Gold Shield: Management's Role in Helping Keep Good People Good

Law enforcement agencies spend much time, energy, and money hiring and training good people. However, that is just the beginning - leaders and managers (from executive-level to first line) play an essential role in developing and maintaining good people once they are on the job. 

Helping Keep Good People Good requires a proactive approach to leadership & management, clear expectations, a focus on prevention & early intervention, meaningful feedback, the Courage to Communicate, and holding people respectfully accountable. Without that, performance suffers, inappropriate/unacceptable behaviors increase, conflict escalates, and other employee-related problems develop. In addition, agencies expose themselves to unnecessary public scrutiny and liability, and upper managers spend a disproportionate amount of their time dealing with issues that should have been dealt with a long time ago. Most importantly, when managers/leaders don't do their jobs - they deprive people working for them of the guidance, mentoring, and coaching needed to help improve performance and achieve their full potential.