This chapter deals with leadership and leadership development, which are key matters in policing (Adlam and Villiers, 2003). There is an immense literature on leadership of varying quality and in different disciplines, along with a range of popular books, courses and gurus informing people how to become a successful leader. Yet ‘leadership’ remains one of the fuzziest concepts in social sciences. A leading authority in the area, Manfred Kets de Vries (of INSEAD, the prime European business school), once stated at a conference that no-one really knows what the term means. Indeed, there are, according to Alison and Crego (2008), as many definitions of leadership as there are authors on the subject. It is, then, an infinitely elastic concept that confusingly stretches across diverse disciplines. In Chapter One the authors opted for viewing leadership pragmatically as what is needed given the nature of the police organization and the challenges it faces operationally and institutionally. Following on from that – and illustrated by the examples of serious incident management in Chapter Four – there would seem to be a need for officers who are competent, confident, tried and tested, and, importantly, whose leadership is rooted in the values of an accountable public service within a democracy. Having explored the general leadership material, the second part of this chapter is dedicated to leadership development and how police leaders make it to the top in England and Wales and the Netherlands. The position taken is that a number of leadership styles are required to direct the police organisation and to take charge of operations; that leadership is required at all levels throughout the organisation; and that far more attention needs to be paid to shaping leadership development geared to the specific mandate and unique nature of policing and the need for different approaches at different times.

Exploring leadership

In the area of leadership studies, much of the available material is historical, biographical and psychological. It may be based on published profiles and/or interviews with leaders by journalists or academics using structured interviews for research purposes. The subjects are typically successful or controversial politicians, generals or business executives. Discussions on the broad subject of leadership also tend to involve successful military, political, business or social leaders – for example, Hannibal, Margaret Thatcher, Steve Jobs and Gandhi – or legendary sport coaches such as Vince Lombardi or Sir Alex Ferguson.