Goal 5 - Leadership
Goal 5 - Leadership
A culture where leaders inspire, engage, mentor, and celebrate the personal and professional development of staff.
Objectives
1. Cultivate and maintain a thriving, healthy organizational culture.
2. Ensure agency policies and personnel practices are clear and consistently carried out.
3. Equip and empower staff at all levels within the agency to fully and independently exercise their responsibilities.
4. Develop and implement a strategic succession plan to ensure continuity of strong leadership.
Performance measures
1. % of staff members that acknowledge new and updated policies within 10 days
2. % of staff members that complete trainings for policies identified as critical to Agency operations on time
Objective 1 Tasks:
| TASK | ACTIVITY | PLAN START | PLAN END | % COMPLETED | STATUS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Objective 1 | Cultivate and maintain and thriving, healthy organizational culture. | 07/01/2022 | 04/04/2025 | ||
| Task 1 | Administer an annual survey to measure staff satisfaction with agency culture, include text boxes for staff to offer improvement recommendations, and develop and implement a plan for following up on survey results. Establish a workgroup to administer an annual survey to measure staff satisfaction with the agency’s culture. Use the 2020 Strategic Plan Agency Survey as a baseline to measure new survey results. Distribute the results and require units/divisions to review and discuss them and to offer strategies for improvement. Implement and monitor agency-approved changes. | 07/01/2022 | 12/31/2024 | 0% | Not Started |
| Task 2 | Administer an annual survey to gauge employees’ perceptions of leadership, include text boxes for staff to offer improvement recommendations, and develop and implement a plan for following up on survey results. Conduct an annual survey to gauge employees’ perceptions of leadership’s 1) understanding of employees’ jobs and 2) understanding of, and engagement in, unit-level activities. | 04/01/2024 | 12/31/2024 |
95%
|
In Progress |
| Task 3 | Conduct staff focus groups to gather staff’s perceptions about the agency culture and to identify strategies for improvement. The survey workgroup will also utilize focus groups to garner more information/discussion following the results of the survey. | 04/01/2024 | 04/04/2025 | 0% | Not Started |
Objective 2 Tasks:
| TASK | ACTIVITY | PLAN START | PLAN END | % COMPLETED | STATUS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Objective 2 | Cultivate a supportive workplace that honors diversity and fosters respect, unity, engagement, safety, and well-being. | 07/01/2022 | 12/31/2023 | ||
| Task 1 | Assess the Policy and Legislative Division’s structure. Assess the Policy and Legislative Division’s structure and need for additional resources. | 07/01/2022 | 07/30/2023 |
100%
|
Completed |
| Task 2 | Reinforce that all staff review policies within ten days. Reinforce the requirement that all staff acknowledge reviewing policies within 10 days of their posting by Lexipol. (An exception to this requirement may be made when a high volume of material is released simultaneously. In these instances, review requirements will be staggered, prioritizing policies tied to legislative mandates.) To accomplish this: 1) Require all supervisors to include a standing unit meeting agenda item about newly released policies and notify staff in advance so they can come prepared with questions. 2) Train all managers and supervisors on running Lexipol reports. 3) Require all managers and supervisors to run monthly staff review compliance reports and to take corrective action as needed to ensure compliance. 4) Submit quarterly policy review compliance reports to Chief Deputies and the Chief. | 07/01/2022 | 07/30/2023 |
100%
|
Completed |
| Task 3 | Create a Policies and Procedures Review Committee. Create a Policies and Procedures Review Committee—using subject matter experts as needed—to assist the Division Manager of the Policy and Legislative Division in achieving the objective, “ensure agency policies and personnel practices are clear and consistently carried out.” Convene the group quarterly. The following are recommended committee activities: 1) Create an objective checklist to ensure agency policies are consistently reviewed. 2) Create staff survey questions to gather information about policies and procedures that staff perceive to be inconsistently followed. Incorporate the survey questions into an agency-wide annual survey. 3) Develop and implement a process for conducting random audits of operational and personnel practices informed, in part, by agency-wide survey results. 4) Create a policy review schedule, ensuring that every policy is reviewed at least biannually and prioritizing for review those policies that must be updated due to legislative changes. 5) Create a list of new policies to be developed and a timeline for their development, prioritizing those that must be created to meet new (or forthcoming) legislation, and update this list quarterly. 6) Establish workgroups to review (or create) selected policies. Workgroups will be comprised of necessary subject matter experts. Workgroups will use the objective checklist to review and, as needed, revise (or create) each policy. 7) Submit, as required, policies to the unions, labor relations, and/or County Counsel—for review and approval. 8) Provide Lexipol all revised/newly created policies within 10 days of their completion/revision. 9) Work with probation’s DEI Taskforce to complete ongoing assessments of relevant agency policies and practices associated with DEI. | 07/01/2022 | 12/31/2023 |
100%
|
Completed |
| Task 4 | Update agency meeting guidelines. Form a workgroup comprised of staff from all levels to review and update agency meeting guidelines to include an updated code of conduct, an agenda template, and a process for ensuring relevant content is easily documented and communicated to staff. | 07/01/2022 | 12/31/2023 |
100%
|
Completed |
Objective 3 Tasks:
| TASK | ACTIVITY | PLAN START | PLAN END | % COMPLETED | STATUS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Objective 3 | Equip and empower staff at all levels within the agency to fully and independently exercise their responsibilities. | 07/01/2022 | 12/31/2024 | ||
| Task 1 | Convene a workgroup to create a desktop guide template to be used to describe key responsibilities and spheres of authority for each position. Convene a workgroup to create a template for agency-wide “desk guides.” Task every Division Manager with ensuring desk guides describe the key responsibilities and sphere of authority for each role/assignment/classification in their division; include the agency’s vision, mission, and values; and articulate how each classification contributes to the agency’s vision and mission. The workgroup should consider the feasibility of the following: 1) Create a form each staff member signs when they assume a new role/assignment and receive their desk guide. 2) Create a feedback form that staff complete after six months in a role/assignment to reflect on their understanding of their role/assignment and their sphere of authority. 3) Include the desk guide acknowledgment and feedback forms in the appropriate policies and/or procedures. 4) Create a process for reviewing, finalizing, and approving completed desk guides, and for posting them in a globally shared folder that all staff can access. 5) Create procedural guidelines that stipulate who is responsible for providing staff with desk guides and acknowledgment forms; the time period in which each is distributed; the timeline during which supervisors must complete staff training; the minimum frequency of check-ins/coaching sessions; and how each action is to be documented. 6) Require that all newly placed staff review their desk guides within the first week of assuming their position. 7) Require that all current staff review their desk guides and complete the feedback form within 10 days of release. 8) Direct supervisors or their designees to train newly placed staff on the desk guide over the course of staff’s first six months of assuming a new role/ assignment. 9) Direct supervisors to discuss the contents of desk guides at a unit meeting following their release. 10) Require that supervisors conduct ongoing check-ins/coaching sessions—utilizing the desk guides—during staff’s first six months in a new role/assignment. | 03/01/2023 | 08/31/2024 |
80%
|
In Progress |
| Task 2 | Include questions about staff empowerment in the survey and text boxes for staff to offer improvement recommendations. Develop baseline questions to be included in a staff survey to understand staff perceptions about empowerment and their ability to make independent decisions within their sphere of authority. Repeat the survey on an annual basis to determine performance progress. Convene a workgroup annually to review activities associated with equipping and empowering staff to fully and independently exercise their responsibilities (based upon the input received through the annual survey) and to determine what, if any, additional steps need to be taken to achieve this objective. | 04/01/2024 | 12/31/2024 | 0% | Not Started |
Objective 4 Tasks:
| TASK | ACTIVITY | PLAN START | PLAN END | % COMPLETED | STATUS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Objective 4 | Develop and implement a strategic succession plan to ensure continuity of strong leadership. | 03/01/2023 | 10/31/2024 | ||
| Task 1 | Create a Succession Planning Workgroup. Create a Succession Planning Workgroup. It is suggested that a CD lead the workgroup and include a DM and two representatives from the management team, as well as three peace officers and three civilian representatives. The workgroup will seek input from and update the Executive Committee as appropriate. Phase 1 would focus on executive-level classifications. Recommended steps in succession planning are as follows: 1) Define a set of core competencies and success characteristics for each executive-level classification. (Minimally include knowledge of Ventura County government operations and of probation services generally and VCPA specifically; effective interpersonal skills; excellent information-sharing skills; and an aptitude for coaching and mentoring others.) 2) Align PR with defined core competencies and success characteristics (consider 360 evaluations). 3) Review and align the training module checklists with the core competencies and success characteristics. 4) Consider modifying the PR to replace “goals for next rating period” with “personal professional development plan” or develop a professional development planning tool that will be completed and attached to the PR for those who desire to promote to an executive-level classification. 5) Establish requirements for supervisors to routinely support the professional development of staff interested in promoting into executive-level classifications. Determine the tools and accountability measures needed to ensure this occurs routinely and in the spirit of professional growth. 6) Create a policy codifying all of the elements of the succession plan. 7) Begin a second phase of succession planning that focuses on a different set of classifications. 8) Review and report to the Executive Committee the agency’s adherence to the succession plan. 9) Review the progress made as a result of this action plan and modify as needed. | 03/01/2023 | 10/31/2024 |
50%
|
In Progress |
| Task 2 | Create a formal mentoring program with two tracks: one for new hires and one for ongoing mentorship and professional development. | 10/01/2023 | 09/30/2024 | 0% | Not Started |
| Task 3 | Implement leadership development for current leaders and all classifications. Implement leadership development training for current leaders in all classifications by having the Staff Training Unit research and add training, seminars, or conference attendance on leadership development to the annual training plan. | 03/01/2024 | 09/30/2024 | 0% | Not Started |
