Führung – Feedback – Fehlermanagement. Wie können polizeiliche Führungskräfte motiviert werden, ihre Mitarbeitenden häufiger um kritisches Feedback zu bitten?

Feedback is an important resource in everyday working life. Leaders can also benefit from feedback. However, employees rarely give their leaders feedback, with the result that leaders often lack important information. They should therefore actively approach their employees and ask them for feedback. In this article, we want to show that proactive feedback-seeking is an important leadership behavior in the police. Feedback-seeking is based on a cost-benefit analysis and for leaders, the costs of actively seeking feedback often outweigh the benefits. Therefore, leaders will generally rarely ask their employees for feedback in everyday police work. We will show which factors favor the feedback-seeking of police leaders. One of these factors is a positive approach to errors. This means that a learning-oriented error management climate in the police encourages leaders to seek feedback. Overall, proactive feedback-seeking is a key aspect of authentic leadership that should be recognized and encouraged in the police force. In this article, we show how a positive approach to errors and criticism can succeed in police leadership work and in the police force as a whole.