Commanding issues: Leaders need experience, achievement and ability, not just a desire for the top job

I recently had the good fortune to meet Sir Lawrence Freedman as he gave a seminar on his  book, Command, which I was also reading at the time. It is an excellent compendium of  examples from contemporary history that I commend to you all. 

Much in the book resonated with my own police experience, and the travails the service  faces. Below are some quotes from the concluding chapter of the book, which gave me a wry  smile as I recognised so much from my own time policing: 

• “Closed systems, in which subordinates dare not ask awkward questions, and in which  independent initiatives risk punishment, will suffer operationally.” 

• “Subordinates learn to be wary of superiors who show an inadequate understanding of the  circumstances in which they are operating” 

• “Those issuing orders should have the authority that brings the respect of colleagues and  subordinates”. 

I will return to these quotes shortly, but my final take away from the books is Freedman’s  own reference to an earlier, historically very popular piece of fiction Once an Eagle,  embraced by and with the rights now owned by the US Army War College. 

The book follows two army officers through their careers, Damon and Massengale, and uses  them as typologies of commanders. Damon learned from experience, and looked out for his  troops while Massengale was out to please his superiors, and sought personal gain. 

“(Damon) has grasped the demands and uncertainties of battle, and (Massengale) has  mastered staff work and … politics.” 

It may well be that I have rose-tinted glasses (although history and historic media reporting  persuade me not) but in my early service there seemed to be a lot of senior officers from the  Damon fold, and far fewer from that of Massengale. 

Somewhere along the line for policing this flipped. An unfortunately growing number of  senior officers have very little tangible successful operational experience, particularly at the  street level, and use networks and politicking to get on.

Lack of command experience 

Personally, I’ve encountered officers who didn’t command operational cops (uniform or  detective) on the street from the day they were promoted to sergeant until they arrived in a  division as a superintendent ‘for experience’. 

How a service can think this is in any way appropriate is beyond me. The inevitable staff  mismanagement then flowed. However, these ‘Massengale types’ can be very, very good at  manipulating appearances. 

During one national crisis event I learned of, a superintendent who was ‘allowing’ the chief  inspector to chair partnership Gold’s, attending in the background, then reporting up all they  had noted from their subordinates good work as their own ‘leadership’. 

They quite obviously didn’t have a clue what they were doing, didn’t want to put themselves  in a position of risk to make decisions, but knew how to manipulate the situation to appear  the one in charge to executive officers. 

Such individuals, in my experience, have ‘one face up and one face down’, where they are  often bullying towards subordinates to mask their own inadequacies while reporting up how  they are ‘getting the job done. They certainly meet Freedman’s quoted criteria above. 

So, how did we get here? Bureaucratisation that created back room empires within policing to  service legislation that has been imposed on the service over the last two decades is one  factor, where such individuals can thrive in a non-operational realm without doing any  policing. 

The next? Competency based promotion systems, where ‘me, me, me’ is the mantra and  systems are gamed for individuals to self-promote beyond their abilities with little objective  assessment from those in command positions. 

Finally, ‘schemes’, be they direct entry or accelerated promotion. Call them what you will,  but they reward ‘driven’ individuals who (we were told) were not very good cops, but would  shine as senior officers. 

Of course, most don’t; for if you can’t know how to conduct policing operations on the street  you sure aren’t going to be able to direct them when they are managing a city. The ‘driven’  piece that generally happens is that these individuals drive over the top of some operationally  competent individuals in their clamour for credit and their next step on the ladder. 

The need to be a cop 

Policing developed as a profession where everyone started at the front end and rose on ability  for a reason. You have to understand the basics to make the system work. 

Some of the ‘driven’ scheme-supported individuals I’ve encountered do get this, but there  aren’t many (and these individuals who ‘get it’ would likely as not have had successful  careers without the involvement of any scheme).

You have to really ask yourself, why would someone want to join the police who is from the  outset trying to get away from street duties, as the schemes we have are set up to achieve? 

To me, it has then to be about power; not seeking the effort and experience that brings natural  advancement, but leapfrogging this for the wielding of influence one would not likely  otherwise have had. 

I’m all for specialisation, but policing is a job for generalists. Through its unique nature, the  need to understand the executive function – the exercise of warranted powers to arrest  someone being the end goal of law enforcement – you must have a grip of how this works to  operate. 

Often those who have specialised do eventually find themselves back in divisional policing,  without the experience, knowledge and skills to undertake the duties of the rank they hold.  This is a disservice to the individual, policing and the public. 

Observations from overseas 

I saw the ultimate example of off-track policing approaches when deployed to South-East  Asia. Here, you could join as a cop, or a sub-inspector or even a sub-superintendent.  Although there were apparent criteria around the entry levels I soon learned these really  related to background and connections. 

I found the street cops largely no different to cops the world over, but particularly those  directly deployed at the most senior ranks had little to no grip on street duties or basic  interpersonal management. 

A degree of detachment existed, with orders given and little real concept (or concern) over  the difficulties implementation would bring. 

Now, there are cultural issues here too but what really brought matters out for me as an  exemplar of what was wrong was when we had asked for our first focus group to be  convened. 

The senior officers had degrees, and we described the environment we wanted as being like  seminars they had experienced. On arrival we found we were in an auditorium, with a stage  and the focus group attendees sitting as if in an audience.

When I removed my seat from the platform, went with it to the floor and asked the cops form  a semi-circle around me the senior officers in accompaniment were aghast, and soon found  excuses to leave. 

As I am sure you can imagine, over weeks we found out much about policing issues that the  leadership team were unsighted on, with similar public approaches being an anathema; we  encouraged them to alter practice and engage. 

To lead cops you have to understand them. You have to have been one of them, and want to  have been one of them. This is the service’s problem. We have far too many who want to lead  the service, but never wanted to be part of it. 

Promotion in the unique environment of policing should naturally flow from achievement and  ability, not a day one desire to wield responsibility over others. A lack of leadership training  here, and the disappearance of the concept of moral courage, are likely to have a lot of  explanatory force. 

Improvement 

So, how to change things? Those rose-tinted glasses maybe back on, but I believe some  answers lie in the past. 

In days gone by all detectives went out for a year in uniform on promotion to sergeant. This  was an acknowledgement of the unique experience of first-line management in policing. 

I’d expand on this concept, and make it mandatory that to achieve promotion every two ranks  an individual has to demonstrate at least a year of operational deployment, and one in which  relevant event command and on-call responsibilities are not optional but mandatory – a more  defined promotion criteria for sure, but one that ensures operational competence. 

I spent 12 of my 16 years across cop and sergeant in the CID, but it was the four I spent in  uniform that prepared me for the responsibilities of match commander as a chief inspector  and superintendent. 

Only through having undertaken duties on the terraces could I understand the risk and pitfalls  of policing large football crowds. If you haven’t done it, you shouldn’t command it. 

For the service to escape its current nadir, we need far more Damons and far fewer  Massengales. And we need to adopt talent recognition and promotion systems that bring this  about. Without them, we’re going to get more of the same. A scary thought.