring for Others’ and ‘Empathy’ of my above model.
You get the idea, and in any case, this exercise truly is all academic! I’ve just taken the trouble to lay things out for you and show you how easy it is to conjure up a ‘framework’ and make things sound complicated; when in fact good leadership is timeless and understood with clear commonality between different people in policing. A ‘framework’ merely helps everyone visualise that on a page.
What Would Your Post-it Say?
So how would YOU describe what a good leader looks like? How would they behave in your mind? What would be your number 1 thing that they would care about? More importantly, does this sound like you as an aspiring leader yourself?
Given the CVF is an ‘optional’ tool published by the College of Policing, Sussex Police (or any other force) are welcome to use this SLF as a ‘starter for 10’ for a bespoke local leadership framework. With a little refinement, it’s easy to imagine how the same behaviours could be pitched differently to different levels of seniority (as the CVF does over 3 levels).
But I want to stress its main importance comes down to you as a police promotion candidate: Don’t let the nebulous language of the CVF tie you in knots. Instead, realise that great police leadership behaviours are timeless, and you WILL have great evidence that relates, without needing to force things or use the dreaded ‘buzzword bingo’ that (rightly) flunks a board.
Familiarising yourself with multiple frameworks like this will help you see the commonalities between them, aiding your understanding, and therefore better aligning and conveying your evidence to the Board as to WHY YOU should be promoted over others. This promotion preparation and development is worth paying attention to.
That’s the sort of behaviour giving you the competitive advantage over the competition to succeed in your career ambitions, like Kam and thousands of others who have achieved their career dreams with Rank Success…
“Hi Steve, Just been informed I’ve passed my Inspectors Board . That was down to you and your Masterclass and listening to your Podcasts. I will be recommending you and your master class to everyone in GMP. Feel free to use my feedback. Thanks.”
PS. Next weekend will be my LAST in-person promotion masterclass! There’s still a few places left, so wherever you are on your promotion journey, book now to gain fantastic leadership CPD going and propel your career ambitions!
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. Contact me to arrange personal coaching support, or why not also try my podcast for ongoing police leadership CPD.