The Role Is Not The Person

#leadership #emotional intelligence #management #culture #hr

I was fortunate to learn coaching as a leadership style in the police.

It was in stark contrast to the still prevalent #commandandcontrol culture.

You can well understand why I was regarded as a maverick. It was not a term of great affection in policing.

In times of great stress, it is far too easy for us in positions of responsibility to forget our duty of care towards our teams and departments.

The example I will share with you exemplifies this quote by Maya Angelou :

" I've learned that people will forget what you said.

People will forget what you did.

But people will never forget how you made them feel."

What I remember about this day is that it was a beautifully sunny and warm day.

The time was 1730 hours.

I was the Duty Officer responsible for operational policing in my borough.

We had just successfully concluded a serious firearms incident, and my mind was turning towards other significant responsibilities when I saw a man in shorts and a tee shirt approach us. He had a miniature sausage dog with him.

He said, " Whose in charge here?"

" That would be me," I replied.

I certainly wasn't expecting his following sentence.

" I have found the dead body of a girl nearby ."

The conversations among my colleagues ceased.

My mind was racing.

Many thoughts were going through my mind.

I knew that a significant proportion of people who report a dead body are involved in the situation.

A second later, I asked him to repeat what he said.

I needed this fraction of time to gather my thoughts, prepare to deal with a potentially awful crime , ensure my colleagues were switched on, and, most importantly, scrutinise the man without staring at him and determine if he was being serious.

His tone of voice as he repeated what he had said, his body language, and his Non-verbal -Communication all evidenced that this was no sick joke.

I walked with the man together with two colleagues to a nearby park.

Sadly, there was indeed the dead body of a young woman.

You can well imagine the extent and nature of the police response.

It was intense.

Whenever there is a crime scene, 'Police Do Not Cross 'tape creates a sterile area for forensic investigation and prevents the scene from being contaminated. Police Officers secure the scene.

All of us were running on adrenaline.

I had entirely forgotten the number of hours passing until I realised it was getting dark. It also meant that the Night Shift needed to access my colleagues' cars.

I went ahead and confirmed the logistics arrangements with my senior colleagues via my official mobile phone.

Then, like a lightning bolt, it struck me.

My team and I worked solidly without a break for several hours.

No one had had the opportunity to have refreshments.

It was my responsibility to recognise this in a meaningful and practical way.

Simply saying " Thank you " to them all individually was impossible.

I then thought ( finally!) that they would appreciate hot food and a cold drink.

How could I do this?

I remembered that there was a large McDonalds in the town centre.

I telephoned the premises and spoke to the manager.

Refreshments for twenty officers were required.

I admitted I did not know the accounting procedure to pay him but offered to use my debit card as a quick fix.

My card was declined. The manager said that in such circumstances, there would not be a charge.

I wanted to say thank you to my colleagues in a personal manner.

I tasked one of my sergeants to visit all of our colleagues and take their individual food orders.

At first, he demurred. He felt that a general order of McDonalds would suffice. I explained that it was insufficient. I needed to recognise each officer individually and thank them personally.

This was the best way I could think of to recognise their individual contribution.

To ensure he adhered to my instruction, I would give the sergeant my last order.

He did as I instructed.

Years later, whenever I happened to meet any colleague involved in that operation, they focused on the fact that I thought about them during such challenging circumstances.

People are indeed your greatest asset.

You can read more of my leadership experiences in my book 'The ESSENTIAL Heart of a Leader'.

Here is the link to Amazon

https://bit.ly/3uwoF77

#leadership is knowing ourselves and those we are responsible for as people, and behaving accordingly.