LA Local
Leadership Academy: local
Leadership Academy local represents a significant next stage for the Leadership Academy - the provision of Leadership Academy products and services at the local level.
LA local has two key aims:
- To provide MPS officers and staff in leadership roles with the skills and tools of effective leadership
- To engage officers and staff at the local level in helping make the MPS a more Values consistent workplace
- To ensure that the connection between operational activity and the Values is clear to all staff.
How does it work?
LA local is based on a number of key areas that the Leadership Academy has identified as being essential to the achievement of the above key aims:
- Senior Leadership: The leadership style of the Senior Team is a significant aspect of what shapes the performance of a BOCU. The starting point of LA local is to work with the Senior Team, focussing on their leadership style and effectiveness as a team. Specific Interventions at this level include critical incident training, team development, individual coaching and Values Based 360 feedback.
- Involving Officers and Staff in decisions: Officers and staff are asked key questions about 'what matters' - both for BOCU performance and the type of changes that would make the BOCU a better place to work. A key part of making this happen centres around the setting up of a Steering Group made up of volunteers fairly chosen from across all levels of the BOCU. The Steering Group then communicate with the BOCU on these two key areas.
- Communication: Communication is at the heart of LA local. If the MPS is to be a more Values consistent workplace it is important that communication across the BOCU is enabled and supported. This is done in a number of ways - (a) Working with the SMT and representatives from the local community to identify what the key messages are for the BOCU (b) Working with the Steering Group who can share these communication messages and feedback the types of changes that may make a difference to performance and the workplace (c) Conducting a BOCU wide survey which asks officers and staff to indicate their views on where the BOCU is currently, both in leadership and communication and in making the BOCU a better place to work.
- IdentifyingActions: Based on the feedback from boththe Steering Group and the BOCU survey, the Leadership Academy thenworks in partnership with the Steering Group to identify specificactions that may make a difference to BOCU performanceand in helping to make the BOCU a morepositive work environment. These are locally owned and supported by theSMT/Steering Group for implementation.
- Provision of Skills and Tools toOfficers/Staff in leadership roles:Leadership Academy staff provide localised interventions to officersand staff in leadership roles (Team Leaders). This would also includelocal community involvement and is based on a 3 day module focussing onleadership, coaching skills and people management. In additionofficers/staff at specific leadership impact levels will be offeredCoaching.
We believe that LA local represents a unique opportunity to try something different - to bring together some of the key learning and messages from across the MPS, to encourage offficers and staff to have a say in shaping the BOCU they work for - and to support this through effective leadership.