Protect the Pipeline!
By: Andrew A. DeMuth Jr.
As leaders, we owe it to our people to provide the best work environment possible, and that includes giving our people the best leadership possible. Nothing undercuts this more than promoting the wrong people. We must promote the right people.
It’s bad enough that more deserving employees must accept being skipped, but often they will have to report to the person selected. And when this new supervisor is incompetent, toxic, selfish, lazy, unapproachable, etc., this can be an utterly demoralizing experience.
If the new supervisor turns out to be a terrible boss, the effects reach even further. Leaders like these affect work performance, professional life, personal life, personal relationships, and health and wellness, as employees often take work home with them. To a large degree, one’s immediate supervisor is the single greatest determining factor in job satisfaction and happiness. A poor supervisor can be cancerous to an organization at any level.
And in an era where retention has become such a challenge, great leadership is even more critical. We cannot afford to be losing good people because of abusive supervisors. One Gallup poll of more than one million U.S. workers concluded that “the number one reason people quit their jobs is because of a bad boss or immediate supervisor. 75% of workers who voluntarily left their jobs did so because of their bosses and not the position itself” (Hyacinth, 2017).
There can be no room for favors when it comes to promotions. Nor can promotions be based solely on the good old boys club, academy mates, or any other feel-good initiative. Law enforcement promotions must be based on who will be spectacular at leading others. We must promote the right people.
Our selections should have leadership presence, a high level of job competency, and strong job knowledge. They should also be well respected, invested in and committed to the organization, and must be highly successful in dealing with people as leadership is people.
And I would break this down even further. Let’s focus on that first promotion, the one from line officer/deputy/detective to supervisor which is most often a corporal or sergeant. That promotion is the single most important promotion in any organization, even more important than promotions at higher levels including the promotion to the chief executive position.
Front-line supervisors are the ones making the decisions on the calls and crises and serve as ambassadors for the organization to the public, the press, and the now-common presence of cell phone cameras. Additionally, no single rank has more influence on the rank and file than the front-line supervisor.
But, most importantly, the first promotion places the recipient in the leadership pool. From this pool, all future leaders will be pulled. For this reason, command-level leadership must be highly selective of who they allow through the door. That pool is the pipeline for the future leadership of the organization.
The promotional selections made by the organization also communicate to the rank-and-file how to get ahead. Essentially, it tells them, “Do what they did!” If the extent of what they did was be the nephew to the warden, the drinking buddy to the chief, or the son-in-law to the mayor, it certainly does not reflect well on the organization. Similarly, if the recipient of the promotion has little to no body of work, is the agency gossip hub, or brings no value to the position.
If ten of our people are up for one promotion, most will understand that there can only be one choice. But if they are not the person selected, they will have one request: Choose someone who deserves it and who will flourish in the role.
When it comes to promotions, we must get it right. We must promote the right people. We must protect the pipeline.
References
Hyacinth, B. (2017, December 27). Employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers. LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/employees-dont-leave-companies-managers-brigette-hyacinth/
Andrew A. DeMuth Jr. is the founder of Leading Blue, a firm that provides leadership training for law enforcement and the private sector. He served 32 years in law enforcement with four different agencies in a variety of leadership roles. During his career, he served as an investigation’s commander, range master, agency training officer, press information officer, and director of the youth police academy program. He spent the last seven years of his law enforcement career managing CODIS, the New Jersey DNA program overseeing the processing, compliance, and training of more than 500 participating law enforcement agencies and correctional facilities. Today he serves as an adjunct professor for two institutions and speaks on law enforcement leadership and training topics throughout the country.