By Chela Cottrell
“What is your leadership style?”
Whether you are a new leader, an experienced veteran, or are considering the question during an interview, identifying your leadership style reveals your personal philosophy about how to lead teams during both routine and emergency events.
But what leadership styles are there? How do you know which reflects your preferred behaviors? Which style should you aspire to develop?
Classic leadership styles include the following:
- Transformational – Inspire others by setting a vision and motivating through purpose and passion
- Democratic – Encourage team input and collaboration in decision-making
- Transactional – Focus on structure, performance goals and reward-based accountability
- Autocratic – Maintain strict control and make unilateral decisions
- Servant – Lead by supporting and empowering others, placing the team’s needs first
- Laissez-faire – Take a hands-off approach, giving team members autonomy with minimal oversight
- Coaching – Develop individuals by identifying strengths, addressing gaps and guiding growth
- Bureaucratic – Rely on rules, policies and established procedures to lead and manage
What all these leadership styles have in common is that their focus is on … the leader.
Flipping the focus: Leading through personalization
What if, instead, we turned the study of leadership around and focused on those we lead — not just as team members, but as individuals? The goal of “bespoke leadership” is just that: a focus on customizing your leadership to meet the unique needs of individuals while maximizing their performance.
This practice requires more work on the part of the leader, but can result in a stronger, more effective, more committed team. Tailoring your leadership approach to the needs of each individual from the point where they are in their current personal and professional journey could be exactly what your team members need.
When first promoted into a position, new leaders often prioritize treating all team members “fairly.” They want to ensure that the treatment they provide each person is “the same.” Instead of seeking “same,” bespoke leadership recognizes that no two employees could possibly be “the same.” Individuals have differing amounts of law enforcement experience, interests, skill levels, outside pressures and joys.
Leaders who attempt to treat each person “the same” may become rigid in a way that doesn’t serve their teams. For instance, treating a 20-year veteran with the scrutiny and oversight typically provided to a newly released trainee would not come across as supportive, but rather as micromanaging. Instead, leaders must acknowledge where each person is in their personal and professional journey and act accordingly.
Meeting people where they are — starting on day one
How does bespoke leadership function? Consider the example of one of our law enforcement hiring practices. We require an applicant to complete a Personal History Statement before starting any role. Our organizations have high expectations based on an individual’s years of service and experience.
From the very start of someone’s law enforcement career, we should better tailor our approach to applicants, based on whether they are lateral or entry-level candidates. Providing the same base information regarding due dates and expectations seems to be required for fairness, yet fleshing out what a quality Personal History Statement looks like would benefit those who have never experienced a background review process.
Bespoke leadership also means giving your team members information in a way they can best understand. Most organizations rely heavily upon email. We all know that email is not the best modality to utilize when sharing important news or updates, but in a 24/7/365 environment, it is the most efficient.
However, understanding how your team members need information can mean the difference between success and failure. Could your update be a short video clip? Can you offer office hours during which team members can drop in for clarification? Matching your instructions to their needs can strengthen your communication without setting up unmanageable schedules.
Leading across life chapters and generational values
Most importantly, in bespoke leadership, we recognize that people’s lives fall into chapters. Honor those chapters when you can. We can think of chapters like “New to law enforcement,” “New parent,” “Supporting a life partner through college,” and sometimes “Dealing with grief.”
To the extent possible, try to be flexible. An example of flexibility is encouraging an employee to consider part-time employment when they need to step back from work to focus on their personal life. Hopefully, they will find their path back to full-time employment at some point.
Considering the year-over-year loss of talent in our organizations, finding ways to retain people by being flexible will pay dividends. It’s important to offer possibilities that benefit both the employee and the organization instead of falling back on how operations have always run.
Most of our agencies enjoy the challenge and the blessing of having multiple generations represented in our current workforces. The incoming generation often prioritizes making a meaningful impact in their communities more than promoting up through the ranks.
As leaders, it is up to us to paint a vision of what comes next in our organizations. Using bespoke leadership may help shift viewpoints from what it is to what it could be. While law enforcement may not be able to offer the physical flexibility that private sector organizations benefit from, we can make some adjustments within our paramilitary organizations to recognize that our people are our most precious assets.
We can intentionally utilize some of these tools to train ourselves to lead differently and in a way that speaks to our team members while maintaining the personnel that public safety requires for our communities.
Bespoke leadership provides a framework centered on our team members and, hopefully, reignites the purpose of what each of us is here to do for those we serve.
About the author
Chela Cottrell is a 20-year law enforcement veteran. Through a variety of law enforcement positions, PSM Cottrell developed a level of expertise that qualified her for her current role as the Police Services Manager of the Communications Center and Operations Division in the Citrus Heights (California) Police Department. Recognized as a dispatch subject matter expert, PSM Cottrell has contributed to state-level curriculum and legislative development that will enhance the professionalism of California law enforcement personnel and practices. She has a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of California Santa Cruz and a master’s degree in Law Enforcement and Public Safety Leadership from the University of San Diego. She is a graduate of the Sherman Block Supervisory Leadership Institute Class #490 and holds the designation of Emergency Number Professional from the National Emergency Number Association.