myAIPMCompleting the puzzle: The jigsaw approach to leadership and management
Stephen Lenney | Policing Insight
"With myriad books on management, leadership and personal skills, its unsurprising that no single philosophy offers the 'silver bullet' solution; but Chief Inspector of Devon and Cornwall Police Steve Lenney believes police leadership could benefit greatly from the jigsaw puzzle approach.
The huge array of leadership, management and personal skills books available is quite frankly overwhelming. They all offer a unique insight based on the author’s specific inclination, but I would argue none have a total concept that you can pick up and implement from page one to the appendix. None have that silver bullet, the ‘do this, it works in every situation’ solution.
Instead, what each one offers is a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. Unfortunately, it’s as if the cupboard of a lifelong jigsaw puzzle obsessive fell open, and all the pieces of every jigsaw puzzle became mixed up together. You then have the leadership job of picking the right piece at the right time, to once again make the whole picture.
This approach – sometimes called ‘mosaic leadership’ – enables you to take the best bits of work, the best pieces of the jigsaw, and fit them together to make the best possible picture.
In this article, I’d like to look at the ‘must dos’, the jigsaw pieces I think every leader needs to fit together, across three key areas – leadership, culture and process. And I should point out from the start that I’m not an author of leadership books, nor a management consultant, and I have no letters after my name."
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Completing the puzzle: The jigsaw approach to leadership and management, Stephen Lenney, Policing Insight, 2020
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