Page 20 - the SyI Quarterly 14 Booklet Format

Our Membership
Effective Operational Leadership – Do
you prepare your supervisory teams for
leadership?
By Ben Neate MSyI
I have worked in the human centric security sector, commonly
referred to as ‘manned guarding’ for almost twenty years and
it is the only career I have known. Like many others, I fell into
the industry as a matter of circumstance, rather than making
a conscious effort or decision to pursue it as a profession.
Fortunately for me, right from day one and throughout my twenty
years, I have worked for, alongside and in partnership with many
knowledgeable, influential and charismatic leaders. I attribute my
longevity within the sector to those individuals who have guided
and mentored me throughout my career. As I have learnt and
evolved from their input, I have developed a fascination and
passion for leadership which has become entrenched within my
personal delivery.
When thinking about leadership, our brains often revert straight
to the top of an organisation or body and think of the strategic
leaders who set the direction of a business, those who through
creativity, entrepreneurship and vision set targets, goals and
aspirations for their followers to focus on and achieve. But these
are not the people I want to discuss today, instead I want to draw
attention to and shine a spotlight on our frontline, operational leaders who every day have to
manage and motivate the thousands of security operatives deployed across the UK.
The impact our frontline operational leaders have on a team is readily identifiable through GMS’
internal data. For example where we have a site that runs for a protracted period of time with
no supervisor, or where we see a repeated turnover of supervision in a short time frame, we see
lower customer satisfaction and higher levels of sickness and absenteeism. The reverse is also
clearly seen, where we have an effective frontline leader, absenteeism and sickness goes down,
staff morale and productivity increases and customer satisfaction is high. Furthermore, when the
site based leadership is operating effectively, there is a significant reduction in reliance on regional/
contract managers or centralised operational teams elsewhere within an organisation.
I would proffer that these roles across the industry are frequently overlooked when it comes to
both the impact they can have on efficiency and underestimated in their ability to influence the
success of a team. In a lot of cases, the frontline leader has been appointed due to their length
of service, perceived seniority on site or simply because they are the best security officer; not
necessarily because they are an individual who is capable of being an effective leader. In cases such
as this, where the leader is ineffective, this can again have a detrimental effect on the performance
of the team.
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However this is not a new notion, in 1998 Charles A. Sennewald wrote ‘Perhaps the most common
shortcoming in the security industry is the failure to properly prepare and equip new supervisors with
the tools to discharge their important responsibilities.’ He followed this with ‘The problem in this area
is the false assumption that, because a (person) was an outstanding investigator or officer, (they) will
make a good supervisor…’ (Sennewald, 1998). This then raises the question about why, 25 years later
we still have the same problem.
I think the question/problem statement answers itself – we don’t adequately prepare our first line
leaders for supervisory positions, and we continue this pattern throughout their career journey. At
the point where formal training does take place, the focus of this training becomes about strategy
and business administration, with a continued forward focus on their future career, not a reflection
on what they needed at the first step of their leadership journey and so the cycle continues, with new
frontline leaders being appointed, without the necessary preparation and training.
One route to breaking this cycle is through the apprenticeship levy, which encourages businesses
to invest in their employees and was designed to increase both the numbers of apprentices and the
quality of the apprenticeships being delivered. Recently there has been a focus on career pathways
within the private security industry and when you focus on personnel security, first line operations
management training, is the first logical step on the career ladder. In the Midlands, Mercury Training
have developed a level three first line security operations manager apprentice programme which has
proved successful in supporting our site based, operational leaders. The success of this programme
has been down to the flexible delivery model, where the trainers engage with our teams in their
workplace and because the content of the course has been specifically designed for front line leaders
in the security industry. From start to finish, the course is a collaboration between GMS, Mercury and
the learner, allowing each programme to meet the learning needs and style of the employee.
But formal training is not the complete answer. The majority of onsite leaders within the PSI will have
infrequent contact with their line manager, due to this person most likely managing a widespread
portfolio of sites and a large number of direct reports, meaning it is vitally important that you keep
them motivated and engaged with the business. In his online article ‘The Art of Great Leadership’,
I believe Gianpiero Petriglieri identified how we can achieve this. He stated that organisations
that ‘humanised leadership’ ‘…free people up to lead, develop leadership communities and make
leadership personal…’, and by doing this ‘…even in the age of talent mobility, people remain attracted
and deeply attached to (these) organisations.’ (Petriglieri, 2018)
Technology plays a big part in our ability to further these ideas, with communication platforms like
Microsoft Teams and Whatsapp allowing for free and easy communication amongst people at every
level within an organisation. Within GMS, we have numerous formal ‘chat groups’ where we trigger
engagement and push out information, but alongside these, it has been pleasing to see that informal
chat groups amongst peers have organically appeared with experiences and local incident knowledge
(crimes, accidents, vulnerable areas etc) being shared and reported. These communication groups
create a level of connectivity and mutual support which would not exist without them and increase the
individuals sense of belonging to a wider organisation.
To bring some form of conclusion to my thoughts, throughout my time in security, I have found
that site based leaders have a significant impact on not only their site’s security operation itself, but
the commercial success of a contract or service delivery. Where a site based leader is empowered,
competent and engaged, the team reflects this, therefore it is in our industry’s best interest to nurture,
mentor and support these individuals, so that they in turn will do the same, for those who follow them.
Authors note: Whilst I have not referenced him in this article, a lot of my personal views on leadership
have been fuelled by L. David Marquet, specifically his book ‘Turn the Ship Around!’. If you havent
already, I highly recommend it as a good read.