Every correctional leader’s goal and every correctional staff member’s goal must be to focus on creating genuinely supportive cultures if we are to retain and professionally “grow” and mature staff.

Let’s start at the beginning. After completing basic training, new correctional employees are pumped, excited about getting started on the job. Yet deep down they may wonder if they’ll be able to “prove themselves” to their supervisors and peers and earn their respect, if they’ll react professionally to crises, or if they’ll remain firm, fair and consistent in the face of day-to-day pressures. They know that theory is one thing, but practice is quite another.

You, the supervisors, are the ones that new staff look to primarily, at least to begin with. You are the ones who can model to them how it all plays out in real life. You are the ones who can flesh out the lessons taught at the Academy. (And if you do not do so, the staff will turn to their coworkers for guidance, and you will no longer be their leader in actuality. Your other staff will become the de facto, informal leaders.)

Your responsibility and opportunities in this regard are enormous. You have been given the privilege of “professional formation” of correctional staff who are the future of corrections. You are effectively in a mentor and instructor role 24/7. You may do so consciously and intentionally by answering new hires’ questions, or by going over an incident and giving them your thoughts on it. Or you may teach and demonstrate by simply doing your job. The way you conduct business is the lesson you teach and pass on to the new generation of employees.

Among other things, new employees observe and even study:

  • The way you cope with crises
  • How you handle angry or belligerent people—be it staff or people in the criminal justice system
  • How you handle staff who are struggling for whatever reason
  • The way you speak about other staff in their absence
  • What you do when negative rumors circulate about other employees
  • What you appear to hold dear regarding your job
  • What you say you do to take care of your health
  • What you say you do to take care of your home life
  • How you guard your reputation
  • What you do when you’re wrongly accused of something
  • How you wield your power

Through your modeling you can teach integrity, wisdom, courage, strength, balance, compassion, perseverance—or not. To be able to keep being an inspiration to others, you yourself need to have worthy role models to look up to. These can be other employees in your workplace, people in your personal life, and even key figures in history.

As time goes on and the new staff are no longer new, you need to continue to earn and keep their trust, if you as a leader are to maintain a supportive atmosphere, the sense of a welcoming and psychologically safe “tribe” for your staff.

So, supervisors, set the tone with your subordinates – both the new and the seasoned employees.

  • Examine your values. Are they constructive or are they likely to lead to preventable, unnecessary conflict?
  • Seek training in emotional/social intelligence skills and in leadership
  • Listen
  • Exercise self-control, remaining respectful
  • Conduct regular check-ins with your
  • Get to know your people, so you can identify their strengths and point them out to
  • “Catch” them doing something well, and highlight
  • Have “huddle times” with
  • Study and discuss policies and procedures with
  • Invite them to ask questions, and then answer
  • Empathize with them about work stressors, such as the mandatory
  • Pitch in at times and take a shift, so they can go
  • Hold yourself accountable, and acknowledge to your staff your
  • Continue to learn from your mistakes and from others’
  • Apologize when you drop the ball or react
  • Executive staff, come in to make rounds and visit with staff working
  • Advocate for your staff. They DESERVE And you NEED them.
  • And always remember the importance of tending to your needs for your own refueling, in addition to tending to the needs of

And one last, but crucial, thought. Given the grueling conditions of corrections work, it’ll be a lot easier for leaders to continue to remain engaged at the heart level with their staff, if they themselves are supported by their own supervisors.