The Law Enforcement Leadership Pipeline: A Blueprint to Retention (Part 1 of 3)

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>> The Law Enforcement
Leadership Pipeline
Part 1 of 3
A BLUEPRINT TO RETENTION
SUMMER EDITION | 2023 ACCENTING PROFESSIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT THROUGH TRAINING

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>> A Blueprint to Retention
Dr. Marshall Jones
THE LAW ENFORCEMENT
LEADERSHIP PIPELINE
Part 1 of 3
Albert Einstein is credited with the line, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over
and expecting di erent results”. Historians debate if Einstein said those exact words,
but the logic is sound and the message hits home for most agencies struggling with
recruiting and retention. Our profession is struggling to find, hire, train, and retain those
with the necessary servant heart, dedication, and courage to serve our communities.
Part of this challenge, as discussed in The Georgia Police Chief Winter Edition (Jones,
2023a) is the multiple generations, all with di erent value systems, that comprise
agencies today. The greater the generational diversity, the more conflict of values exist.
A great example is the work-life balance value between the Boomers and GenXers, that
make up the majority of police managers and executives, and Millennials and GenZers.
The once held “truth” that o icers are always eager to work overtime and o -duty-details
is fading amidst the new generations work-life balance value creating challenges to
meeting minimum sta ing obligations.
This three-part series of articles provides a blueprint to help agencies better understand
and strategically navigate solutions. This series rests on a few basic assumptions. First,
law enforcement as a profession is experiencing a continued crisis in recruiting (PERF,
2023). Second, the historical approaches to attracting, selecting, hiring, and training new
o icers have changed and we must adapt. Third, recruiting challenges are not limited
to sworn positions, they extend to non-sworn support as well. Fourth, the key to solving
recruiting challenges rests with an agency’s ability to retain talent (PERF, 2019, Jones,
2023b). Fifth, law enforcement must look beyond traditional sources for solutions and
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tools and adopt and adapt concepts proven in the private sector and other professions.
Sixth, the key to solve recruiting challenges is retention; the key to retention is strong
leadership; leadership development takes time, e ort, and intentional strategy to build a
strong culture.
The first installment of the series will establish the foundation for how individuals move
through the Law Enforcement Leadership Pipeline (LELP). In addition, an overview of
current research regarding retention of employees will be provided. Next, Part 2 will
discuss the aspects of agency hiring, culture, and agency processes. Specific action
areas will be identified with best practice suggestions. Finally, Part 3 will explore the
various passages of the leadership pipeline along with actionable interventions that can
increase leadership development.
Law Enforcement Retention Research
The increasing challenge to retain employees was explored in the Spring Edition of The
Georgia Police Chief (Jones, 2023b). PERF (2019) speaks to the exodus in policing shifting
from leaving for another agency to leaving the profession altogether. More recent PERF
(2023) findings highlight the amplified issues with the expected and early retirements.
Newspapers, media outlets, police professional associations, and agencies consistently
report escalating retention woes. In a well-rounded search for solutions, we should
look to empirical studies for any potential tools. The conclusion is that law enforcement
practitioners and researchers alike find a solution to the recruiting and retention crisis
elusive.
One recent research e ort of note is by Wilson et al. (2023) exploring the overall state
of law enforcement retention research globally. They partnered with practitioners to
assess and better understand findings that may have value to agencies. This approach
is worth noting, as most academic research in policing is void of practitioner input or
perspectives. They examined 82 empirical research articles, across 18 countries, and
concluded that actionable literature is sparse, but identified some common themes that
emerged from their systemic review. For example, a few organizational aspects related
to retention were identified (figure 1) that support the critical nexus with culture and
leadership.
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Law Enforcement Leadership Pipeline
The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership Powered Company (2011) by
Charan, Drotter, and Noel has been an international bestseller and provides a simple,
yet proven model for individuals and businesses to strategically align processes and
culture to develop leadership. This Law Enforcement Leadership Pipeline (LELP) Model
(figure 2) was developed from the basic tenants framed for business and expanded to
specifically address challenges and opportunities for law enforcement, at both sworn
and non-sworn functions. The intention is to frame a simple model to help review, assess,
develop, and improve agency components to develop and improve agencies’ overall
leadership capabilities.
AGENCY ATTRIBUTES
TO PEOPLE LEAVING
Wilson, Grammich, Cherry, & Gibson (2023)
• The adage that employees do not quit jobs but
do quit bosses appears to be evident in research.
• Supervision perceived as abusive or unfair.
• Supervision considered to be generally poor.
• Poor department morale.
• Organizational stress.
AGENCY ATTRIBUTES TO
PEOPLE STAYING
• Higher levels of trust in management.
• Organizational focus on personal wellness.
• Leadership training to improve administration.
• Higher levels of education for departmental
management.
• Transparent processes to request training.
• Workplace supports for o icers.
Figure 1
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Pre-Pipeline Input Components
Before exploring the passages on the pipeline, it is important to recognize the key
input components to the LELP. These components form the quality of the pipeline
to leadership and followership development. These input components are made up
of the New Employee Funnel and the Agency’s Developmental Culture Fuel Tank as
demonstrated at the bottom of figure 2. Specific aspects and strategies impacting both of
these pre-pipeline components will be the focus of Part 2 of the series.
New Employee Funnel
The key input is the new employees entering the agency. It goes without saying, that
agencies want to attract, select, and retain quality members. But the input of new
members o ers agencies opportunities to “prime” the pipeline with quality components.
This is the stage of the LELP model where applicants with positive person-organization
fit may be better identified.
Agency Developmental Culture Fuel Tank
This is the area where your culture is fueled. The “fuel” in this tank is composed of many
agency attributes as displayed in figure 3. Every agency has a di erent “mixture” ranging
from “low grade” to “high test.” Low grade agencies have poor morale, high turnover,
and a lack of trust in management. High test agencies have leveraged the various
components that fuels its agency through good solid behavioral ethics and modeling
good behavior.
Pre-Pipeline Input Components
Before exploring the passages on the pipeline it is important to recognize the key
input components to the LELP. These components form the quality of the pipeline
to leadership and followership development. These input components are made up
of the New Employee Funnel and the Agency’s Developmental Culture Fuel Tank as
demonstrated at the bottom of figure 2. Specific aspects and strategies impacting both of
these pre-pipeline components will be the focus of Part 2 of the series.
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New Employee Funnel
The key input are the new employees entering the agency. It goes without saying,
that agencies want to attract, select, and retain quality members. But the input of new
members o ers agencies opportunities to “prime” the pipeline with quality components.
This is the stage of the LELP model where applicants with positive person-organization
fit may be better identified.
Agency Developmental Culture Fuel Tank
This is the area where your culture is fueled. The “fuel” in this tank is composed of many
agency attributes as displayed in figure 3. Every agency has a di erent “mixture” ranging
from “low grade” to “high test.” Low grade agencies have poor morale, high turnover,
and a lack of trust in management. High test agencies have leveraged the various
components that fuels its agency through good solid behavioral ethics and modeling
good behavior.
Stages of the Law Enforcement Leadership Pipeline
The passages reflected in figure 2 are derived from the initial leadership pipeline work of
Charan, Drotter, Noel (2011). The presented LELP adds the concept of the new employee
funnel and the Agency Developmental Culture Fuel Tank. The LELP model specifically
aligns customary law enforcement positions, both sworn and non-sworn, into each
pipeline. Each level of the LELP has opportunities to “inject” that pipeline level with
experiences, education, training, and other deliberate strategies to assist individuals’
development in their current and future assignments. These strategies will be the focus
of Part 3.
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Managing Self
Every individual starts their professional career managing themselves. We never stop
that quest. Rather more responsibility and the accountability for others are added as
they progress through the passages of promotion. This is also an area of growth and
development in behaviors and attitudes related to followership. For example, a servant
leadership style is conducive to strong leadership and good leader-member relations.
The concept of servant-followership aligns with this concept and develops skills,
attitudes, and behaviors that easily translate to positive influence as members promote.
Good leaders are also good followers, and we all follow regardless of the stage and
elevation in the pipeline.
Passage 1: Managing Self to Leading Another
This first stage in the LELP is where FTOs, trainers, corporals,
and assistant supervisors reside. At this level they transition from
managing themselves to managing another (FTO, trainers) as well as
assuming the responsibilities to fill in for sergeants or other first-line
supervisors. Individuals can seize opportunities to train and serve as
assistant supervisors to build critical experience that prepare them to
become a line-supervisor. Agencies can leverage these opportunities
by training FTOs and other trainers on a leader vs trainer approach
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in e ective transfer of training. Research (such as Tannenbaum et
al., 1991) demonstrates that trainees perform better with a training
o icer who has a leader approach, focused on coaching and showing,
versus a trainer approach, which is more of a “prove-it” and evaluator
approach.
Passage 2: Leading Another to Supervising Others
We generally do a good job, as a profession, o ering training,
coaching, and mentoring for new o icers and support sta . In fact,
Field Training and Evaluation Programs (FTEP) with daily observation
reports is arguably one of the best on-the-job training models in
any profession. We tend to take a sharp drop-o in resourcing when
promoted to line-supervision. It is common for an o icer to get the
congratulatory call from the Chief or Sheri , sew on their stripes, and
head to work hoping for the best. As discussed in the Spring Edition,
we must do better. Part 3 of this series will go into more detail related
to intentional experience and training, such as sergeant field training
programs.
Passage 3: Supervising Others to Managing Supervisors
This passage is where lieutenants and their civilian counterparts
fall in the LELP. This is also where those with strong leadership
attributes, that served them well as line-supervisors, may struggle
to evolve the attention-to-detail mindset of their management roles
and responsibilities. For example, a strong operational sergeant who
thrived working alongside their o icers on shift may struggle with
the shift in role requiring more of an administrative detail orientation.
This is also an area where the return on investment in education and
networking outside of law enforcement starts to pay dividends.
Passage 4: Managing Supervisors to Commanding Division
Commanders, majors, captains, and division heads emerge
from the fourth passage. Leaders never promote beyond the
benefits, to themselves, their followers, and agencies, of strong
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leadership attributes. But strong leaders who failed to develop
good management habits may struggle in this level. Fortunately,
the profession has many command level and long term training
and educational programs, such as the FBINA, SPI, and regional
command colleges and institutes. This is also the career level in
which individuals’ perspective expand beyond the scope of the
police department’s sphere of influence and engage in the broader
community (i.e. Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, SHERM) and
professional associations (i.e. GACP, IACP, FBINAA) for expanded
networking.
Passage 5: Commanding Division to Second in Command
Ascending to deputy or assistant chief or chief deputy requires a
global leadership mindset as well as attention-to-detail. The chief or
sheri must be able to scan for threats and challenges from outside
the agency and rely on their second in command to provide oversight
of the day-to-day operations, embrace positive conflict of ideas, and
allow them to attend issues and serve as the face of the agency.
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Passage 6: Second in Command to Agency Head
Not many people ascend to this position in any profession. Success
depends largely on the lessons and perspectives gained throughout
the passages in the pipeline. Skipping a pipeline level along the
way can be problematic or even disastrous. Experience requires
dedication, patience, and preparation. It also requires having a strong
network within and outside of law enforcement for support and
resources.
The Peter Principle: It is Real and O ers a Great Lesson
The Peter Principle was coined by sociologist Laurence Peter in 1968 who observed,
“In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.” The notion
is often used to label someone perceived as incompetent in upper areas of an agency,
but actually is a discussion about the false assumption that competence and ability is
generalizable as people promote.
Recent research o ers a great example. Economists Benson, Li, and Shue (2019) tested
the Peter Principle by analyzing sales performance of 38,843 employees and the 1,553
sales reps that were subsequently promoted across 131 firms. Their findings were that
the best sales performers were promoted but performed poorly as managers. Their
study also revealed that the stronger the sales performance, the worse the management
performance. A parallel for law enforcement are the instances when a proactive o icer,
often an informal leader among their peers, gets promoted to sergeant and struggles in
the shift from “doing the work” to supervising and supporting the work.
The lesson for law enforcement, and any profession, is that performance and
competence observed at a particular level of the pipeline is not necessarily predictive of
future performance upon advancement. Each level requires di erent perspective and
skillset that may not have been required in another. As Colin Powell points out in his
book, It Worked for Me, people do have a ceiling related to their success in promotion
anchored to each person’s skillsets and abilities. It is important to recognize the level
where we are maximizing our performance. Pushing upward can result not only in
diminished performance, but also can take a strong agency contributor with high career
satisfaction and promote them to misery.
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Dr. Marshall Jones leverages experience from law
enforcement, consulting, coaching, training, and
applied research to explore leadership, organizational,
recruiting, and retention issues. He is the co-author of
the book Law Enforcement Leadership, Management,
and Supervision published by Blue360 Media.
References
Benson, A., Li, D., & Shue , K. (2019) Promotions and the Peter Principle. The Quarterly Journal of Economics,
134 (4) 2085–2134. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjz022
Charan, R., Drotter, S., and Noel, J. (2011). The leadership pipeline: How to build the leadership powered
company. Jossey-Bass.
Jones, M.A . (2023a). Walking the Walk in Developing Sergeants: Take A First Step. The Georgia Police Chief,
Spring, 2023.
Jones, M.A . (2023b). Navigating the stormy seas of policing: Leadership sets the course, but culture is at the
helm. The Georgia Police Chief, Winter, 2023.
Police Executive Research Forum (PERF ). (2019). The workforce crisis, and what police agencies can do
about it. Washington, DC: PERF. https://www.policeforum.org/assets/WorkforceCrisis.pdf
Police Executive Research Forum (PERF ) (2023, April 2023). New PERF sur vey shows police agencies are
losing o icers faster than they can hire new ones. Washington, DC. https ://www.policeforum.org/
sta ing2023
Powell, C. (2012). It worked for me: In li fe and leadership. Harper.
Tannenbaum, S. I., Mathieu, J. E., Salas, E ., & Cannon-Bowers, J. A. ( 1991). Meeting trainees’ expectations:
The influence of training fulfilment on the development of commitment, self-e icacy, and motivation.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 759–769.
Wilson, J.M., Grammich, C.A ., Cherry, T., & Gibson, A. (2023). Police retention: A systematic review of the
research. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 17, 1-20.
Final Thoughts: Take a “Bite”
Managing change is a challenge in any profession. Law enforcement executives face
the challenges of managing daily “brushfires” and often lack resources, experience,
or time to enact critical leadership and cultural change initiatives. The issues can be
come overwhelming. Nobel Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tuto, commented
“there is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.” The best advice in enacting
a strategy aligning the aspects for an improved leadership pipeline, is identify an area
of opportunity for improvement, and take a “bite.” This series is designed to o er a few
recipes to consider when deciding which part of the elephant to eat first.
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