Course Overview:
Ask any chief of police or sheriff and they will indicate that their greatest concern is the quality of their first line supervision. Each has learned in their own time that the most important link to their success as an agency administrator lies in hands of the supervisor who may be running a shift or entire department in their absence. Given this fact, it is remarkable how few skills we provide to our supervisors to provide direction to and develop their subordinates. That is the purpose of this seminar, to provide meaningful supervisory skills to the participant so that they can provide the proper direction to their people. To develop their people as one leader stated so well, “Until they don’t need them any more.”

Finding appropriate, useful supervisory and mid-management training that truly impacts the competency, commitment, attitude and feelings of supervisors in the law enforcement and fire service is not easily done. This program focuses on the first line supervisor and mid-manager, to do just that. This program was developed by The Gallagher-Westfall Group. Long recognized as some of the most innovative trainers in the public safety field in the arena of leadership and liability training, this program was developed over a fifteen year period of time.

This seminar draws on much of the work that had dramatically impacted on the subject of supervisory leadership in the last decade. This course is specifically designed to assist the supervisor to understand the application of today’s leadership literature to the world in which they work. Attendees will be introduced to the elements of leadership, the differences between leadership and management and how to develop them within their own supervisory role.

Beginning with an overview of the development of our knowledge of what leadership is, the participants will perform a self analysis to determine their present communication and leadership styles. This evaluation will point out their strengths and weaknesses as leaders and assist them in preparing a personal development plan. There will be an emphasis placed on the supervisor as communicator, trainer, developer of people, quality control inspector, and their role as an extension of management to include liability gatekeeper. Attendees will better understand the need for assessment skills and how to use them to assist themselves and their officers to better perform their roles.

This program introduces the Six Layers of Success©, The Leadership Test©, and the DISC® as teachable tools that will improve the skills and abilities of supervisors and managers to both manage and lead. There is an emphasis on defining the difference between leadership and management and identifying their separate skill sets.

For all the complexity of what we do, two of the most critical leadership skills are those dealing with relationships and productivity of our teams. This seminar will identify how critical these two variables are to good leadership and then will skill build them. Tools are provided that will assist the attendee to work more effectively as a developer with their people, both as individuals and as a team. Case studies and illustrations are included as part of the curriculum.