Self-Leadership of a Mentoring Program

Self-Leadership of a Mentoring Program

Mentoring Program

When officers are employed within a police department, they are thrown into a culture quite different from any other work experience they might have endured. Officers start with performance or field training through fourteen weeks. They are assigned multiple training officers who will teach, judge and determine if their abilities meet the standards of a police officer.

During this time, recruit officers undergo stress at work and through their personal lives. This document will explain how Lieutenant Ken La Velle employed self-leadership to provide a mentoring program for new officers to cope with some of the work and personal stressors associated with law enforcement careers.

Starting with the concept of self-leadership as explained in Chapter 6 of Organizational Behavior by McShane and Von Glinow, the focus will be on the five main activities as illustrated in the following graphic showing the progression of the activities related to self-leadership. (McShane & Von Glinow, 2000/2010, p. 184-186)

Lieutenant La Velle started with the idea to have a mentoring program for new officers that would provide them with a person within the organization who could help them with work related questions. Many new employees can be intimidated or just do not want to look foolish in front of their training officer during training phases.

The goal was to locate a formal training class in mentoring and to design a program for new officers through their probationary period. This was not only an employee program promoting career development but also a cost savings program for the department. Thousands of dollars are spent to hire one employee from testing processes, equipment purchases and probationary training. It is estimated the average cost of a new officer is $59,000 (W. Dwayne Orrick, 2002). The mentoring program would extend the retention of officers working at the Parker Police Department and save the department thousands of dollars of reinvestment funds towards replacement costs.

Self-Leadership is obtained through high motivation of a leader (McShane & Von Glinow, 2000/2010, p. 362). Looking into the five main activities of Self-leadership below, it will explain how the process worked for Lieutenant La Velle and how the program has evolved from the first goal of starting a program to the revision of 2011.

Personal Goal Setting

The goal of creating a

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