PERMA-Lead in a Nutshell

After I was on the Conference of Heads of Authorities of the Hesse Police PERMA-Lead - and it was then introduced there as a leadership tool - here are a few backgrounds and the five elements in the short introduction - but buckle up, I'm talking pretty fast (it's like speedwatching, GenZ style 😜)

On a self-critical note, I have to say that I now explain relationships with a focus on psychological safety. Creating this by building trust, a learning culture and inclusion contributes significantly to sustainable relationships. Maybe one day I'll make a few videos on the subject myself.

Thank you very much, dear Torsten Krückemeier and love Police Hessefor allowing me to use this video and I wish you every success on your great journey!

Podcast: Positive leadership in the police force

It was a lot of fun recording this podcast with Dr. Dorit Bosch and I am happy to share it with you.
🎧 Click here for the podcast:

The show notes:

👮‍♂️😇👨🏻‍🎓Dr. Bernd Bürger 🇪🇺 combines two worlds. On the one hand, he has been with the Bavarian police force for almost 30 years and has been head of the Leadership and Operations department at the training institute there for 5 years. On the other hand, he is an internationally sought-after scientist, speaker and positive leadership coach.

Bernd found his way to positive leadership in practice as a police officer because he was looking for a solution to build a positive and productive relationship among colleagues, but also with citizens, beyond hierarchies. Hashtag#PERMA-Lead is just such a practical method that specifically promotes motivation, health and well-being.

📕The approach was developed by organizational psychologist Dr. Markus Ebner and is illustrated in his Book "Positive Leadership" presented. He uses PERMA to describe five elements that a manager should take care of:

P for Positive Hashtag#Emotions
E for Hashtag#Engagement / Strengths-based leadership
R for Relationship / sustainable Hashtag#relationships
M for Meaning / Hashtag#Sinnstiftung
A for Accomplishment / making hashtag# successes visible

👉🏻Mehr on positive leadership can be found on Bernd Bürger's homepage. In addition to the book by Dr. Markus Ebner, he also recommends the Podcast "Positive leadership" by Christian Thiele.

Experience the positive effect for yourself at Bernd's boot camp at the Mindshift Festival and register now.

🗓️ 15.-16.5.2025
📍Atelier Gardens Berlin
🎟️ More info / Registration

Why publish? Because!

Why go to the trouble of enriching your thoughts with scientific data and facts, structuring them and publishing them? I actually ask myself this question regularly, because it's a lot of work. But I like this work because I learn an incredible amount every time. And what's really great is when you get feedback. You see that you can reach others with a publication and initiate a discussion - what could be better in a democracy? I am allowed to publish the following feedback anonymously after consultation with the author.

By the way, here is the Part 1 said contribution, here to Part 2.

Dear Dr. Bürger,

I came across part 1 of your article and read it with enthusiasm; not only because it immediately brought back memories of my own education and studies, both positive and negative, but also because, as a young father, I want to break the chains of educational mistakes made by the boomer generation for my own children and hopefully have broken them - my own rethinking doesn't happen on its own either.

I would have liked the areas of recruitment (Amtfluencer is an excellent term here and I follow various police forces and the Bundeswehr on social media), training, service and promotion to be "different" for me; I would have liked to have gone my own way with less resistance and more support.

I have always enjoyed working in a conceptual but practically oriented way, I have acquired expertise in various police divisions and used it in a solution-oriented way - not always to the satisfaction or even with the recognition of my superiors. In different roles, often "generation"-overlapping groups/teams/teams, I have also had painful experiences, but have also experienced positive social bonding, support and appreciation, both as an employee (at that time rather a subordinate) and in the sandwich position of a middle manager.

I would like to incorporate my experience from different areas of the police, the behavior of different superiors (positive and negative) proactively and actively into a more modern training, prepare the young colleagues empathetically for everyday service and special burdens and accompany them caringly beyond the training in order to provide the current colleagues with a new generation that is competent in every respect and to meet the changed demands of the population. If you are preparing a modified concept geared towards the applicants as a pilot for the adapted training for the new 2nd QE, I would be happy to recommend myself as a teacher for the planning work and even better for the technical instruction.

While reading your article, I involuntarily came up with ideas for design and thoughts on possible concepts that should be geared to the social, cultural and emotional needs of our successor generation and that could serve as a model for us predecessors and make our own services and processes more professional and more personalized for everyone.

I would be delighted if you would contact me if you actually put your hopeful comments into practice.

Generation Z like future - Part 2

Rethinking the future of the police and training.

With the kind permission of the editor of "Die POLIZEI", Prof. Dr. jur. here the article by Heidi Ellner and myself on Generation Z. That's the point:

A new generation of young people is revolutionizing the job market. This article, which appears in two parts, was published in the first part The question of what Generation Z really expects from an employer like the police and where their attitudes come from.
Based on this, it was described which specific
Measures for a successful police social
integration and bonding process required
are. In this second part, we will first
how the training could be adapted in order to
train the younger generation in a skills-oriented way.

It then goes on to show why the police as an employer must make a special effort in the competition for talented people. Police organizations will have to adapt, and not just their mindset or training methods. Corresponding considerations for rethinking the police profession can be found at the end of the article.

Click here for the Download.

What is PERMA-Lead?

Here is a brief summary of what PERMA-Lead actually stands for. You can find detailed information in the books by Dr. Markus Ebner or in my presentations and keynote speeches.

PERMA-Lead transfers the principles of the PERMA model (positive psychology) on leadership and focuses on the well-being of employees as the basis for sustainable success. This approach is not only ethically sensible, but also strategically clever, because the Study situation proves numerous positive effects.

The manager "only" has to ensure that the employees experience enough PERMA in their work - just like a good gardener ensures that the plants have enough fertilizer (which consists of various components). Incidentally, this also means not overfertilizing everything once and then not caring anymore, but fertilizing regularly 😊! You can also find many practical examples of how to implement this in my Toolbox.

  • 😊P - Enables positive emotions: Managers actively try to promote positive emotions at work, for example by appreciating their employees, laughing with them or giving them space to laugh and ideally also having and spreading a good mood themselves.
  • 💪 E - Promotes individual commitment: The manager should know what strengths the employees have and try to use these in a targeted manner so that they can live out many of these strengths in their work.
  • 🤝R - Creates sustainable relationships: This is largely about psychological safety, i.e. creating a culture based on trust, where the focus is on learning from mistakes and where everyone feels welcome and valued for their qualities.
  • 💭 M - Conveys meaning in the work (Meaning): Managers should explain the meaning of the work, of individual work steps, but also of decisions and changes, and thus take the employees with them. This also included, for example, explaining the needs of other organizational units and demonstrating the overall purpose of certain activities or processes.
  • 👍 A - Makes achievements visible (Accomplishment): Work never stops. There's something to do every day. A classic hamster wheel. This makes it all the more important to be aware of what you have actually achieved. Feeling this self-efficacy is, for example, an important resilience factor for burnout. Managers can play a decisive role in ensuring that employees are aware of their small successes. And praise and, if possible, celebrate major successes in front of others!

Conclusion

Read the books, ask me for a lecture, get infected. Positive leadership is really fun and good for you! If you want to stay on the ball, have a look at my LinkedIn or Insta over - and don't forget the Toolbox to look at. Try it out!

#mindshift Transformation of police and administration

Transforming the state, administration and police. What an inspiring day that Dr. Dorit Bosch has designed.


My top takeaways:
Prof. Dr. Dirk HeckmannWe need the will and courage to change, otherwise change will take place, but without us.

Robert KrauseFailure is part of it: sometimes you win and sometimes you learn.

Dr. Dorit BoschFrom powerlessness to power: promoting transformation with positive, constructive energy.

And something else from Robert Krause to motivate us: the "man versus institution" story always works and an Oscar is almost guaranteed. So: let's do it

My personal Conclusion: A great event and a super network of people who stand for change

Generation Z like future - Part 1

The importance of employee experience in the police

With the kind permission of the editor of "Die POLIZEI", Prof. Dr. jur. here the article by Heidi Ellner and myself on Generation Z. That's the point:

A new generation of young people is revolutionizing the job market. The first part of this article, which is published in two parts, explores the question of what Generation Z really expects from an employer such as the police and where their attitudes come from. Building on this, it describes the specific measures required for a successful police integration, socialization and retention process.

In the second partwhich will be published in the next issue, explains how training could be adapted in order to train the younger generation in a skills-oriented manner. It will also show why the police, as an employer, should make a special effort in the competition for talented people and also examine fundamental strategic organizational adjustments. To this end, corresponding considerations are presented that could be taken into account in the design of training and organizational development in order to further develop the police in such a way that it is and remains attractive as an employer for the younger generation and that long-serving employees can also benefit from the developments.

Click here for the Download.

Interview with former Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel

😊 What an inspiring conversation with former Federal Chancellor Dr. Wolfgang Schüssel 🇦🇹

🔬As part of our research project "20 years of the Federal Police" for the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) I had the great honor of interviewing the former Federal Chancellor today.

🤓 In addition to his exciting contributions to the content of our project, I also personally took an incredible amount from the nuances and side conversations: For example, as a strategic guideline: Oberachieving and Underpromising instead of the other way around ☺️

🤗 I am really grateful to be able to experience things like this, to gain so many exciting insights and to take away memorable #lifelesson.

👀 If you are curious about further content - next year we will submit our research report and then there will be detailed information!

👮‍♀️ Public order policing and positive leadership?

🪧2024 was again dominated by lectures on my favorite subject: the role of the police at assemblies


🌏Among other things, I was with the riot police in Saxony-Anhalt, the Thuringia police executives, the conference of the European Police Research Institutes in Amsterdam and at the Public Order, Crowd Management and Riot Control Conference in Vienna.

🎙️Mein Focus among other things: How the police work (change of perspective) and what mindset is required (e.g. communication as a key element) in order to manage assembly situations professionally.

💡What struck me as a positive leadership coach is that there are parallels between the successful mindset and PERMA-Lead:

☺️ Positive emotions: Smiling police officers have a direct effect on the mood and prevent negative stereotyping.

💪Engagement: Strength-oriented leadership. Train police officers who are keen on tactical communication and then let them do it! Personal initiative and authentic communication is a key factor in successfully dealing with a situation.

🤝 Relationship: Try to build a trusting and honest relationship with those responsible in order to ensure a safe assembly together.

💭Meaning: Explain meaning - means to explain why the police will do / have done something.

🍾 Accomplishment: Recognizing successes, i.e. also analyzing why the assignment went well and appreciating the (wo)men of the match.

Seeing people. Growing together

☺️ Seeing people. Growing together. What fitting and inspiring sentences for a strategy to promote good leadership and positive cooperation.

👮🏻 It was incredible the energy I was able to experience at the Münster Police Headquarters. Something is happening, there are many police officers who want to make positive changes. Just my thing 😍

❓But why this mood? I was able to identify two aspects: An energetic, inspiring and passionate about the topic Antonia Linnenbrink with a super friendly and committed team. But - and now we come to the crucial point:

💪 You have to give people the opportunity to contribute their strengths. And that's what the President of the Münster Police Headquarters and gave the team time, opened up the platform for them and gave them targeted support. It really was a celebration to see you together, because even the dear Alexandra Dorndorf is infectious with its positive energy.

🙏 It was great to be able to experience you! Thank you for letting me make a small contribution and good luck on your inspiring journey!