Ensuring leadership fitness: lessons from policing

Policing is an enormously challenging occupation. Despite the difficulties, however, the vast majority of police officers are extremely resilient and demonstrate high levels of self-control, compassion, professionalism and love for the work they have chosen to do. Their dedication to service is inspiring. These officers appear to have the ability to re-direct their emotionally charged frustrations and use the experiences to create new meaning and compassion. This paper seeks to look at what leaders in all public-sector organisations can learn from these resilient officers, and to look at what can be done to ensure these leaders are fully fit for the role they have to perform in these challenging times of austerity and cutback. The author argues that when the deeper issues are considered, many of the challenges in policing and in leadership are fundamentally of a spiritual nature, and it is vital to include consideration of the spiritual dimension in an holistic approach to leadership.