Overhauling Leadership Development for County Sheriffs
The Challenge
Spurred by an introduction to the new County Sheriffs of Colorado training coordinator, Catalyzer was invited to review and recommend an overhaul to one of CSOC’s current leadership development courses, the Supervisory Institute. Challenges with the SI included:
- The 80-hour course, accomplished over two weeks, had been repeatedly assessed as too long, with course critiques suggesting time was poorly managed by course facilitators
- Curricular materials were reproduced in hard copy, resulting in a resource intensive, nearly 600-page, 3-ring binder
- Facilitation teams included full-time law enforcement professionals who, due to their other duties, were often pulled away from course support, resulting in regular course cancellations at the last minute
Course critiques by participants graded the SI an average 4.443 on a five-point Likert scale and reinforced the need for better time management and enhanced delivery approaches.
The Goal
Catalyzer was asked to work toward a one-week, 40-hour intensive course that leveraged its facilitation team, considered the latest thought on course-focused leadership topics, and that would involve a digital curriculum, archived by CSOC and updated/distributed to course attendees for their own use or reproduction in hard copy (at their discretion).
The Solution
Within 24 hours of hearing CSOC’s desired outcomes, Catalyzer developed a new, 40-hour course, the Front-Line Leader Institute (FLLI). The course addressed all of CSOC’s challenges and was quickly submitted to Colorado POST for review. This review enabled POST grant funding for the course which then began with 19 professionals in Rifle, Colorado.
Highlights of this new course include:
- Mandatory pre-course work involving reading, journaling, and an interview with Agency Command Staff
- 13 newly revised modules that include: Leadership Foundations, Ethical Decision-Making, Emotional Intelligence, Communications, Conflict Management, Performance Feedback and Coaching, History of Colorado Law Enforcement, Interpersonal Accountability, Practical Team Building, Delegation & Decision-Making, and a culminating Leadership Scenario Laboratory.
- The course also introduced a mid-week Senior Leader Panel, where Command Staff representatives nearby would join the cohort to discuss leadership expectations, career paths for law enforcement, front-line leadership, and other contemporary topics.
- The course additionally relies on regular evening homework and post-course work that includes another Catalyzer-provided book (Endurance, by Alfred Lansing) and coaching to develop individual leadership philosophies.
These courses are offered recurringly around the state, hosted by select agencies, and accomplished three to six times annually.
The Results. In 20 FLLI deliveries to 358 front-line law enforcement leaders…
- The course received an average of 4.734 on a five-point Likert scale (a 6.55% increase in course effectiveness over the SI)
- Of the nearly 37,000 individual Likert-type ratings, 96.9% received are either a “4” or a “5”
- The FLLI has become the highest-demand leadership program offered by CSOC with registrations regularly exceeding course capacity
- “In almost 9 years, this class is at the top of my favorites list for trainings I’ve attended. The course material was relevant, applicable, and important.”
- “You know that I would have nothing but great things to say about your classes and shall be recommending them to any agency I come across.”
- “I wanted to reach out to you both to say thank you again for your expertise, experience, and enthusiasm during the Front-Line Leader course I attended this year. I was informed today that I am being promoted to Sergeant, and I can say without hesitation that the material I learned in this course played a significant role in helping me to prepare for testing.”
- “Since attending your school in Fort Collins in February of last year, I am confident in saying that I have been able to hone my leadership skills significantly. So much so, in fact, that my agency created and offered me a position tailored to my strengths and core values.”
- “All in all, your class was absolutely one of the best courses I have ever taken, and I have recommended Catalyzer to people in law enforcement and beyond. I find myself still often thinking about many of the concepts that you brought up.”
- “I very much appreciate the amount of thought and work that was put into the training. It has been one of the most useful trainings I’ve been through in my career and one of the few that actually applies to my job/life every day.”
- “I am confident that taking this class with enough time before a prospective promotional opportunity has allowed me to practice these skills, and will ultimately help me be a more effective leader when I do promote (whether that is this upcoming process, or a future one). I have recommended the course to my peers and I gave out a couple of the EI books.”
What Came Next
The FLLI has firmly anchored Catalyzer with the County Sheriffs of Colorado. Spin-offs from this effort include:
- Catalyzer’s results ensure CSOC will keep using the FLLI over the next several years
- Catalyzer has also been invited to overhaul CSOC’s Command-Staff Institute, an 80-hour program for leaders at more senior levels than those who attend the FLLI, and the Instructional Methodology Course, a 40-hour program required before any law enforcement professional is allowed to instruct in a police academy.
- CSOC has expanded Catalyzer’s involvement to include regular breakout sessions at one of three annual, state-wide conferences. This regular, recurring exposure to Colorado’s 64 County Sheriffs and Undersheriffs has resulted in:
- Programs developed and delivered directly to sheriff’s offices in Jefferson, Adams, Archuleta, Lake, and Pitkin counties
- Catalyzer’s developing a comprehensive succession plan for Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office – the second largest law enforcement agency in Colorado
- Invitation to support the Western States Sheriffs Association at their most recent annual convention in Reno, Nevada