Learning from others to progress into leadership

I went to university to study art and, on leaving there, I had this really strong feeling that I needed a vocational route to go down. And I started some work with some housing associations and the council before going to work for the police as a member of police staff. And I remember really very clearly my first boss one day sending me out in a police car for the day and he said, ‘just go and see what else goes on in the organisation’ and that was it.

There was a very specific moment when I delivered a presentation and I've never really done a lot of public speaking before. And some of the feedback I had from that presentation made me realise I could make a difference and I could inspire other people to really help people within the organisation as well as externally. And it was just one person's comment of, ‘if you can do this as a PC, do you have any idea what you could do in a different rank?’ And for me that was the first time that real leadership light bulb went on.

So I set myself two PDR objectives for the year, one of which was to move departments and one of which was to think about promotion. And I think part of that lateral move was what nudged me even better into promotion. It started simply as a PDR objective and a senior manager that I'd worked with heard that this was one of my objectives and suggested fast track to me.

I remember looking at the application process and thinking this is really long and this is in quite a lot of sections and I think, for me, if I was going to approach it in any way, it was going to have to be very compartmentalised. I would have to not get overwhelmed by the whole process, not get too far ahead of myself and take everything a day at a time. So I very much believe that you can only do your best for the bit that you're working on. So there was no point me worrying about my inspectors’ exam in a year's time. I put my heart and soul into my paper application, which resulted in me getting a board with our DCC who runs the fast tracks within Hampshire.

I think the support I had from colleagues to keep nudging me forward at that point made a real difference, at a point where I just thought ‘I should self-select out here’. And I think that was the first point at which I really looked at how to push myself out of my comfort zone, how to, you know, step up to a stressful board situation whilst quite a lot was going on at home. But I'm really glad I did because I think it was that encouragement from colleagues that meant the difference between going through the whole process and not even starting it.

I think my biggest piece of advice would be, don't underestimate what you can achieve. I think I spent a long time presuming that I needed greater breadth in policing before I approach leadership and I think, for me, I want people to know how far they can push themselves.

Have the humility to learn from others to ask for help. I think, for me, there's no greater way to learn than looking to those around you who've got other skills, other experiences that we can all learn from.