Empower Hour – Inclusion Starts with I

This aim of this session is to increase the awareness of the importance of Allies within Police Scotland and what actions delegates can take to make a difference.

Resilience is important because it gives people the strength needed to process and overcome the daily stresses of life and hardship. Those lacking resilience can get easily overwhelmed and may turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms. Resilient people tap into their strengths and support systems to overcome challenges and work through problems. Every one of us can develop resilience skills if we take the time and effort to first understand ourselves and what sorts of things test our resilience. And hopefully over time build our self-resilience so that the small things don’t have such an impact.

Effective collaboration requires individuals identify new ways of improving their skills, finding solutions to workplace challenges. Developing collaboration skills can help all aspects of our lives, from our professional life to social gatherings, and everything in between. It’s a human skill that can be helpful in the workplace. There are many benefits of collaboration in the workplace such as increased productivity and employee engagement. The ability to collaborate is a vital life skill and something that should not be overlooked.

Understanding and recognising privilege within our own lives can be a daunting and uncomfortable task. Being self-critical and honest with yourself and understanding the systematic discrimination which you may have benefited from, even when you didn’t ask for it or notice it, is eye-opening. It’s a complicated process, and it’s common to instinctively feel defensive about the areas of your life that you feel are not privileged. Recognising your own privilege is not about feeling guilty, but instead about being able to act responsibly from a more informed position.

Developing personal effectiveness and influencing skills is essential in today’s workplace. Success and outcomes can only be achieved through, with and from others. Being able to influence without formal authority is an essential skill, and we cannot do this without confidence, clarity of purpose and the communication skills to fully express ourselves.

This session has been designed to give our colleagues the time and space to think about themselves and how they show up to work, and what they would like your personal brand to be. Asking them to think about the concept of personal brand in the sense of how they would like people to talk about them when they leave the room. We will encourage them to think of this from a holistic point of view ‘what’s the overall impression they want to give’, and consider their personal brand in the sense of those interactions they have daily, from team meetings, to musters, to interactions over a coffee, what do they want people saying about them when they leave the room? And more importantly do they act accordingly to ensure they have the impact they want?

Developing your communication skills can help all aspects of your life, from your professional life to social gatherings and everything in between. The ability to communicate information accurately, clearly, and as intended, is a vital life skill and something that should not be overlooked. Great communication skills enable you to have good dialogue, this is one of the most powerful skills any person can have, no matter their professional or personal circumstances. Good communication makes the difference between building good relationships, with trust and respect, or not!

The module will raise colleague awareness of the importance of EDI for Police Scotland/SPA. The content will highlight how thinking and behaviour can impact decisions and relationships positively and negatively, so it’s imperative to integrate EDI best practice into everyday interactions, for the benefit of our diverse society - and all colleagues.

This session will help you to develop others, as well as your own performance and will enable you to take personal ownership instead of waiting to be told. Doing all that can increase your self-belief, confidence and motivate you to do more and be more. A lot of self-analyses is required ahead of creating a development plan. Getting into the habit of seeking and giving feedback will help you to understand yourself and others better and will help you to identify your strengths and embrace those little weaknesses we all have and do what you can to turn them around.

Coaching involves helping individuals to identify new ways of improving their performance, achieving their objectives and finding solutions to workplace challenges. Coaching is quite different to managing, and it is important to know the key skills and behaviours of a good coach to ensure you operate with a coaching mind-set. During the session, we will discuss what coaching is and is not and the key skills and behaviours required to take a coaching approach. We will also explore the GROW coaching model and the types of questions you can ask to implement this.

Emotional intelligence or EI is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, and those of the people around you. People with a high degree of emotional intelligence know what they're feeling, what their emotions mean, and how these emotions can affect other people. This course will raise awareness of the positive impact emotional intelligence can have on the individual and their relationship with others.

The only thing that never changes is change itself. If this is true we all need to become change advocates and put strategies into place to ensure that we are agile and adaptable in the workplace ensuring we and our teams land change successfully.

There is a wealth of evidence that organisations that are comprised of people who can think critically, perform better, and are more effective. Critical thinking is a life skill, that can be improved with time and practice. Critical thinkers, think clearly and rationally, and make logical connections between ideas, they are crucial to exploring and understanding the world we live in. The most successful professionals tend to be the people with the best critical thinking skills, who look beyond the rote facts and figures of their discipline. In a world where infinite data is instantly available, critical thinking and the ability to learn quickly are the long-term competitive differentiators.

The principle behind having the right conversation at the right time is exactly what we mean. If you see someone doing something well tell them or if you notice a change in behaviour, time keeping etc. check-in to see what’s going on, is everything ok, can you offer support? To be able to have the right conversations at the right time you need to focus on developing positive relationships which create environments for colleagues to show up and express themselves without fear or judgement where giving and receiving feedback is expected.

Self-confidence means trusting in your own judgement, capacities, and abilities. It is about valuing yourself and feeling worthy, regardless of any imperfections or what others may believe about you. Developing self-confidence is not something that happens overnight, or just because someone has told you to ‘be more confident’. Depending on your own self-confidence levels this can take a little or a lot of time. The session focusses on ‘your inner critic’ and ‘self-sabotage,’ these behaviours can have an impact on self-confidence. The objective is to get the attendees thinking about their own self-confidence and some challenges they may be wrestling with.

Everyone handles conflict in their own way, so it’s important to understand your own conflict style. That is, how you address, engage in and resolve conflict, so you can understand why you react the way you do when faced with conflict. By learning to recognise conflict styles in yourself and others you can choose how to address a situation. E.g. if someone is coming at you aggressively, rather than avoid and run away, consider what’s behind the behaviour and what they may be defending.

This module is a continuation of learning around EDI within Police Scotland. The e-learning module focuses on Police Scotland’s organisational values of Integrity, Fairness, Respect and a commitment to upholding Human Rights, along with our Code of Ethics. It highlights the importance of keeping our values are at the core of everything we do, to ensure we can create a more positive working environment for our colleagues and provide the best service to our diverse communities helping to build trust and confidence. This will be a great tool to support colleagues daily practice ensuring behaviours align with the organisational expectations.