Guests: Rob Elkington & Les Sylven
To serve and protect: servant leadership takes on a whole new meaning for a law enforcement leader. Society’s expectations for policing have changed radically – for example, up to 80% of what officers do overlaps with what social workers do! Add calls for reduced funding, labor shortages, brutality…and gone are the days of simple “cops and robbers” policing.
But the leadership and hierarchy of policing have changed very little. So can law enforcement truly rise to the challenges of both reform and crime with...
Guests: Rob Elkington & Les Sylven
To serve and protect: servant leadership takes on a whole new meaning for a law enforcement leader. Society’s expectations for policing have changed radically – for example, up to 80% of what officers do overlaps with what social workers do! Add calls for reduced funding, labor shortages, brutality…and gone are the days of simple “cops and robbers” policing.
But the leadership and hierarchy of policing have changed very little. So can law enforcement truly rise to the challenges of both reform and crime without new styles of leadership?
Guests Rob Elkington and Les Sylven have some very surprising solutions that go far beyond the stereotypes of the hardboiled police commissioner – solutions that any leader of a high-stress workforce will find extremely useful!
Here's what Rob, Les, and Maureen cover:
- Why almost all law enforcement leaders have faced trauma – and how it can help them better serve their teams;
- How soft-skills like mindfulness are just as important as hard skills like firearms training; and
- If your mission is to serve and protect, servant leadership makes a lot more sense than old-school top-down management.
Produced in partnership with the International Leadership Association: https://ilaglobalnetwork.org.
Other episodes you'll enjoy:
- Leading the Court: Canada’s First Female Chief Justice with Beverley McLachlin
- Staying Cool in Challenging Situations with Janet Fouts
- Informed Leadership: The Power of Trauma with Rachael Kelly
For daily wisdom from our guests, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn. We’re on Instagram, Threads, and Twitter, too!
RESOURCES:
Rob’s book is Policing for the 21st Century; McGraw Hill plans to publish it before the end of 2024. Since he discusses the concept of Ubuntu in our interview, you might find this book about it interesting: Everyday Ubuntu: Living Better Together, the African Way by Mungi Ngomane (the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s granddaughter). Hardback: https://amzn.to/3HlRIgS; audiobook: https://amzn.to/3U28UQc.
Our host, Maureen Metcalf, posts a newsletter every week on LinkedIn. You can subscribe here.
Maureen’s latest book is Innovative Leadership & Followership in the Age of AI. You’ll find details about it at https://bit.ly/LeaderInAI. Her other 10 books are available on Amazon here.
Books we’re reading for fun or personal development right now include:
- Becoming Superman: My Journey from Poverty to Hollywood by J. Michael Straczynski
- Own the AI Revolution by Neil Sahota
- Time and Chance by Kim Campbell
- Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller, the Man Who Created Nancy by Bill Griffith
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OUR PODCAST TEAM:
Host & Executive Producer: Maureen Metcalf
Editor & Producer: Dan Mushalko
Video & Graphics Editor: Devon Mushalko
Assistant Editor & Raconteur: Luigi Morelli
Always Being Very Mindful: Jenna Reik & Mike Morrow-Fox
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Website: InnovativeLeadershipInstitute.com
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About Our Guests:
Rob Elkington, Ph.D., currently resides in Canada, where he serves as Assistant Professor at Trent University Faculty of Business & Master of Management Program. Rob is the co-founder and CEO of Global Leadership Initiatives, Inc., which exists to "develop excellence in leadership globally," www.globalleader.ca.
Rob also serves on the faculty of various universities such as:
- Associate Professor, Stellenbosch University School of Public Leadership.
- Adjunct Professor at the Ontario Tech University in the Faculty of Social Science and the Faculty of Education.
- Supervising faculty with the Ed..D program for Education.
- Graduate teaching faculty for the GDIPL for Social Sciences and Humanities.
Rob is a member of the International Leadership Association, an ICF Certified FLOW Business Coach and an MBTI practitioner. He has published a range of books, book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles and has facilitated numerous peer-reviewed presentations.
Les Sylven is a Leadership Studies Ph.D. candidate in the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria. His doctoral research project explores police leadership with senior Canadian police officers who regularly practice meditation and mindfulness. Les was a police officer in Canada for over 30 years, serving communities as a member of the RCMP, Victoria Police Department and the Central Saanich Police Service on Vancouver Island. In 2020, Les was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of Merit (O.O.M) of the Police Forces by the Governor General of Canada. Later that year, he retired from policing as the Chief Constable of the Central Saanich Police Service in order to concentrate full-time on his studies at UVic.
